for any of you PC geeks/nerds/techies out there, I have a question or two;
First, a little background -
We were gifted this Christmas with a used desktop PC from our kids that they rarely used due to the fact that both their jobs provided them with powerful laptops for their work. Thus, most of their computing time did not include using the desktop PC, so they gifted it to us to update our old one.
Here are the 2 PC specs;
OUR OLD PC
--Gateway DX4300-05
--AMD Athlon X2 7750 Processor
--640 GB HDD
--6 GB DDR2 Memory
--Windows Vista
--MFG Date 06/13/2009
THE NEW PC
--Gateway SX2110-UR328
--AMD E2-1800 Processor
--500 GB HDD
--4 GB DDR3 Memory
--Windows 8 Upgraded to Windows 10
--MFG Date 10/27/2012
-----------------------------------------
The new PC comes with a larger screen, which will be nice, but thats not all that important.
According to the specs I see, the newer one is actually a bit 'smaller'....i.e. HDD and MEM, but they are quite close in those specs.
An issue I have been having recently is some websites seem to not be able to handle Vista very well anymore.
Also, I have never used Windows 10, so that will be a learning experience for me. I have Windows 8 on my laptop, so I'm only familiar up to that point.
Questions I have;
I have gathered a lot of software, waiting-to-be-printed PDF files, photos, website links, and etc thru the years since we bought the old PC - will I be able to save & transfer all this to the newer one? What would be the best way to do so? Would I be able to do this with one type of storage device? Maybe with flash drive(s)? Or do I need something else as well?
I am not computer illiterate, but also not a guru.
(Being a mechanic in today's world, I am familiar with computers - home PC's and those we use at work.)
I mostly use our home desktop PC for my stamp collecting "stuff", my music and photos so I don't need latest and greatest or top of the line tech. But I also want something that will stay afloat technology-wise for today's internet and for doing home projects, too!
So there you have it!
Hopefully, some of you who are way more familiar with the tech side of home PC usage will weigh in with your thoughts/ideas on all this.....and thanks in advance for doing so!!
First thought is that 4 GB of RAM is a bit low for Windows 10. It may be worthwhile to look around the web for ways to reduce the whiz-bang visual effects that are enabled by default in Win10 to improve the perceived performance. The processor in the newer machine is a step up in performance at a significantly lower power consumption.
Depending upon the form factor, you may be able to move the HDD from the older to the newer machine. I'm not sure from the info given, though it might be possible to determine with some searching on the Gateway site to determine what sort of hard disk connector they have. The easiest way to move files is probably something like a thumbdrive or flash drive. Moving bookmarks and settings is more difficult, unfortunately.
The natural state of a hard disk for me is nearly full, so stepping down in size would not work for me, but your mileage may vary.
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 26 Dec 2020 02:50:29pm
re: Computer Question(s)
The older machine is hardware is 'better' but the move to Windows 10 is desirable. Keep in mind that your older PC is more likely to suffer from malware and more likely to see a hardware failure. Consider yourself lucky that you have not already had to deal with this, 11 years is pushing the limits.
A non-solid state hard drive (like the two you have) is typically the only the only mechanical thing in a PC and has an exponentially higher failure rate of any component. If nothing else buy an external hard drive or large USB drives and backup all your files. (Never, ever let a hard drive get full, it drags the performance down to a crawl.) If you do try to add/swap hard drive be sure to install them in the exact same orientation, never, ever change the orientation of an old mechanical hard drive. They have bearings and these have worn to the orientation it is originally in, suddenly changing the orientation will result in a failure.
Typical hard drives last 3-5 years although the MTBF is often quoted at 10,000 hours (10 years).
But most importantly, Vista was a poor operating system but more importantly is the fact that you have 10 years of usage on the operating system. With each passing year, as more and more stuff is installed, upgraded, etc, the operating system slows down and become less stable. I reinstall desktop operating systems every 1-2 years just to re-start with a clean slate.
Given the age of the hardware, Vista, and the age of the operating system, the risk of failures, I would recommend the new PC even if it is a bit slower.
Don
...but my MAIN question(s) are regarding saving everything from the older PC to the newer PC - pics, software, link lists, PDFs, etc....
the best or most efficient way to do so.
I don't want to swap hard drives. And I definitely want to use the newer PC.
We have been very fortunate as to never having any serious issues with this PC. I hope we have as good of luck with the next one. Gateway was good to us once - maybe it will be again!
Any bright ideas on how I can transfer my stamp collecting links from one PC to the next??
Dialysis, damned if you do...dead if you don't 26 Dec 2020 03:23:04pm
re: Computer Question(s)
You can save your browser favorites, do an online search for 'how to' since it is based upon the flavor of your browser.
