Donna said:
Hi... I was wondering how I can move my word documents, music files,
etc from Windows ME to XP.
I'm thinking of buying a new "tower" with XP installed on it
My system is pretty old now and I want to move it before it dies and
I lose it all.
Several points:
1. Your system dying is not cause for concern. The hard drive dying might
be. If the system dies and the hard drive is still good, everything on it
should still be recoverable.
2. Hard drives can die at any time, regardless of their age. Moreover at any
time you can lose everything on your drive to many other possible dangers:
user error, severe power glitches, nearby lightning strike, virus attack,
even theft of the computer.
3. Your question suggests that you do not have a policy of regularly backing
your up word documents, music files, etc. to external media. Considering
that you are *always* vulnerable to the potential loss of everything to one
of the dangers above, consider yourself lucky if you haven't lost
everything already. As has often been said, it's not a matter of whether you
will have such a problem, but when.
If I were in your shoes, I would consider that instituting an appropriate
backup scheme should be my highest priority--much more important than buying
a new computer or moving to Windows XP.
5. If you do move to a new computer and Windows XP, even with new hardware
all those vulnerabilities remain. Any backup scheme you institute now (and
backup hardware and software that you purchase) should still be usuble under
Windows XP.
6. It is now ten days until the consumer release of the next generation of
Windows--Windows Vista. If you buy a new computer with Windows XP installed
today, in ten days you will be running an older operating system, one on its
way out. To me that makes no sense. If you do buy a new computer, get one
with the latest version of Windows, Windows Vista.
7. Finally, if you do get a new computer, regardless of what operating
system is on it, you have several choices of how to move your data over.
Which is best for you greatly depends on how much data you have to transfer.
Here are some choices:
a. Transfer them on diskettes.
b. Transfer them on CDRs.
c. E-mail them from the old machine and read the E-mail on the new one.
d. Network the two computers, and just copy the files over the network.
e. Temporarily (or even permanently) install the old computer's hard drive
in the new computer and just copy them over.
f. Use a USB thumb drive
g. Back them up to an external hard drive, and restore them from there on
the new computer.
I like choice g the best, since that gets you started on a much-needed
backup scheme.
