Help me make my computer backup checklist
November 8, 2009 8:21 PM Subscribe
BackupFilter: My new replacement laptop arrives tomorrow--help me make sure I don't forget anything critical in my backup process when I transfer everything to the new computer because I have to ship the old one back to Dell (hard drive as well).
So here's the situation...I have a Dell XPS m1730 that is being replaced by Dell with an Alienware m17x since my graphics cards fried. The m1730 runs Vista 32-bit and the new one (which arrives tomorrow!!!) will come with Vista 64-bit and a Windows 7 upgrade disc. After doing a little research I've decided I'd like to try doing a clean install of Windows 7 on the new machine (versus just the upgrade option) and I have a laplink cable which will hopefully help facilitate data transfer from the old machine to the new one, although if I need to I can temporarily move things to my 1Tb external Lacie drive.
Now on to the question...
I'd consider myself pretty good with computers but I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to making sure I have a backup of everything I need to and that I've transferred things over the right way. Below are a list of key things that I plan on backing up and the specifics that I think I've got covered in terms of how to transfer the data but I'd love some additional opinions to make sure I am not missing anything important that I wish I'll have later. The reason for this is that once I am completely finished, I need to do a complete HDD wipe and send the old machine (including the HDD) back to Dell to complete the exchange and thus will no longer have access to the machine or data. I considered making a disc image of the drive but I'm not sure how useful that would be for recovery purposes if I won't have a similarly configured machine available to load the image onto.
Also, just a general note...the vast majority of the software I have on there, unless specifically noted otherwise, was...*ahem* "acquired" via Bittorrent. So I will most likely have to redownload everything as I did not save the installers.
1. Web Development
Right now I build my websites in Dreamweaver and have several site profiles setup that I need to transfer...not quite sure how to do that. I also have a local server setup via XAMPP.
A. How do I backup my Dreamweaver sites properly so that all the site logins and file paths aren't completely messed up?
B. How do I properly transfer my XAMPP server which houses several several databases from Wordpress installs and multiple sites?
2. Design
I have Photoshop CS3 installed currently. Since I need to redownload it I'll most likely just grab CS4. However I have several brush packs, fonts, patterns, filters, etc. on the current machine. What is the best way to back this up?
3. Internet
I use Firefox 3.0.12 and have a TON of addons and themes. I successfully used FEBE to transfer my bookmarks, profile, addons, themes etc. between machines in the past but I'm worried that it won't work if I try to load the backup into a newer version of FF.
A. Anybody know if FEBE can load a backup from an older version of FF into a new one?
4. Media
I don't have any music I've purchased off of the ITMS or anything but I have a ton of MP3s and iTunes is music software of choice. My photos are stored in my documents and I use Picasa to manage them.
A. Do I need to do anything with my iPod and iTunes on my old machine like deauthorize or anything?
B. Is backing up photos as simple as copying them all and then putting them on the new machine and just importing them into Picasa again?
Aside from those four things, I think the rest of the files on there are fairly straightforward things to copy/transfer--mainly MS Office files and some user data/preferences from games like Savage 2 and Battlefield. Is there anything else I'm forgetting about here that is crucial? I feel like I'm forgetting some important things that I'm going to really be pissed about once I wipe the drive... And speaking of wiping the drive, I don't want anybody getting a refurbished machine with my old HDD in it and accessing my data. What is a FREE guaranteed way to completely wipe the drive?
I understand this is a pretty meaty AskMeFi question so if you're able to provide answers to all the parts you're a rockstar, and even if you can only provide some, I'll take any advice I can get on this as I only get one shot at this and need to do it right. Happy to answer any additional questions anybody has.
So here's the situation...I have a Dell XPS m1730 that is being replaced by Dell with an Alienware m17x since my graphics cards fried. The m1730 runs Vista 32-bit and the new one (which arrives tomorrow!!!) will come with Vista 64-bit and a Windows 7 upgrade disc. After doing a little research I've decided I'd like to try doing a clean install of Windows 7 on the new machine (versus just the upgrade option) and I have a laplink cable which will hopefully help facilitate data transfer from the old machine to the new one, although if I need to I can temporarily move things to my 1Tb external Lacie drive.
Now on to the question...
I'd consider myself pretty good with computers but I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to making sure I have a backup of everything I need to and that I've transferred things over the right way. Below are a list of key things that I plan on backing up and the specifics that I think I've got covered in terms of how to transfer the data but I'd love some additional opinions to make sure I am not missing anything important that I wish I'll have later. The reason for this is that once I am completely finished, I need to do a complete HDD wipe and send the old machine (including the HDD) back to Dell to complete the exchange and thus will no longer have access to the machine or data. I considered making a disc image of the drive but I'm not sure how useful that would be for recovery purposes if I won't have a similarly configured machine available to load the image onto.
Also, just a general note...the vast majority of the software I have on there, unless specifically noted otherwise, was...*ahem* "acquired" via Bittorrent. So I will most likely have to redownload everything as I did not save the installers.
1. Web Development
Right now I build my websites in Dreamweaver and have several site profiles setup that I need to transfer...not quite sure how to do that. I also have a local server setup via XAMPP.
A. How do I backup my Dreamweaver sites properly so that all the site logins and file paths aren't completely messed up?
B. How do I properly transfer my XAMPP server which houses several several databases from Wordpress installs and multiple sites?
2. Design
I have Photoshop CS3 installed currently. Since I need to redownload it I'll most likely just grab CS4. However I have several brush packs, fonts, patterns, filters, etc. on the current machine. What is the best way to back this up?
