installing from backup into new computer

I want to get a new computer, but there are programs on my current computer that will take too long to install from their original disks, and there are some in which I may not even have the disk anymore (ie, adobe creative suite, microsoft office, etc).

If I buy Acronis True Image Home 2009 and make a full backup of my current system into an external hard drive, how can I re-install my programs from that external hard drive into my new computer.

Would I have to install Acronis into the new computer as well? Or what?

I currently have WinXP Home. I plan on buying a computer from Dell with WinXP Pro pre-installed.

Any help gladly appreciated.

 

The only way to get your programs on your new system without getting into headaches is by reinstalling them there . There isn't any transfer software for programs unto another computer yet . Though you could try to remove the old computer hard drive and place it in the new Dell computer . You would take out the new hard drive and use the old drive instead afterwards see if it would even boot up , if it does ? You would have to remove/uninstall all the old drivers and then afterwards install the new drivers for the new Dell computer . Or do an repair installment which I'm not even sure that would work . Easy and best way to go about it is to reinstall all your programs unto the new computer .

 

I don't know if this will help or not but I recently had a major corruption issue and it was so bad I could not even get TIs emerg disk to get me in. It was nec to format the drive and reinstall the OS. I then took my rescue disk, booted into TIs module, and reinstalled everything. Took about 1.5 hours to do and it was like I had never had a problem. I have read on these forums that you can do this with new drives so I don't see why you could not do it with a new PC but I am no expert in this area. I think a reasonable approach would be to see what others here have to say on the matter and possibly, see if you are able to do this during the trial period (assuming there is one with TI software and that if there is it is not a limited version of the program).

Great program by the way, I have been using happily since 2004.

 

It is far from certain that you can do as told earlier in this thread, because if you either put your “old” HDD into your new computer, or use the restore tool of ATI, you will most certain run into a lot of trouble. You see! Your “old Win. OS installation includes a lot of hardware drivers especially designed for your “old” computers hardware, and those drivers will probably not work with the new computer. You will then (as said before) have to remove all the old drivers, and then fetch new drivers from Dell’s homepage (if available), and install them, and even then it is not certain that it will work.
So make a new clean install, and google your needed programmes, I’m sure you can find them.

 

If you prefer to keep the OS on the new system the Files And Settings Transfer feature should be what you need - though I've never used this before. And I think I read somewhere that LapLink does a similar thing.

If you do not mind transferring the OS as well as everything else to the new system you can do this:
Before you make the Image of the old system, change the Display Adapter to Standard VGA and then make the Image.

Now, with the True Image Rescue CD, restore that Image to the new system. This will wipe out everything on the hard drive in the new system, including the OS that came with it.

Once the restore is done and the new system boots for the first time, it will go through a whole slew of "Found New Hardware" popups. Wait for this to finish. When it is done look under Device Manager and install the drivers for those devices that have the exclamation mark against them. The display adapter should be one.

 

Thanks for all the replies you guys.

All I want to do is transfer my programs into my new computer.

I don't want to transfer my "old h.drive" into my new pc and try to download all the drivers and stuff.

Is there not a simple solution for this?

Anyways, thanks for the help.

 

Laplink makes a product known as PC Mover that is supposed to do just what you want -- migrate files, settings, and applications to a new computer. It is not a restore program, however. You will have to install and configure an OS on the new computer first. It is simply used for migration.

 

Yeah. I started doing some research a couple hours ago on it. Some one else mentioned laplink and I googled it and came across PCmover.

I think this may be what I was looking for.

Thank you everyone. I may have solved my problem.