Tranferrring all files to another computer / OpenOffice.org compatibility

[LiveMusic]

A friend's Winxp computer is crapping out. He mostly uses Word and Outlook for most tasks. Is the word processor in Open Office compatibile with Word? Meaning it can read .doc files just fine? It says it works with other programs.

 

EDIT: I just found this about compatibility --

http://scs.earlham.edu/OOcomp.html

 

As for Outlook, maybe I could get him to use Yahoo email and maybe there is a way to transfer all of his Outlook emails and addresses to Yahoo? Or maybe not! Or does Open Office have an Outlook type email software?

 

Also, what about transferring files from his dying computer to his laptop. Can you recomment the easiest, lowest cost way?

 

(His computer is crashing and we don't know why. This computer has always had problems from time to time. I suspected a bad chip years ago... it would lock up. It hasn't been locking up for months now but now, it is just crashing and trying to reboot. It's 5-6 years old. Might be power supply? Or hard drive, I suppose.)

[Anderton]

 

 

Get a USB or Firewire hard drive enclosure, take out the drive from the computer, put it in the enclosure, and transfer over to the other computer. There was an article in the October 2006 issue of EQ on how to build your own external driver including formatting issues etc.

[MorePaul]

For that matter you could just slam the old drive into the box as a local drive

(one reason why I still like to run at least 2 drive swap bays on desktop machines)

 

 

I've used Open Office writer in a manner to be basically compatible with doc files -- but I can't really say if more advanced features (maybe change tracking and deeper templating and such) are 100% compat

 

Open office, afaik (I don't have a deep knowledge of it, I'm a casual user) doesn't have a mail client or the scheduling stuff you can do in Outlook

 

 

 

Q : what kind of files (are we talking "workpiece" datafiles, or applications or application support files?) are we looking at moving?

what kind of size and file count?

[LiveMusic]

He has a 20gb drive and it has 1gb free. BTW, 1gb free seems like a lot but... could that be causing this crashing / reboot problem?

 

I don't know how many files he has because I am not there but I do know he has 19,000 midi files. He is not an astute computer user. He uses his browser, Word and Outlook. Mostly, that's it. Actually, I can't conceive of how his 20gb got use up but I guess there are programs on there that take up a lot. He has some audio files but not a huge amount. Maybe 1gb. Winxp machine.

[Dylan Walters]

Having only 1GB free of HD space can cause major stability issues with Windows. The rule of thumb is that want at least 15% free. Have your friend run CleanUP to see if he can recover some space by deleting unnecessary temp files. I've seen this tool recover Gigabytes of space on dozens of computers. The external HD recommendation is also a great one.

 

There is a little known tool built-in to XP that will let him backup not only all of his files, but also the program settings for Outlook, etc, called Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. I'd highly recommend making a backup using this method as well as a manual backup of all of his files.

[Dylan Walters]

Re: OpenOffice...... OO can open all Word, Excel, and Power Point documents, but if my memory serves me correctly, there in not a compatible E-mail client to Outlook.

[where02190]

 

Originally posted by LiveMusic He has a 20gb drive and it has 1gb free. BTW, 1gb free seems like a lot but... could that be causing this crashing / reboot problem?

 

 

1GB on a 20GB drive is not even remotely a lot of space. This is most likely the root of your friends computer issues. Tell him to get a second drive, transfer all his files to that, and to defrag or reformat the drive, and I suspect his computer will run just fine.

[LiveMusic]

 

Originally posted by where02190 1GB on a 20GB drive is not even remotely a lot of space. This is most likely the root of your friends computer issues. Tell him to get a second drive, transfer all his files to that, and to defrag or reformat the drive, and I suspect his computer will run just fine.

 

 

Thanks.

 

1. If he deletes a lot of stuff to give him, say, 25% free space, would that do the same thing?

 

2. If not, once he installs a second drive, could he just drag and drop to the second drive or is there some other procedure to copy one drive to another?

[MorePaul]

 

Originally posted by LiveMusic Thanks. 1. If he deletes a lot of stuff to give him, say, 25% free space, would that do the same thing? yup - it'll free up space -- HOWEVER those "cleanup" applications look to clean up stuff that the user doesn't typically notice/have access to (special files used to teporarilly hold data for the system) 2. If not, once he installs a second drive, could he just drag and drop to the second drive or is there some other procedure to copy one drive to another?

 

 

for just moving over "workpiece" files (like word processing files, images, etc...stuff that is a self-containted "document")

 

For other stuff like applications or system files - the process is a bit more complex as there can be a bunch of little associated files, even shared files

 

but if you are just moving files to clear some space, that shouldn't be an issue

 

As mentioned above, it's generally common these days to run a "system drive" that holds the OS and usually the application SW and then have your actual workpiece data on another drive...

that way you can do system repairs, etc without messing with your data (you can even move your data from system to system more easily)

 

It's also easier to do manual data recovery on a drive that doesn't have system files on it

 

 

Q: is your buddy using Outlook as a mail client or does he use the "appointment" stuff and such too?

