Computer geeks, queue here

[sunnybob]

I have finally had to admit defeat on my old laptop. Almost 12 years running vista with no software problems, but now I can barely navigate the web and most utubes are now not responding :roll: :roll: :roll:
I will be changing to a 4 year old laptop running 10. No choice, and NO, I do NOT want to learn another computer system! (hammer)
Heres the BUT.... I have many photos and documents on vista, and even an external hard drive which is a back up and sync drive with another multitude of pics.

Am I going to have any problems loading all this stuff to win 10?
Will I have to format the hard drive?
Answers in one syllable words please cos I'm thick with software.

 

[manglitter]

Do NOT format the hard drive! You will lose ALL your data if you do!

Copying photos etc from external hard drive to a new(er) machine is easily done.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[Racers]

You shouldn't have any problems.
It's one Microsoft operating system to another, long file names are the only thing I can think of.

Pete

 

[RAF]

@sunny bob: no and no.

Just plug in the drive and Win10 should show it to you.

You shouldn't have any problems.
It's one Microsoft operating system to another, long file names are the only thing I can think of.

Pete

Vista was sold as 32bit and 64bit. Win10 is 64 bits only. The filename lenght (actually path+filename) won't be a problem.

 

[Robbo3]

Might be easier to copy your files off Vista onto a USB pen drive & then onto Windows 10, even if you have to do it in a couple of batches. Always copy rather than move. If anything goes wrong your originals are still available.
If your external hard drive already has the files, copy them from that onto Windows 10. Or copy them from Vista onto the external & then across to W10.
If you want to make Widows 10 more like Windows 7, try Open Shell (was Classic Shell)
- https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
This will get rid of the tiles screen, give you a conventional start menu & make finding your way round easier.

 

[sunnybob]

I just KNEW it was going to get complicated :roll:
Luckily the vista still works so I can take my time transferring.
I just dont want win10 to wipe the external hard drive first time i connect the two

 

[manglitter]

I just dont want win10 to wipe the external hard drive first time i connect the two

It won't do this.
As soon as you connect an external drive (either your hard drive or a USB stick) windows will ask you what you want to happen

Select open folder to view files, search for whatever files, music, photos or videos, then copy into your chosen destination folder on your new computer.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

 

[sunnybob]

Thank you. I will be starting the swap over this week. I will inform of any problems (or not, if the whole thing melts down) :roll: :shock:

 

[novocaine]

once your done how about installing that new system you don't want to learn on the old machine. (duck and cover, he's going to explode)


you'll be fine Bob, you can take it easy copying over and be away again on windoze 10 without any real issues. might be worth looking at how much data you have on the old machine in pictures and the like, you might be able to transfer it over your wifi network instead. although I guess that might present itself as complicated so your call.

also, I'm not a computer geek, just a geek instead.

 

[sunnybob]

I used to have an interest in computers, my first was win 3.5, (built my own running win95), but every time I learnt a system they changed it. And changed it. And changed it. I just got fed up filling my brain with useless information because I've got enough of that already. I had a company laptop that had 7. Within a year it was replaced.
I used to work with all the office suite stuff, but I only surf with them now (apart from 10,000 pics of grandchildren that my Mrs wont stop adding to) so simple is good. 8) 8)

 

[AES]

Bob, I'm going to risk another explosion from you here. Like you I am NOT any sort of software bloke (hate the stuff, just an often-clumsy, and constantly changing, way of getting certain "jobs" done), but anyway, here goes!

I have a Lenovo lap top which is definitely getting past it's prime.

Even if it wasn't, it runs Win 7, which "Dear" Mr. Gates and his mob will shortly stop supporting.

I've SEEN (and heard!!!) my wife struggling with Win 10 MANY times (she generally LIKES all the new latest n greatest), and when Gates's mob stop supporting Win XP (which to me was the best, and what I used most back in "the good old days") I bought the Win 7 laptop. That was my only reason for buying 7, which I don't much like - but it works, more or less.

Now to the difficult bit:

I've been talking to the local guru (a professional business) down town, and he reckons he's got several versions of Linux which (wait a minute, wait a minute mate!!!) he says can run just like XP.