3. Internet
I use Firefox 3.0.12 and have a TON of addons and themes. I successfully used FEBE to transfer my bookmarks, profile, addons, themes etc. between machines in the past but I'm worried that it won't work if I try to load the backup into a newer version of FF.
A. Anybody know if FEBE can load a backup from an older version of FF into a new one?
4. Media
I don't have any music I've purchased off of the ITMS or anything but I have a ton of MP3s and iTunes is music software of choice. My photos are stored in my documents and I use Picasa to manage them.
A. Do I need to do anything with my iPod and iTunes on my old machine like deauthorize or anything?
B. Is backing up photos as simple as copying them all and then putting them on the new machine and just importing them into Picasa again?
Aside from those four things, I think the rest of the files on there are fairly straightforward things to copy/transfer--mainly MS Office files and some user data/preferences from games like Savage 2 and Battlefield. Is there anything else I'm forgetting about here that is crucial? I feel like I'm forgetting some important things that I'm going to really be pissed about once I wipe the drive... And speaking of wiping the drive, I don't want anybody getting a refurbished machine with my old HDD in it and accessing my data. What is a FREE guaranteed way to completely wipe the drive?
I understand this is a pretty meaty AskMeFi question so if you're able to provide answers to all the parts you're a rockstar, and even if you can only provide some, I'll take any advice I can get on this as I only get one shot at this and need to do it right. Happy to answer any additional questions anybody has.
If you're into bookmarks for your browser and have them well organised - then don't forget to copy them over.
posted by multivalent at 2:38 AM on November 9, 2009
posted by multivalent at 2:38 AM on November 9, 2009
free way of erasing the disk properly- this link says all I want to say. (Friend of mine's blog.) You'll need a linux live CD and the "shred" command.
posted by titanium_geek at 2:47 AM on November 9, 2009
posted by titanium_geek at 2:47 AM on November 9, 2009
(sorry, your question was a bit long and I didn't read it all at first, felt guilty and went back and read it properly.)
Get a large external disk. Copy over all of your hard drive over to this external drive, maintaining all folder structures, etc. Storage is cheap- this way you don't have to worry about missing stuff and you don't have to worry about messing up folder structures by dragging stuff to the windows 7 machine.
iTunes- definitely de-authorise your computer- you can do this after the fact, you get one "revoke permissions from all computers" per year (apple website), but it's easier to de-authorise locally. It's under the 'advanced' menu for iTunes.
Shred the drive as per my above link (overwrites drive with random data).
You can then worry about the best way of getting the stuff you need off your external drive, at your own leisure.
posted by titanium_geek at 2:56 AM on November 9, 2009
Get a large external disk. Copy over all of your hard drive over to this external drive, maintaining all folder structures, etc. Storage is cheap- this way you don't have to worry about missing stuff and you don't have to worry about messing up folder structures by dragging stuff to the windows 7 machine.
iTunes- definitely de-authorise your computer- you can do this after the fact, you get one "revoke permissions from all computers" per year (apple website), but it's easier to de-authorise locally. It's under the 'advanced' menu for iTunes.
Shred the drive as per my above link (overwrites drive with random data).
You can then worry about the best way of getting the stuff you need off your external drive, at your own leisure.
posted by titanium_geek at 2:56 AM on November 9, 2009
You will need to deauthorize your computer, iTunes-wise.
posted by Lucinda at 4:44 AM on November 9, 2009
posted by Lucinda at 4:44 AM on November 9, 2009
I considered making a disc image of the drive but I'm not sure how useful that would be for recovery purposes if I won't have a similarly configured machine available to load the image onto.
Make an completed image of everything. Otherwise you are bound to forget one thing or other. You won't be able to unpack the image onto the new computer, but that doesn't matter. The image will still give you the peace of mind -- it's good know that absolutely everything is on backup.
DeltaCopy is a good implementation of rsync for Windows.
posted by gmarceau at 8:24 AM on November 9, 2009
Make an completed image of everything. Otherwise you are bound to forget one thing or other. You won't be able to unpack the image onto the new computer, but that doesn't matter. The image will still give you the peace of mind -- it's good know that absolutely everything is on backup.
DeltaCopy is a good implementation of rsync for Windows.
posted by gmarceau at 8:24 AM on November 9, 2009
Best answer: My strategy for migrating has become quite simple:
1) Download an install VMWare converter: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
2) Convert your old machine into a VMWare image (put this on an external USB drive)
3) Install VMWare player on the new machine: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
4) Plug in the USB drive, start up the converted machine image and run it inside of the new machine.
It'll be slower, but it'll absolutely let you do almost everything you did on your old machine on your new machine as well. Every time you have to do something that requires starting up your "old machine", make sure you migrate that over.
Eventually you get to the point where the "old machine" is unnecessary and you can either delete or archive it for good.
This is a 100% free (as in price/beer), but not 100% Free (as in Open Source / speech) sort of way.
posted by ydant at 9:28 AM on November 9, 2009 [2 favorites]
1) Download an install VMWare converter: http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
2) Convert your old machine into a VMWare image (put this on an external USB drive)
3) Install VMWare player on the new machine: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
4) Plug in the USB drive, start up the converted machine image and run it inside of the new machine.
It'll be slower, but it'll absolutely let you do almost everything you did on your old machine on your new machine as well. Every time you have to do something that requires starting up your "old machine", make sure you migrate that over.
Eventually you get to the point where the "old machine" is unnecessary and you can either delete or archive it for good.
This is a 100% free (as in price/beer), but not 100% Free (as in Open Source / speech) sort of way.
posted by ydant at 9:28 AM on November 9, 2009 [2 favorites]
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by LeiaS at 9:18 PM on November 8, 2009