{"id":4871,"date":"2013-07-15T00:01:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-15T07:01:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=4871"},"modified":"2013-07-13T12:32:18","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T19:32:18","slug":"setting-up-my-new-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/?p=4871","title":{"rendered":"Setting Up My New PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s new PC time here at Wambooli! I’ve just purchased an update to one of my aging, decrepit computers.
\n
\nOnce upon a time, I turned over new PCs every two years. Now I’m up to five, and even then if I can manage to extend a computer system beyond that time, I’ll try.<\/p>\n

My old computer, codename XOG, was near the end of his lifespan. The hard drive was starting to go. Not only that, but XOG had some issues in the past. I upgraded him from Windows Vista to Windows 7 because of printing and network problems. So once he passed the 5-year mark (back in April), I was cautious of his behavior and eager for a replacement. All it took was one hard drive glitch for me to buy a replacement.<\/p>\n

When I get a new computer, I create a small text file in my home folder. The name of the file is purchase date<\/code>. The file has one line of text, such as in XOG’s case:<\/p>\n

This computer was purchased on August 29, 2008.<\/code><\/p>\n

Such a file exists on all my computers. I use it to help determine when it’s time to replace the system.<\/p>\n

\"Pip,

Pip, my new, teeny Lenovo PC.<\/p><\/div>\n

For a replacement, I purchased a Lenovo ThinkCenter PC — I don’t know the specific model name. Lenovo has Way Too Many<\/em> models for me to care, but the thing is tiny: It’s about the size of a hardback book. No optical drive, but plenty of USB ports. That’s good. I think it cost me about $600. It’s using XOG’s old keyboard, mouse, monitor, and other peripherals.<\/p>\n

Getting a new PC involves software setup in addition to the physical setup. The software side happens when you first turn on the system. You configure Windows, but then — in Windows 7 at least (and trust me, my new PC has Windows 7, not<\/em> Windows 8) — you can run the Migration Wizard to move files from your old PC to the new one.<\/p>\n

The Migration Wizard runs on two computers. If you have XP or Vista, you can download the Migration Wizard from here<\/a>. You start it on the new PC, you run it on the old PC. Both my systems are on the local network, so the transfer worked rather quickly.<\/p>\n

The only thing not transferred are all the programs. Those must be reinstalled, which is why I keep all my computer’s installation CDs handy. And for downloaded programs, I keep the registration numbers and product keys in a safe location.<\/p>\n

After transferring all my personal files, then re-installing my software, I was done. The new computer PIP is essentially a clone of the older PC, XOG. All my files survived, and all the programs were installed.<\/p>\n

As a final act, I created a new purchase date<\/code> file. That way, come five or more years from now, I’ll repeat the process with whatever new system I get at the time — assuming, of course, that robots haven’t destroyed us by then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Getting a new computer is fun, but it can also be an ordeal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-4871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main","tag-pc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4871"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4885,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4871\/revisions\/4885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wambooli.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}