Unoffical empeg BBS

Quick Links: Empeg FAQ | RioCar.Org | Hijack | BigDisk Builder | jEmplode | emphatic
Repairs: Repairs

Topic Options
#301471 - 15/08/2007 11:09 Transfering files and settings to Vista
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
I am finally transferring to Windows Vista from XP and just wanted to make sure I am not forgetting anything to backup as far as settings and such. Also, i have a lot of old emails that I have in Outlook that were accidently deleted in my regular yahoo account, so I want to make sure those are backed up. What is the best way to do that?

Top
#301472 - 15/08/2007 11:10 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
andy
carpal tunnel

Registered: 10/06/1999
Posts: 5916
Loc: Wivenhoe, Essex, UK
Buy a new hard disk and install Vista onto that. Much the safest route.
_________________________
Remind me to change my signature to something more interesting someday

Top
#301473 - 15/08/2007 11:19 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: andy]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
I did buy a new hard drive, but i already started transferring everything off my main one to that one.

Top
#301474 - 15/08/2007 14:41 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
Quote:
I did buy a new hard drive, but i already started transferring everything off my main one to that one.


That should do it then shouldn't it? Last time I upgraded OS I copied my whole C drive to another drive.

Top
#301475 - 15/08/2007 15:52 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: tahir]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
Quote:
I did buy a new hard drive, but i already started transferring everything off my main one to that one.


That should do it then shouldn't it? Last time I upgraded OS I copied my whole C drive to another drive.

Ah, but he said "off", implying "move", rather than "copy".

Top
#301476 - 15/08/2007 15:59 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: canuckInOR]
tahir
pooh-bah

Registered: 27/02/2004
Posts: 1919
Loc: London
Quote:
Ah, but he said "off", implying "move", rather than "copy".


Same outcome, no? As long as he has everything in a safe location he should be able to copy things back as necessary shouldn't he? I did notice on a friends new Vista laptop that it didn't use Outlook Express but Windows Mail. That might present a few problems.

Top
#301477 - 16/08/2007 15:51 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: tahir]
canuckInOR
carpal tunnel

Registered: 13/02/2002
Posts: 3212
Loc: Portland, OR
Quote:
Quote:
Ah, but he said "off", implying "move", rather than "copy".


Same outcome, no? As long as he has everything in a safe location he should be able to copy things back as necessary shouldn't he?

Well, it's not the same outcome in my book. Once the move is completed, the data still only exists in one location, regardless of whether or not he "should be able to" make another copy. Things tend to happen in between "should be able to" and "have".

Once a copy has been completed, on the other hand, the data exists in two locations -- the act of transferring data to the new computer becomes the same act as the backup, with no "in between" opportunity to get side-tracked onto something else, and having a disk crash before actually doing a backup.

It's splitting hairs, but one's a bit less prone to possibility of human error. Speaking from experience.

Top
#301478 - 16/08/2007 18:28 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: canuckInOR]
g_attrill
old hand

Registered: 14/04/2002
Posts: 1172
Loc: Hants, UK
I have moved drives a few times, mostly cloning, I think I have done a major reinstall a couple of times. The old drive is usually too small to be of use in my main system but I always leave it as-is for a year or so, and then look it over before putting it in a pile to safely reuse elsewhere.

Top
#301479 - 16/08/2007 20:57 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: g_attrill]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
Ok.. i finally installed Vista, but not sure if I like it, plus it seems that it messed up my PDA. Does anyone here have both Xp and Vista installed on their computer? I was thinking about doing that until they get the kinks out of Vista. The main reason why i even want Vista is for the Media Center part.

Top
#301480 - 17/08/2007 01:54 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
FireFox31
pooh-bah

Registered: 19/09/2002
Posts: 2494
Loc: East Coast, USA
Isn't there an XP Media Center edition? I wouldn't touch Vista for quite some time, since I've heard hardware is often incompatible, and I know that plenty of software is not yet compatible.

And the difference between "copy" and "move" in Windows: Copy creates new Modified and Created dates on the destination, while Move preserves the original dates. Often, those dates are important to me, so I move. Before moving, though, I clone the disk with Ghost.

If you want the backup benefit of Copy with the detail retention of Move, get the Windows Server tool Robocopy.
_________________________
-
FireFox31
110gig MKIIa (30+80), Eutronix lights, 32 meg stacked RAM, Filener orange gel lens, Greenlights Lit Buttons green set

Top
#301481 - 17/08/2007 06:11 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: FireFox31]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
Isn't there an XP Media Center edition?


Yeah, but the Media Center in Vista is much, much better.
_________________________
-- roger

Top
#301482 - 17/08/2007 12:19 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: Roger]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
Is it a bad idea to have both Vista and Xp installed on the same (partitioned) hard drive?

Top
#301483 - 17/08/2007 13:06 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
Is it a bad idea to have both Vista and Xp installed on the same (partitioned) hard drive?


No. Nothing wrong with that. Apart from the fact that (obviously) Vista's Media Center's not going to be able to record shows while you're booted into XP.

