Let's say you recently purchased a new computer or laptop, and you'd like to move or copy the installed applications from the old computer to the new one... or maybe you purchased a second hard drive that's bigger and faster than your current hard drive, and you'd like to move programs from the old hard drive to the new one.
If you've lost or don't have access to your original installation CDs, then it could cost you hundreds of dollars to buy licensed versions of each software application to install on the new system or hard drive.
Fortunately there are a couple easy ways to transfer your software programs from one hard drive to another, or from one computer to another - and without breaking the bank.
1. Laplink PCmover is a migration utility that moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC.
Windows writes certain keys to your computer's registry when you install a program, and makes associations with other modules and/or installed programs. It's almost impossible to manually transfer these settings to another computer, which is what PCmover does automatically.
You'll need to install PCmover on both your old and new computers (handled by a single license) and it will determine which programs, files, and settings need to be moved. When the transfer is complete, your new computer will have the personality and functionality of your old PC plus all of its own pre-installed software.
PCmover works with almost any Windows operating system, from Windows 95 to Vista. You can even use it to migrate your PC to an Intel-based Mac.
One thing I like about PCmover is it's selectivity features. You can choose which applications, folders and files to take with you when you migrate to your new PC or hard drive.
Here's a video review of PCmover on Youtube that walks you through the transfer process:
PCmover can migrate your PC across a network, Laplink USB cable, Laplink parallel cable, Windows Easy Transfer Cable, or any type of removable media that can be read by both PCs. If your computer has multiple users, PCmover gives you the option to migrate some or all of the users at once. The security information about file ownership and access control is preserved for each user.
Here's a download link for PCmover.
2. Disk Imaging Software: Another way to transfer programs to another hard drive or system is by using disk imaging software that creates an exact image (copy) of your hard drive. You can then copy that image to another hard drive, another partition, or another computer system.
Disk imaging software like Genie Soft Backup Manager Home 8.0 (my personal favorite) or Acronis True Image 11 Home will create an exact image of your hard drive, including all software programs, email messages - even the operating system itself. You can then take this disk image and copy it to another hard drive or system.
I wrote a separate article about backing up your system using disk imaging software, that will give you more detail information about these programs from Genie and Acronis.
With either the migration utility or the disk imaging programs, you'll save a lot of time and money by not having to buy new licenses for software that you already own!
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Jessie (not verified) Says: Sun, 2008-05-25 07:14
Ricky, my old dell is close to death and I need to transfer my files to a yet tbd new computer. Is there a specific external hard drive you recommend? And how can I avoid transferring over any viruses to the new computer? Are there any mid-priced laptops you are recommending?
Lastly, visiting Portland for business. What part of town would you recommend staying in?
Ricky Says: Sun, 2008-05-25 07:28
Personally I've been happy with the Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive that I discussed in my article on
recovering deleted files. It plugs into the usb port on your computer and there's no software to install.
I spent about $50 on it for 320 GB, but that was several months ago and I'm sure you can get much more space for about the same price.
For Portland, check out Andina in the Pearl District. It's Peruvian cuisine, and I've absolutely loved every meal I've had there.
Another favorite of mine and my wife's is Serrato (which beats Andina's slightly), located on NW 23rd - a must visit strip with upscale shops and restaurants in one of the most desirable areas of Portland. Here's a list of popular restaurants in that area as well.
The seared ahi in amazing at Serrato, as is the Tenderloin of Strawberry Mountain Beef (I ordered it 3 times in a row on 3 separate visits there because it was so delicious).
Anonymous (not verified) Says: Wed, 2008-06-04 14:03
I just recently got a new desktop for graduation. I'm going to college now and of course the computer came with really, nothing at all. I have programs and such on my old laptop. Everywhere I go I am told that "NO you can not transfer programs" but yet I see things here that say you can. I need my programs on my desktop. I have my microsoft word disk but not the registration number. I don't know what happened to my adobe disk so I'm sorta at a loss. What do I do? Is there a way you can transfer programs or is everything I've seen so far thats told me "Yes you can" just a buncha you know what?
Ricky Says: Fri, 2008-06-13 08:04
You can indeed transfer programs from one computer to another using either Laplink or SystemSuite7 from Avanquest (they removed the transfer feature in SystemSuite8 for some reason, so be sure to get the older version linked above instead).
It won't give you your registration code for Word, although you can find utilities on the web that will give you that info.
The main difference between the two programs are that SystemSuite7 builds you an installation program for each software application you choose, and then you can copy that installation program to your new computer and install the application there. Laplink on the other hand connects both computers with a special USB cable, and transfers programs over directly.
Barb (not verified) Says: Fri, 2008-06-13 07:57
I read on your site that SystemSuite has a built in transfer function and that you moved some programs like Office to another comnputer. Does this install with the program installation and where do I find it in the program? Or is it one of the add-on programs included on the CD? I have this program but it is not currently installed on a computer but I am needing to transfer some programs from an older computer. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Victor Getov (not verified) Says: Thu, 2008-06-19 05:56
Hello, I tried to copy my 60GB hard drive from my old laptop to my 160GB hard drive on my new laptop using Norton Ghost v14.0.PCMOVER and System Suite7 need Windows to be installed first.
It is Windows XP SP-2.I uninstalled all additional drivers.The copy works perfect on the old laptop,but not on the new one.On the first "Windows" screen,where the three squares are moving,blue screen blinks and restarts the laptop from the begining.Over and over again.I started it in "Safe" mode-works.All prodrams and files are there.I even tried it on third laptop-same thing.
Please,help.
Ted (not verified) Says: Wed, 2008-07-02 18:04
I recently re-installed XP onto a fresh hard drive and now wish to copy many of my applications over to the new drive. It was with great interest I read your article and concluded that SystemSuite 7 was the perfect software need to do this job. I contacted Avanquest Software and discovered that version 7 is no longer being sold and they no longer sell any software which offers the transfer abilities that were found in version 7.
Can you suggest another software package that does??
Thanks.
Ricky Says: Fri, 2008-07-18 02:07
Looks like they did indeed stop selling this product, and so I removed it from the article above to avoid misleading anyone.
Laplink is another program that will let you transfer programs, which is the other program I described in the article above (with a video as well that you can watch to see how it works).
c-grillz (not verified) Says: Fri, 2008-07-18 01:15
I hav a mac and I want to transfer or copy programs from an external hard drive I work on at my studio.the program or application I need is called "waves"that I use for my music producing.is there a way this can be done without spending thousands of dollars for application.please help
Ricky Says: Fri, 2008-07-18 02:05
Macs handle software installation quite differently than Windows systems, and to be honest I'm not sure how it works to transfer programs on a Mac.
Any Mac experts out there have a suggestion?
Rizz (not verified) Says: Wed, 2008-09-10 06:46
hi,
wondering if you can help me.
my old hard drive in my Vaio laptop has died and I can no longer boot from that drive.
i've had to replace the hard drive in my vaio laptop. I understand that it's fairly easy to transfer files over from the old hard drive, but can i still transfer software programs between the 2 hard drives even though i'm not able to boot from the old drive?
or are all the programs now lost?
Kind regards,
Rizz
Kevin (not verified) Says: Thu, 2008-10-02 17:28
I purchased and with the help of a friend assembled a new custom system. I installed a new 250gb hard drive as well as the old 80gb hard drive out of my old system. I have the new drive set as the master and the old one as the slave drive. I installed Windows XP on the new drive but the old drive also has Windows XP. I have Microsoft Office on the old drive but would like to transfer it to the new drive. How do I do this without the use of an external hard drive?
Thank You!
Ricky Says: Thu, 2008-10-02 19:37
Office has a ton of dependent dll files and registry settings, so it would be impossible to manually move it over file by file.
PCmover described above can do this automatically, and will let you choose the programs that you want to migrate from your old drive to your new drive (and it's a lot cheaper itself than having to buy Office all over again).
Hope that helps!
Neptali (not verified) Says: Sun, 2008-10-05 06:36
Hey Ricky, I have a question. I am getting a new PC soon, but it's windows vista, and my old computer (well, current) is windows xp. So my question is does Laplink PCmover allow me to transfer all my files/programs/settings/etc from one OS to the other? and if it does, would everything work normally? cos i'd like to move everything, everything i have on my current computer seems important...
thanks in advance!
Ricky Says: Sun, 2008-10-05 14:57
Yes, it does... and that's probably the most common reason for using PCmover. Let me know how it works for you :)
Anonymous (not verified) Says: Sat, 2008-10-25 10:28
This article is very misleading. I was led to believe that PCMover would relocate an installed application (data and application settings) to a second hard drive. I have 2 hard drives in my computer and I am running out of space on one of them. Now I just spent money on some POS software that I have no use for.
BryanE (not verified) Says: Sun, 2008-11-16 18:48
I'm in the same postion that i have a hard drive that I can't access anymore, but is still able to be explored. I have pulled over all the files that are important, but would like to not have to re-install all the programs again. I too bought PC Mover, only to realize that it must be installed on BOTH computers to work. Is there something that can pull the programs off the un-bootable drive?
sysadmin (not verified) Says: Mon, 2008-11-24 07:39
For those who look for free alternatives to PCMover:
You may conceder to use WETC (windows easy transfer companion ) and PickMeApp.
* WECT may transfer your XP programs and settings to Vista and supports about 100 programs
* PickMeApp may transfer programs and settings to and from XP and Vista (xp2xp,xp2vist, etc). They claim to support unlimited number of programs. PickMeApp may solve transferring programs from one HDD to another on the same PC.
Anonymous (not verified) Says: Wed, 2008-11-26 19:10
I have an old powerspec desktop with a lot of older software programs i use for work but it is slow slow. I have just purchased a new powerspec with sme operating system. Can I copy, move, image programs and files from the old powerspec to the new one if I do not have all of my original cd or softWARE KEYS?
tHANKS DK
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