Do to health/lack of mobility problem I have at the minute, it's not going to happen until early next year (which, as it happens, is when 7 support stops) but I'm seriously thinking of transferring all my present stuff to (another) hard drive (I use one for back up presently, so I'll buy a new one), then letting him install his "XP-like Linux") in the laptop. OR, if the guru say the Lenovo isn't up to it, I'll buy a cheapo desktop PC (now I'm retired I don't need a laptop any more).

Just like you, since retirement I really only need to go on-line for E-mails and stuff like this Forum, so I plan to give it a go.

Meantime I'll wheel my old PC out of retirement (it's XP), transfer all my data to that, via the new external hard drive, and use all my existing programs (I guess I should call them apps these days!) and use that for everything else, making sure that this "daily work" machine NEVER goes on line.

I think that should work, and after a brief Linux course (paid for by me of course) which the down town guru will run, I should be set up "for life", i.e.

Old XP machine and programmes for off line work, plus old 7 machine (or new desk top if really necessary), now with Linux, for all on-line work.

That's the plan anyway. I'm sure that I will have some probs, but I should be able to overcome them eventually, secure in the knowledge that my days of Microsoft will be gone forever - after learning the Win 3.1, 3.5, then XP series, only to find that bloody blood-sucking ***** kept on forcing me to change and (painfully) re-learn every so often, my MS days are (will be) done forever, apart from using something that I'm comfortable and which has worked well for me for years (i.e. XP).

As said, it won't happen until early next year, but unless you've already started into 10 (good luck if so) then you may care to consider the above points.

Sorry this is long.

 

[novocaine]

you really don't need to take it to someone to install linux or have a course on how to use it.

get everything you want off the laptop and it will take you about an hour to do yourself.

I've just transferred to an SSD and linux mint on an old netbook (was XP, still got the drive so I can swap back, but don't intend to).

download the install file (https://www.linuxmint.com/download.php)(about 2g)
and a program called Etcher. (https://www.balena.io/etcher/)
use etcher to write the install file to a memory stick.
boot the computer from the memory stick (you'll have to change the boot sequence but that's only a matter of hitting f11 or del at start up and selecting the boot order from a list)
it will boot in to the mint desktop and there will be an install option sat on the desktop.
that's it. job done it really couldn't be much easier.

 

[Rich C]

FWIW I think Windows 7 is the best version to date. I still have it on one computer, though my laptop is 10 and I use 10 at work (by necessity, but then I am a computer geek).

 

[Rorschach]

If the old laptop is running really slow you might be better pulling out the hard drive and connecting it via USB to your new laptop.

I did this recently when my mothers laptop packed up.

 

[AES]

Thanks for your encouragement novocaine, I really DO appreciate it, honest.

BUT (there's always one isn't there)?

Just take for example line 3 off your post above, QUOTE: .... just transferred to an SSD and Linux mint .... UNQUOTE: Sorry, I really am sorry, but I'm also a klutz and don't understand that part of the sentence - what's an SSD, and what's Linux mint?

And again, line 7. QUOTE: ......... boot the computer from the memory stick (you'll have to change the boot sequence but that's only a matter of hitting f11 or del at start up and selecting the boot order from a list). UNQUOTE. Again sorry, I'm NOT in any way having a go at you, but can only respond to that sentence with "Pardon?"

Yup, going to the guru down town and paying for a course will cost me money, BUT, just like paying for any other transaction for goods and/or services, if it doesn't work properly, or if I haven't understood something properly, we'll (the guru actually) will keep on with it until it does work/I do understand - otherwise he won't get paid!

I have tried all this "just download this or that off the internet and install it ..." before, and in my admittedly small experience it NEVER goes just like the on-line Help says it does, and/or my screen NEVER looks exactly like the on-screen shots provided. Sorry, and I KNOW I'm a "mouse not a man" when it comes to all this stuff, but I am definitely NOT - that's NOT EVER - going down that road again!

If I pay for something from an established local business then I will get all the standard consumer protections. On-line? There's a big chance of nothing at all. Come on, how many times have you called or E-mailed a software vendors so-called helpline with absolutely no helpful end result at all. Often, you're lucky to even get an (auto) acknowledgement, let alone an answer!

My mother tongue is English, and I'm quite "fluid" with it - both spoken and written, but these people (even the English-speaking ones) just don't speak the same language that I do!