You might have to jump through a couple of hoops to get it working, because the Vista boot loader's completely different from the old NT/XP one. Using Google to search for "dual boot xp vista" turns up about 2 million hits, though. This one looks promising.
_________________________
-- roger

Top
#301484 - 17/08/2007 13:28 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
Buy SageTV and run it under plain and clean XP SP2. I prefer it infinitely to the last MCE version I ran - MCE2005 (the one before Vista).
_________________________
Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

Top
#301485 - 17/08/2007 14:38 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: hybrid8]
andym
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
Or just download a bootable linux distro with mythtv on it....
_________________________
Cheers,

Andy M

Top
#301486 - 17/08/2007 17:19 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: andym]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
For those you are using Vista, how much memory do you have? I have about 1gb and it seems that the memory usage is almost always at least 70%. It acts like a computer that has about 256mb..... are there any other little ways to speed it up (other than just using Xp

Top
#301487 - 17/08/2007 17:35 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
RobotCaleb
pooh-bah

Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
It uses the RAM intelligently, supposedly. The theory that I understand is that it stores oft-used programs in the memory so that you can load them quicker. It cycles out to make more room for running programs.

Let me see if I can find where I read that.

Top
#301488 - 17/08/2007 17:37 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: RobotCaleb]
RobotCaleb
pooh-bah

Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin

Top
#301489 - 17/08/2007 19:12 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Vista with 1gb should be quite zippy for common tasks such as web browsing and running Office. You'll likely notice a slowdown with only 512mb, but 1gb should be fine. The only time you'd start to notice a memory bottleneck with 1gb is if running memory-hog applications.

If you're noticing slowness just in a plain Vista desktop, it could be due to a lot of factors other than just Vista itself. Such as: Non vista-native drivers for certain pieces of hardware, network issues that cause certain network-dependent things to time out, etc.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

Top
#301490 - 19/08/2007 14:06 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
For those you are using Vista, how much memory do you have?


I've got 2GB in mine.

Quote:
I have about 1gb and it seems that the memory usage is almost always at least 70%.


That's SuperFetch, which pre-emptively (and aggressively) caches things, and supposedly learns your usage patterns.

On my 2GB machine, it's (only a few minutes after booting up) used 1.5GB for caching. No point having that memory not being used. This can be disconcerting, because the hard disks in this PC are quite noisy, so it sounds like a lot of thrashing activity.

Apparently, it doesn't do this on laptops, when they're on battery, because all of the extra disk activity is a drain on battery life.

Quote:
are there any other little ways to speed it up (other than just using Xp


You can try using ReadyBoost, which is where you plug in a fast USB flash, and it uses that for caching. Apparently, you won't see much of an improvement if you've got more than 1GB in the machine, though.

Alternatively, you might see improvements by using either a faster hard disk (e.g. a WD Raptor) or by configuring RAID0 (striped).
_________________________
-- roger

Top
#301491 - 26/08/2007 13:58 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: Roger]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
It is getting faster, but when i use Outlook 2007, it slows waaaay down. Then I looked at the Task Manager, it says that Outlook is using around 500,00 k. Why would it be using that much memory? I guess i haven't really checked before, but I never remember it taking up that much memory in Xp .

Top
#301492 - 28/08/2007 14:54 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
what is normal for memory usage with Outlook 2007 and Vista?

Top
#301493 - 28/08/2007 15:04 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
In Task Manager, my "OUTLOOK.EXE" says 27,772 K right now. The small size of my mail file might be a factor; I tend to keep it pretty trim, including making sure my "Sent Items" folder is always empty. (I only save emails that contain a crucial piece of data that I'll need later, I don't packrat.)
_________________________
Tony Fabris

Top
#301494 - 29/08/2007 13:43 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: tfabris]
Ladmo
addict

Registered: 04/09/2004
Posts: 527
Loc: Oklahoma
A good beefy Video card helps. Also remember that the gadget bar is a resource hog.
I remoted in to someone and found 15 gadges on the desktop. Turned them off, speed was increased. (Who needs 15 gadgets?!?!?)

Top
#301495 - 04/09/2007 16:08 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: tfabris]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
Quote:
In Task Manager, my "OUTLOOK.EXE" says 27,772 K right now. The small size of my mail file might be a factor; I tend to keep it pretty trim, including making sure my "Sent Items" folder is always empty. (I only save emails that contain a crucial piece of data that I'll need later, I don't packrat.)


do you have the indexing feature turned off for Outlook? Sometimes Outlook doesn't take up much memory, but most of the time it takes up a LOT of memory.

Top
#301496 - 04/09/2007 18:30 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
Indexing is on.
_________________________
Tony Fabris

Top
#301497 - 05/09/2007 13:55 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: burdell1]
az_max
new poster

Registered: 18/01/2002
Posts: 27
XP and Vista have a tool called "file and settings transfer wizard". You can use it to back up your settings and move them to a new pc. Also use NTBackup to make a final backup of your old system before you kill it. Both should be under Programs>Accessories>system tools

Top
#301498 - 20/09/2007 12:38 Re: Transfering files and settings to Vista [Re: az_max]
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
any other suggestions on how to keep Outlook 2007 from using up so much memory on Vista? I deleted a ton of stuff, thinking it would help, but it hasn't.....

Top