[daklander]

 

Originally posted by LiveMusic A friend's Winxp computer is crapping out. He mostly uses Word and Outlook for most tasks. Is the word processor in Open Office compatibile with Word? Meaning it can read .doc files just fine? It says it works with other programs. Yes, both word and excel files will open and usable in OO. There are going to be some format issues at times but generally it is good to go. I use OO on this computer and StarOffice on my XP laptop and have little need to go to Word to correct any doc files I've encountered though now and again I'll run into something that has a weird format that doesn't work well. Any document made in OO can be saved as a word doc so no worries about sending something to someone who only uses word. Same holds true with spreadsheets in excel. Some formatting isn't exact but so far all formulas move over just fine. EDIT: I just found this about compatibility -- http://scs.earlham.edu/OOcomp.html As for Outlook, maybe I could get him to use Yahoo email and maybe there is a way to transfer all of his Outlook emails and addresses to Yahoo? Or maybe not! Or does Open Office have an Outlook type email software? No. Thunderbird for email and Sunbird for a calendar. Also, what about transferring files from his dying computer to his laptop. Can you recomment the easiest, lowest cost way? If both computers have a lan card, a cheap cat5 cable should work, running between the lan cards. (His computer is crashing and we don't know why. This computer has always had problems from time to time. I suspected a bad chip years ago... it would lock up. It hasn't been locking up for months now but now, it is just crashing and trying to reboot. It's 5-6 years old. Might be power supply? Or hard drive, I suppose.)

 

 

Once all necessary data is backed up/transfered, do a complete deep format, and a fresh install, if he want's to stay with XP. Or, download and burn the PCLOS iso and run that Linux distro. If he does that he can run Evolution as his email client. It's just about like running Outlook.

[where02190]

Once the drive is only 75% full do a full defrag, and don't fill it back up. Never fill a drive more than 80% capacity.

[franknputer]

BTW, you can't hook 2 PCs together with a LAN cable - you need a crossover cable, which is a LAN cable with some of the wires reversed so the machines can talk to each other.

 

If your friend gets another larger drive, you might consider moving everything to the new drive & retiring the old one, or putting it in as a slave to hold more files. This is a bit geeky, but not really impossible if you're not afraid of the inside of your PC.

 

If you want to try this, look for a program called Partition Commander (it's about $40 retail.) You can hook up both drives to your computer, then boot from the Partition Commander CD. (Make sure you set the master/slave jumper correctly - 1 master, 1 slave - on each drive or you won't see them both!)

 

The software does a lot of stuff, resizing/creating/formatting partitions, but what you want is "Copy Hard Disk" - it will automatically copy your old drive to the new, empty drive & resize your partitions accordingly (i.e. if you have a C: and D: drive set up on a 40G drive & copy that to an 80G drive, it will create the C: & D: drives for you & size them to 2x their original size).

 

Once it's done, put the old disk in place of the new (remember to check the jumper & set it to Master) & boot it up. The disk should boot up & run an integrity check - a Windows thing, does a bit of housekeeping - and should load Windows right up afterwards. Very cool software - I use it all the time to upgrade PCs here at the office.

 

You will still want to do the defrag, either before or after, to get the files cleaned up. If, for some reason, your friend simply can't free up the space needed (minimum of 10% free disk space, IIRC, to defrag) then this solution will fix that, and he can defrag the newly-grown drive instead.

[daklander]

 

Originally posted by franknputer BTW, you can't hook 2 PCs together with a LAN cable - you need a crossover cable, which is a LAN cable with some of the wires reversed so the machines can talk to each other.

 

 

Yeah, I forgot to mention he'd have to use a cross-over cable, not a straight through.

 

I believe there's also a way to transfer the data via the parallel or serial ports too but can't remember how. I still have a couple of cross-over cables in my junk box that I think were used for that.

[MorePaul]

 

Originally posted by daklander I believe there's also a way to transfer the data via the parallel or serial ports too but can't remember how. I still have a couple of cross-over cables in my junk box that I think were used for that.

 

 

look for "DCC" (direct cable connection) - it's prob not loaded by default

 

more importantly - bump

 

LIVE, how's that going for ya???

 

[John Sayers]

 

Originally posted by Dylan Walters There is a little known tool built-in to XP that will let him backup not only all of his files, but also the program settings for Outlook, etc, called Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. I'd highly recommend making a backup using this method as well as a manual backup of all of his files.

 

 

I'll second that suggestion - it's a great way of transfering all your settings and retaining all your emails.

[deanmass]

The parallel cable is commonly called a laplink cable, and you can get them at computer store, but you have to have software to transfer with ( PC Anywhere).

 

Cross over cables work as well.

 

I'd just yank the drive, slave it in on the IDE controller of the good/working machine, and move the data over. The other option, which is cool if you plan on doing more of this, is to get an external USB/fire wire HD housing, and drop the drive int there...

[MorePaul]

There's actually DCC facility built right into Windows

 

 

but yeah, just slapping the old drive in the new box seems the easiest