Rant over, and nothing personal mate, really. But unless you want to come over here and do it all for me (you can have a bed for the night, and Sleazy Jet flies to Basel, 25 mins down the road!), it's definitely going to be the local business route this time.

 

[novocaine]

how about I send you a CD with all on, all you have to do is put it in the side of the computer.

Just take for example line 3 off your post above, QUOTE: .... just transferred to an SSD and Linux mint .... UNQUOTE: Sorry, I really am sorry, but I'm also a klutz and don't understand that part of the sentence - what's an SSD, and what's Linux mint?

SSD= Solid State Drive. a hard drive without all the moving bits. they are quicker than a hard drive.
linux mint, the version of linux that works like windows (enough like windows that you'll feel at home)

boot the computer from the memory stick (you'll have to change the boot sequence but that's only a matter of hitting f11 or del at start up and selecting the boot order from a list). UNQUOTE. Again sorry, I'm NOT in any way having a go at you, but can only respond to that sentence with "Pardon?"

boot = turn the computer on.
from the memory stick is putting it in the USB hole on the side of your laptop.
so boot order, what it does when you turn your computer on. when you turn your computer on you should get a screen, most likely with lenovo splashed across it. at the bottom of the screen it will say something "press F11 for boot options" or similar. press it and it will take you to a ropey looking screen that you can move around with the cursors.

if it's got a CD drive then it will already be set to boot from that first, so if I send you a disc with mint on, it will be a matter of putting that in the side and your pretty much done. you'll be able to have a play with it before you install it but it won't safe any changes. (which I'm sure is something your guru hasn't suggested).

I am in no way a guru, I can muddle my way through it from a few years of playing with it occasionally.

the reason I'm suggesting this? because I hate the fact that the "guru" is going to charge you for something that's free (ok Opensource, a new word you will ask about in a minute that basically means everyone has access to the program and can do with it what they want, if you like it, you can donate to the folks who built it, if you dont like it, ho hum), simple to use and wont take but moments of your time to understand.

I can understand why you'd be wary, it's a brave new world with lots of blar blar confusion and technobable. with a gentle hand you can ignore all of it and simply get what you actually want rather than what they tell you, you need.

 

[sunnybob]

this is what I always come across when talking to computer "savvy" people. They find it almost impossible to talk down far enough for me to cope. :roll:
There should be a book entitled, Windows for people who couldnt understand the windows for dummies book" (hammer) (hammer) .

I was afraid the thread would degenerate into "tech speak" :lol:
I shall do what I planned at this stage. I'll wipe all the Mrs. internet history (10,000 shops) and passwords and social media links, and stumble along for a while.
If AES manages to get converted later on, then i might be able to have a go, 'cos he's a LOT older than me :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[novocaine]

I'm trying to stay above technobable. I'll send you a CD too.

CD= like a record but shiny and small.

 

[AES]

"..........'cos he's a LOT older than me :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:"

Oy Bob, I "resemble" that remark!!!!!

Thanks for not taking offence at my previous novocaine. As said already, this isn't something that going to happen until early next year at the earliest. So I've read your above and will give it some more thought.

NOT REALLY THREAD DRIFT (well, only a bit anyway):

What put me onto the idea of using a dedicated off-line XP machine ('cos XP's what I personally like) is my local hospital (which, unfortunately, I visit regularly). They have an "internal internet" thingy there (I think it's called "intranet" or perhaps "infranet" or something), whereby all separate departments are "linked together". So for example, when I have an Xray (that Dept is on the 1st floor), when I then go to see the back specialist (who's in Basement 1), even if the surgeon appointment is only10 mins after the Xray, when I go in to his office he's got my pix already on his own - great big - screen.

Nothing very special about that I suppose, but certainly beats the "old" way of waiting for the Xrays to be "developed" then hand-carrying them downstairs for the next appointment - which HAD to be a couple of hours later - if not next week! Same works for CTI and MRI scans too. Clever stuff to a klutz like me.

Anyway, 'cos I personally like XP I thought if they can do it why can't I?

 

[ColeyS1]

I'm trying to stay above technobable. I'll send you a CD too.

CD= like a record but shiny and small.

Lol, that made me chuckle!

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk