Loading data and programs

[Turkman]

I have a new build that I need to populate with programs and data from my old machine. The old machine is 98 based and the new is XP Pro.

Can anyone tell me the best way to go about transferring both data and programs from one machine to the other? XP suggests using a serial cable hookup through COM ports, then the migration wizard.

Any thoughts? Thanks...

[ktkendall]

The programs you will for the most part want to reinstall on the XP machine. Many of them will not run correctly if you just copy over the folders the program is in, some will though as I have done that with a few things from my old win98 box to my new XP box. I would take the harddrive out of the w98 machine and put it in the XP box as a slave drive then you have everything you want right in the machine and can copy over anything you want to the maindrive or just leave it in there as a secondary drive. You'll need a null modem cable to do the serial port connection thing, or if you have a NIC card in each PC just get a cat5 crossover cable and network them that way, or I do believe it may be possible to do a USB direct PC to PC hookup but I do not really know much about the feasability of that one..

[Panama Red]

I agree with kt, my preferred methods of data transfer is to is to either make the 98 machine part of the home network, enable sharing and copy the files to the XP computer or remove the hard drive and install it in the XP unit. When it is recognized, just copy the files from one location to another. Your old programs will have to be installed from scratch and some may not work correctly with XP. If that happens, XP has "compatability mode" for older programs. I've used it a couple times and it works great. Good luck

[glc]

A serial cable does work, but will take forever and a day to move the data, figure about 50 megs an hour tops, and that's if you set the ports to 115200.

[Turkman]

Thanks to all...I think I'm going to try the method of installing the old drive in the new box. I didn't realize the serial cable approach would be so slow.