Laptop question ; ;

[Tanish]

My laptop has started on its last legs, the battery is fried and the LCD monitor is going to die completely( its losing picture and colors). I'm getting a new laptop but my question, i want to copy the hard drive and operating system from my old one to the new one and run two operating systems. The main thing is that I have programs on the computer that i cant recover from disks that are installed, is there a way to make an exact copy of whats on my old hard drive that will make it work on a new laptop or am i out of luck with the existing programs i have written and tied into that old system? Old laptop is a Dell Inspiron running windows ME from the stone ages ; ;

[Kriz]

I was going to recommend some things, but then I read Windows ME. I would be absolutely floored if a new laptop, that probably comes with Vista and will be a royal pain to get XP on if the company doesn't offer it (drivers), will somehow run ME.

As for your programs that can't be reinstalled due to no CD, I'd torrent them if they are that critical. You may be able to copy them over if they are simplistic. I don't know about your personal programs, I'd give them a try at just moving them. Stuff isn't going to work from the ME era nowadays on Vista, imo.

[Tanish]

Was just informing that the old operating system was ME, if it can be replaced by vista it doesn't bother me. Was just wondering if i could save it the was it was, and I've tried just coping the programs but I'm not that lucky. Ive already copied all the files i need to save to CD's. It's just sad, that laptop's been my baby and I've kept it running since 1998 its just hard for me to think that is dead for good.

[Isiolia]

While you could look at drive imaging solutions (there are free ones out there), part of the problem with that would be hardware support. You can't just copy the drive exactly as-is and have it work on a completely different machine, and newer hardware will -not- have drivers for ME.

Far as the programs, it depends on what they are. If they rely (as, say, FFXI does) on registry keys and dll files, then you'd need to find a way to extract those. Not all do, of course, so simply making a copy would work. Or see if there are replacement apps.

If you actually want to keep running ME, unless you have games or something, maybe look at using a virtual machine like Virtual PC (MS), Virtual Box (Sun), or similar.

As a general thing, I'd say to make as comprehensive a backup of your old system as you can, and just start using the new OS n' all. Given the age of the system, maybe just get a larger memory stick and copy the HDD all to that.

[Ikith]

Imaging is not a viable solution. There are to many things that could go wrong and things that won't be supported. I suggest writing down everything you need along the lines of programs then backup all your files to an external and go from there.

[sleekmotorwurkz]

Probably not the solution you are looking for, but when I reformatted my computer, I took a serious look at what programs I was using and if I hadnt used them in forever, I just didnt put them back on. For the stuff I dont have the disc for anymore.... app-wise, they are probably outdated so I just looked up new stuff to download, and game-wise you can probably find a torrent of the game, or some kind of emulator of them. (example ScummVM for old LucasArts games).

I found pretty much everything that I NEED for my computer in the "Free Stuff" thread (I forget where it is, but its on bg somewhere). Free office software (openoffice) free virusscan (AVG) etc.

I dont know what kind of installed software you are referring to, but the great thing about the internet is for everything you need there is probably a free option, and if there isnt, chances are its pirated all over the net.

*edit - found it, stickied at the top of this forum lol
http://www.bluegartr.com/forum/55245...utilities.html

[Spekkio]

don't even bother trying to get windows ME to run on a modern computer. finding drivers, much less getting it to work in any fashion would be an exercise in frustration and futility. your closest hope might be to install a virtualization program on your computer like VMWare or Virtual PC and boot the drive in that from within windows. oh. and pray.

[Fen]

If you have software that you want to keep, I'd say copy down the registration codes/cd keys and save them on a flash drive (or even as an email draft if you use yahoo etc) then torrent the installation files.

Backup all your personal stuff, and get try to get used to vista. I made a similar jump myself (Win98 > Vista) and honestly in a lot of cases you can find better solutions with newer software.

[mootsfox]

You could stick the old HDD in an enclosure and just use it that way. Your programs should run off it, and if they don't just use compatibility mode.

I do something similar with my Vista 64 bit desktop. Since some games won't install under 64bit or >4gb of RAM, I have them installed on another HDD in my system with Vista 32bit, and can run them under the 64bit OS just fine.

[Tanish]

Thanks for all the information. I figured it was an exercise in futility to try and think that it would work. Most of the programs were language programming software like java, visual basic, c++, cobol, dreamweaver, etc. I don't have the original disks anymore and did not want to pay to rebuy each of these programs again. I appreciate all the responses to help me though.

[0ni0n]

you can duplicate your hard drive easily, look online and there are plenty of tutorials on this subject. I would recommend that you buy a netbook as replacement if you don't run any heavy duty applications on your current labtop.

[levish]

as crappy as vista is, its only outdone in crappiness by Windows ME imo

you can always order media for software you legitimately own depending on who we are talking about or just get someone to host ISO's for you.

[Spekkio]

if all you're looking for is source editors, go poke around the internet. there are a great many good choices from emacs to eclipse depending on your technical skill and personal taste.