How you retrieve and archive the older files depends upon the capability of your hardware. If you have USB (which will probably be USB version 1.0), it will be slow but you could plug a USB thumb drive in, copy the files, and come back in a few hours. USB is backwards compatible so if you archive the files on a USB 1.0 drive you can still copy them to a newer computer.
If you have a writeable CD drive, you could burn some CD disks.
There are other methods but require more work/more knowledge. If desired, I can explain.
Don
Hi Randy,
Let's consider the memory first. Charles was correct when he said that 4GB is not enough for Windows 10. But there is an easy solution. You just need to upgrade the memory. Have a look at the following link:
It looks like you can easily upgrade to 8GB which will increase your performance dramatically. You should replace the memory that you have now with two 4GB memory boards. It will work best if both the two 4GB memory boards are the same. This is a straight forward install.
Now let's look at moving the files across. Are your computers connected to a router? They could be hardwire connected or connected by wifi. If they are both connected to a router we can share the disks on each computer and copy the files from one to the other. If they are not connected to a router, there are other options as others have suggested.
Why not upgrade the memory as Tim suggests, then take the old hard drive and install it as a secondary, or slave hard drive on the new machine. There is usually enough room for two hard drives in desktops. Then partition the drives to your own style. You can use the 1st drive for the WIN10 operating system, and the second for all your files.
I have 3 hard drives and two operating systems (WIN10 and Linux) on my PC. One hard drive only for my pics, docs, vids, etc.
Certainly takes more power than 1 hard drive, but I don't even notice it. I am pretty sure that the "average" power supply in a PC can easily handle the requirements of 2 hard drives.
Just purchased a pair of 4GB memory sticks from A-Tech via Amazon for $30.
Thanks Tim and everyone for the assistance!
I will give some thought to the dual hard drive idea, the external hard drive idea and so on.
For now, we will go with doubling up on the RAM and give it a run and see how well it performs. I don't use the desktop for much, so we'll test it out a step at a time.
Don is right about the age of the drives; I hadn't thought of that. Your older HDD is 11+ years old, so you are flirting with disaster there. So, if it was me, I would be looking to get the important stuff copied someplace safer before looking at using both drives in the newer machine. Having a hard drive crash on you in no fun.
Searching for your model numbers online, it looks like both machines have USB 2.0 ports, which are not the fastest, but OK for connecting an external hard disk if you're patient.
It would be a good idea to come up with some kind of backup scheme for any files you're not prepared to lose. I'm not as familiar with the best practices in the Windows world; maybe others can point you at a good resource for someone with a medium level of skill.
"...but my MAIN question(s) are regarding saving everything from the older PC to the newer PC - pics, software, link lists, PDFs, etc....
the best or most efficient way to do so."
Musicman - Backup these 5 major folders to USB memory sticks (thumb drives):
Desktop
Favorites
My Documents
Music
Pictures
Leave all the old Vista programs and program files as they will not work on Windows 10. Some of your desktop icons that you move across will not work and can be deleted later.
This is where I would start, as this will backup most all of your old computer files that you will need on your new computer, without doing them one file at a time.
A very timely topic! My new PC will be arriving in a few weeks (supply chain delays) to replace my nearly 10-year-old PC. I've got a second SSD in the existing PC that holds most of my data that doesn't get shunted to external hard drives. I'm not much of a geek, but learned about hard drive replacement in the '80s when I suffered a string of hard drive failures.
Next month, I'll be moving the SSD from my existing PC to the new one. The new PC will arrive already set up specifically for that SSD transfer. It should be easy.
When I got this existing PC ten years ago, I had a similar setup with its predecessor, except it was three hard drives in the old PC. I moved two of the three (they weren't very old yet) to what is now my current PC for a while and then eventually replaced them with the SSD that I'm now going to be moving to the new PC next month. As I recall, the hardest part of that transfer process ten years ago was getting the two hard drives physically mounted in the then new PC. Otherwise, I don't recall any issues.
I don't have the benefit of any sort of communication set up for my PC to ease any transfer from the old to new PC in that manner. The external hard drive backups are always sitting here if needed.
I need an additional external hard drive anyway. So I'll break it in with the new PC. My oldest external hard drive is firewire. No firewire connection on the new PC. Time to ditch that one. No CD/DVD in the new PC either. I've got thousands of images saved to archival DVDs. So looking for an external CD/DVD unit too.
You're wise to start with the memory. A second hard drive is a good idea, assuming your case is set up to make it easy to physically add and connect it. Good luck!
Tom
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"I no longer collect, but will never abandon the hobby"
You may find some of the older programs aren't supported by the newer operating systems. I have this with many old programs which would run under XP. You can usually find ways around this on Google or Microsoft. Here's a starter:
