Questions on Migrating to new Desktop PC

AggieMike88

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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
I am considering building a new supercharged hotrod of a workstation with lots of monitors, blazing solid state hard drive, maxed out RAM, and killer CPU/GPU. I'm getting to a point where I could use the extra speed and screen real estate.

Fortunately, lots of good resources out there to help identify components and "how to's" to assemble everything.

My question is about all the applications and such I have on my existing hard drive. Some items (such as my yard management client) aren't "product keyed" and I can easily install that. Some others (like Quickbooks) are easily downloaded from the internet source and I have the "keys" to activate them.

But I have other things like MS Office and a few others that I don't know where their product keys went to.

What is the simplest solution to keep access to both the programs/apps and the files that are on the current primary hard drive?

The end result is that I want the new SSD to be the primary bootable drive, have some of the frequently used items on there, and still have access to the current programs and files on my existing drive. All without the anguish and grief and cost of buying fresh copies of software and transferring file after file to the new drive.
 
Did you buy MS Office under an OEM license, an Open License or a Retail license? If it is an OEM license (bought with the computer or licensed shortly thereafter, but pre-installed) the license dies with the hardware. You do not have the option to install it on new hardware. If it is an Open License, you can log into your account and get the key. If it is a retail license and you lost it, you are out of luck. If you were only replacing a hard drive and all the other hardware remains the same, there is a lot of free software out there for reimaging the drive and they will also let you resize the partitions to the size of new drive (smaller or bigger, as long as the data will fit).
 
When I had this dilemma I considered it an opportunity to subscribe to Office365. That was two laptops ago and I just keep re-downloading and ready to go.

Really went against my nature to pay for software, even though I've been making my living implementing software for 25 years.
 
Did you buy MS Office under an OEM license, an Open License or a Retail license? If it is an OEM license (bought with the computer or licensed shortly thereafter, but pre-installed) the license dies with the hardware. You do not have the option to install it on new hardware. If it is an Open License, you can log into your account and get the key. If it is a retail license and you lost it, you are out of luck. If you were only replacing a hard drive and all the other hardware remains the same, there is a lot of free software out there for reimaging the drive and they will also let you resize the partitions to the size of new drive (smaller or bigger, as long as the data will fit).
Existing workstation was also self built. And it not pre-installed. I purchased the "card" that had where to go download and I think the product key on it.
 
When I had this dilemma I considered it an opportunity to subscribe to Office365. That was two laptops ago and I just keep re-downloading and ready to go.

Really went against my nature to pay for software, even though I've been making my living implementing software for 25 years.
When I first saw Office 365, I wasn't so sure about that "flavor", but didn't do much to continue learning about its differences from the traditional "purchase the box and load the CD". But if you're saying that that style makes migrating to new hardware a simpler task, I'll have to look into it.
 
That's what I mean. The UI has changed from prior buy/load versions, but in the last two years I don't think I notice it changing with updates as much I did when I first made the jump.
 
When I first saw Office 365, I wasn't so sure about that "flavor", but didn't do much to continue learning about its differences from the traditional "purchase the box and load the CD". But if you're saying that that style makes migrating to new hardware a simpler task, I'll have to look into it.
Office 365 is a good way to go. You can license one PC for $69 per year or up to 5 PCs for $99 per year and you are always entitled to the latest and greatest version. https://products.office.com/en-us/buy/office
 
I switched to OpenOffice several years back. It's free, and reads/writes most MS Office doc formats.

Sort of. It's file compatible but advanced formatting functions do not transport across correctly. I use it at home and it's fine for basic stuff, but for reports using styles and auto-generated TOC's, etc... I stick with MS Office.
 
@AggieMike88

The experts here may have better ideas but I would clone my existing hard drive to an SSD and install that as the boot drive in the new computer.
 
@AggieMike88

The experts here may have better ideas but I would clone my existing hard drive to an SSD and install that as the boot drive in the new computer.

Doable to an extent, but you may have to fight driver issues to enable all the goodies on the new machine. Also of interest, which OS is the oldie and would you / should you stay with that.
 
Pull the existing HD from your old system, spend $10 for an external case with USB & power, put the old drive into the case, connect thru USB to your new computer. There's all your software.
 
When I first saw Office 365, I wasn't so sure about that "flavor", but didn't do much to continue learning about its differences from the traditional "purchase the box and load the CD". But if you're saying that that style makes migrating to new hardware a simpler task, I'll have to look into it.

Mike, the folks here are talking about the O365 variant that allows you to download full copies of Office applications.

Judging by your note above you may be thinking about the online versions of those applications. That's a different (cheaper) version/level of O365 where businesses can just run the online versions only. (I know of only one business doing it and their users are, shall we say, unimpressed overall. They have MSFT also handle their email and their Sharepoint server and all that stuff. They all wish they had the online servers but with the more expensive downloaded application version.)

As much as I dislike the whole idea that software is turning into a rental business, complete with cockroach ridden always busted "continuous deployment" quality software... I use and needed "real" Office enough, and had enough machines that it would be handy to have it installed on, that I pay for the $99/year subscription for five machines.

Now technically that's a "home" product but I think you can get that same deal for business.

One area to be careful of is if you're going to outgrow 5 licenses, it'll be best to talk to someplace about the bulk licensing scheme for businesses on Office products.

The home thing also gives you a TB of storage on their cloud and some other stuff. Office apps on like 10 devices or something nutty too.

They need a home plan that will allow adding on more licenses for us geeks with too many desktop devices of different flavors.

As far as differences with "boxed" sets goes, not much after the first massive download and update is complete. Mostly just that you get new versions as long as you keep paying that annual bill. If you look at the slowness of their Office major release number schedule, buying the box and waiting and using it a long time is more economical by a small amount, but it's not that big a difference. And if they actually released something more often than their norm, you'd get it right away.

Oh there is one other difference. Certain applications are not O365 available. Visio comes to mind. O365 is the base set of Office apps. Not truly "everything" they make in the Office lineup.
 
Oh and for the migration -- I've done both ways. Fresh load and find or replace all the license keys to get a clean install, and imaging the old drive onto the new.

Usually I do the image thing when NOT changing hardware. Also if you buy an SSD or new drive, often the manufacturer will have imaging software you can use to move over to the new drive.

A fully patched and up to date Win7,8,10 will usually at least boot up and limp along enough to then go find all the drivers for the new hardware. The PITA is if the networking devices won't run. Easier to download the drivers on the new machine directly but if you can't because you need Ethernet or Wifi drivers, have a second laptop and a USB stick handy to get those and move them over. Once you have networking happy, you can fix everything that's not working in the Device Manager (often you need video card drivers next after networking).

Another caveat: If the Windows license on the original machine was an OEM license (it'll actually say OEM on it or have the letters OEM in the key number itself), it's supposed to stay with the dead/cast off hardware.

You need a new Windows license for the new machine, if so.

If the original machine was running retail/boxed Windows, you can move it to the new hardware.

Either way, it's probably going to pop up Windows Genuine Dis-advantage shortly after the first boot up and want to be re-activated. It may be able to do it online or it may ask you to call an 800 number. It's painless.

If you had to move an image of Windows to new hardware that it's not licensed for, but you bought a shiny new license, that can be figured out - you can enter the new key or whatever. They're not horrible about it all. Just follow the directions on the screen and have the correct license for whatever you're doing.
 
Pull the existing HD from your old system, spend $10 for an external case with USB & power, put the old drive into the case, connect thru USB to your new computer. There's all your software.
I like the simplicity of this... But can it be done internal to the box?
 
I like the simplicity of this... But can it be done internal to the box?

Yes, but. All your software will be on the drive you transplanted but it won't be installed and runnable (assuming you install a fresh OS on your new SSD). The installer sets up registers entries, dll's, etc that are necessary for most programs to run.

Now if you just want to clone the drive to the SSD or just move your drives over to the new system and boot from then that's fine. You will need to work out any driver issues as a previous poster called out.
 
Cloning the drive to the SSD is sounding preferable. Just one device, and it's the faster one.

Any suggested "how to" articles to accomplish that?
 
Cloning the drive to the SSD is sounding preferable. Just one device, and it's the faster one.

Any suggested "how to" articles to accomplish that?

It s going to be messy (lots of driver errors) and don't expect your MS Office licensing to survive the transplant (MS has an algorithm for detecting massive hardware changes). A clean OS install will yield the best results and then re-aquire and reinstall apps. Just bite the bullet and get a clean start. You will have a happier computer. You also continue to get the use of your old computer, while you are building, configuring the new one. The people above are telling you what is possible, but ask them what they would do for their mom or dad, if they ran into the same scenario and they were the ones who had to support it. If there is some app that you can't get the install files/license for, there is also the option of P2V the old desktop and fire it up as a virtual machine, when you need access to that data (but only in a legacy/retired access sense, I would still replace the app with one that is supported).
 
Many, if not most, SSDs come with cloning software. Otherwise you could use free things like easeus, macrium, aomei...

FYI. LibreOffice is the preferred "open/free" alternative to MS Office these days. OpenOffice kind of died on the vine after the Oracle/Sun merger.
 
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