XP Files and Settings Transfer Wizard

[jes]

I was reading an article in Smart Computing about the XP FSTW and the limitations that it has, for example, there are relatively few non-MS programs that it will do any transfering for and the actuall program will not be on the new computer unless you install it from the disk.
Couldn't you just take the hard drive from the new computer and put it into the old one as a slave and copy *.* from old hd to new, then set the net hd to master and put it back in the new computer? Then wouldn't all of the setup, programs and files be there the same way that they were in the old computer?

[ski]

You may be able to do that if the new HD was replacing the old HD in the old system.
However, since you're going to use a new system, then your plan would mean that the old system's hardware info on the old HD will get transferred to the new HD, and this will cause major confusion when the new HD is installed in the new system with different hardware.
It's recommended that you save all critical files from the old HD to a CD, then partition and format the new HD in the new system, install the O/S, reinstall all programs and Windows updates, and transfer all critical files from the CD.

[jes]

Right, forgot about the hardware instal. Ok. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Sylvander]

I recently transferred all my configuration settings & data files from Win98 on old PC to Win98 on new PC using "Packet Writing software" and a CD-RW disk [like a giant floppy] to transfer.
TIP
Put all the files into a Compressed Archive file, burn to CD, move to the new PC, unzip the files.
This is done to avoid the "Read-Only" attribute being set on all files.