Zedog said:
My old computer died but the hard drive is alive and well. It is in a new
computer that will not boot off of it. (it is a IDE and the new computer
uses SATA II) How do I transfer the setting and files off of the old hard
drive to the new one. If I knew which files ETW were copying I could do it
the old faction way, manually. Any ideas?
The wizard really needs to be used in a running system, so if you have only
the drive, you can't use it.
So, you will need to manually copy the files you want. Settings you'll need
to redo.
Attach the old drive to your new system. You can either use the EIDE
channel, where your CD is probably located, or you can get a USB2 drive case
or adapter. These are very handy things to have on hand, and can be had
for a little over $20. Just attach your drive to the case or adapter, and
plug it into a free USB2 port.
The drive will be recognised and you'll have access to it, though if the
drive is formatted NTFS, you may need to Take Ownership of folders. This
is quick and easy.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308421
And now you have full access to your old files.
In this situation, I normally use a great little utility called FileSync.
http://www.fileware.com/download.htm
For the most part, you need the contents of your My Documents folder.
Point the left pane of FileSync to your old My Documents folder, point the
right to the new one, click Compare, then Synchronize. It will copy all the
old files, maintaining folder stuctures.
Do the same thing for favourites and cookies folders.
You will also probably need email and address book files, and those you need
to find based on the email client you use. Note that by default, these
folders are helpfully marked as hidden.
I usually copy the email files to a "mail" folder, and then import them
once I am sure of where the new email client wants to see them.
HTH
-pk
