Getting a new PC tomorrow, I'm a little nervous

  • Thread starter Jezza819
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Jezza819

Jezza819

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I'm picking up a new PC for home use tomorrow to replace my 12 year old one. Now that I have 3gb Google Fiber internet I wanted something that was more up to date to handle the increased speed, Windows 11, etc.

But I'm a little nervous as to how the switch over is going to go. I've watched a few videos on what you need to do. I've bought a hard drive and I know you're supposed to load everything on it and then reload it on the new one except for things that have installers that you're just going to have to reinstall from the internet anyway. I think I know how to move browser bookmarks over as I remember doing that when I got the current PC.

I know some of the first things I need to do on the new one is disable or uninstall One Drive and make this new device not discoverable with other devices. I learned that when I got the gaming PC and went to work the next day only to see Assetto Corsa mod files, AC shortcut, AMS2 files on my work PC desktop.

I do struggle with tech stuff which is why I'm a little nervous about this but I know it needs to be done. This old pc was giving me all sorts of problems and it was just time to replace it.

Also we have a place here that properly disposes of technological and hazardous material waste such as old computers. Once everything is off of the old one do I just need to do a factory reset of it to prep it for disposal or it there anything else I need to make sure and do?
 
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First off, 3 GB fiber sounds almost pornographic.
Jezza819
Also we have a place here that properly disposes of technological and hazardous material waste such as old computers. Once everything is off of the old one do I just need to do a factory reset of it to prep it for disposal or it there anything else I need to make sure and do?
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Whenever I dispose of old hard drives, I run a drill through them to shatter the plates inside of them. I don't have anything critical on the drives, but I figure better safe than sorry. I do the same thing to my tablets and phones too. Factory resetting is probably fine for the most part, but I just worry that some tech bro is going to get bored and trying to get stuff off my drives.
 
That or format the drive a few times. It's been a while so I don't remember the software to use, possibly HDDGuru. I assume Windows internal software would also do.
 
It's going to be delayed until tomorrow, we have heavy thunderstorms now and it's supposed to rain the rest of the night but tomorrow looks good.
 
I do have a question about moving everything from the old one to the new one. I can't remember what I did 12 years ago when I got this current one. I think I moved everything in sections, documents, pictures, programs, etc. to the hard drive then to the new one.

Is that the safest way to make sure each thing transfers instead trying to go in huge blocks or even trying the complete C: drive at one time? That seems pretty risky to me.
 
Jezza819
I do have a question about moving everything from the old one to the new one. I can't remember what I did 12 years ago when I got this current one. I think I moved everything in sections, documents, pictures, programs, etc. to the hard drive then to the new one.

Is that the safest way to make sure each thing transfers instead trying to go in huge blocks or even trying the complete C: drive at one time? That seems pretty risky to me.
Click to expand...
Granted this will be a bit different for a personal computer but when I set up a new computer for people at work, this is kind of my work flow:
  • Export browser favorites
  • Have them check any passwords they have saved and don't remember
    • Write them down or take pictures
  • Copy everything from their desktop except for program shortcuts to an external device
  • Copy everything from their Documents folder to an external device
  • Do the same thing for any other folders that you have files in that you want to keep.
There really shouldn't be any need to copy the enter C: drive. There's no reason you can't, it's just most of it will be unusable.
 
TB
Granted this will be a bit different for a personal computer but when I set up a new computer for people at work, this is kind of my work flow:
  • Export browser favorites
  • Have them check any passwords they have saved and don't remember
    • Write them down or take pictures
  • Copy everything from their desktop except for program shortcuts to an external device
  • Copy everything from their Documents folder to an external device
  • Do the same thing for any other folders that you have files in that you want to keep.
There really shouldn't be any need to copy the enter C: drive. There's no reason you can't, it's just most of it will be unusable.
Click to expand...
I've done the first one, I have a word document for all of my passwords.

Oddly enough, last night before I started to save anything, 3/4 of my desktop icons just disappeared. I restarted but they are still gone. I don't really remember what was there but I can't remember anything that couldn't be replaced.

I've moved Documents, Pictures, and Downloads over to an external hard drive. I don't think there is anything else left that needs to be moved and I think it's probably ready to be cleaned for disposal.

I did pick up the new one today. I'm going to try and get it going tonight but I'm not going to rush it.
 
I did hit a minor snag trying to move my music files over. Windows Explorer will not move or delete two folders. One is empty and the other has one album in it. Tried run as admin, same thing. My music files are copies of about 200 CD's I had and sold about 6 years ago and this one album is one that I really have never listened to again so when it gets wiped from the hard drive it's no big deal.

But Windows Explorer has been giving me trouble like this for a long time now.
 

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