Excalibur's Bumper Bundle.

[Excalibur]

Brace yourselves, Lads and Lasses, a whole heap of vaguely related questions in one post. Just answer the ones you fancy. :D

1) I'm hoping to get a new PC. I'm intending to get a newer MS Office software package at the same time. Would you go for the Student one in the shop ( standalone as it were) or the one on the PC where you basically buy the licence, ( as I suspect you do in the first one. I don't think you get hard copies now, do you? ) Are they in fact identical?

2) Transferring data. Easiest way please, to move programs mainly, so that they work, as I may not easily find original discs, or licences.

3) Now it gets harder. My Cortex HD's ( Desktopm externals ) live in the cases, and are not easily removable. Is there anything on the market, like a sort of dock/enclosure,which I could fit to the case, which would allow me to remove and refit the drives for updating? My Master stay at home backup HD is in an enclosure, but this only makes it the same as the External drives, it can't be built in, and isn't easy to remove/refit. Obviously I'm referring to replacing with internal drives now, to fit this imaginary dock. ;)

4) I've got older PC's, which may have some data I need on them. Can I get an enclosure like I have already, and pull data from them? Even though they have an OS on them? :confused:

Thanks in advance folks, you know I need all the help I can get in these matters. :D

[BeerFunk]

2) Transferring data. Easiest way please, to move programs mainly, so that they work, as I may not easily find original discs, or licences. Alas, programs and applications these days nearly always need to be re-installed in Windows these days, rather than simply copying the folder over :(

As for the medium of transfer - I'd say a network cable, but for simplicity, a USB drive of some type.


3) Now it gets harder. My Cortex HD's ( Desktopm externals ) live in the cases, and are not easily removable. Is there anything on the market, like a sort of dock/enclosure,which I could fit to the case, which would allow me to remove and refit the drives for updating? My Master stay at home backup HD is in an enclosure, but this only makes it the same as the External drives, it can't be built in, and isn't easy to remove/refit. Obviously I'm referring to replacing with internal drives now, to fit this imaginary dock. ;) A USB HDD enclosure, I'd imagine? I've used them before, but in all honesty, I haven't encountered one that I'd recommend. I'm sure there are some good, reliable versions somewhere though! Sites like Ebuyer and Amazon are good for user reviews, for this type of thing.


4) I've got older PC's, which may have some data I need on them. Can I get an enclosure like I have already, and pull data from them? Even though they have an OS on them? :confused: Absolutely you can, assuming the drives are formatted to Windows standard, which I'm sure they are. You may have to set the hard drive (that you want to read from) to slave, if you're putting it on an IDE cable which already has a device on it. It's a lot easier just to open up the case of the computer you're copying to, and connecting the drive you're reading from to an IDE cable in there.

[Excalibur]

Thanks for those mate, sadly few of the answers are ones I wanted to hear. :( :( Ah well. :D

[BeerFunk]

Thanks for those mate, sadly few of the answers are ones I wanted to hear. :( :( Ah well. :DWell, the good thing about forums is that there are always other ideas to be thrown about - the young ones might know more than I do ;)

[Twinspin]

ive got a usb drive caddy that i dont use. Im sure you could make better use of it Peter.

You can have it.

[DazzyD]

Ok. Here goes.

Question 1. I am assuming by the "one on the computer" you have the 60-day trial version. When the trial expires you can purchase the unlock code (or licence key if you like) to open it up for full unlimited access. It is the same software package as the boxed version. You can, I believe, make your own reinstall discs from the installed software.


Question 2. Callum is right. Whilst you can easily transfer your files and settings you will need to reinstall the original software on to your new machine. This is because software installs DLLs (or Dynamic Link Libraries) which are sort of shared files that the program might install in a system directory. They do a number of tasks including setting up system resources for use by the program. Programs also store references to themselves in system files.


Question 3. I use several USB 2.0 HDD enclosures/caddies and I find they work ok for me. Powered ones are always best as they have their own fans to help keep your drives cool and extend their lives. They can, however, become quite noisy as dust builds up on the fan. You need to keep on top of the housekeeping to avoid this.


Question 4. If you just want to pull data from them, I would put them in a USB enclosure (as per question 3) and get the data that way. I wouldn't be trying to install them internally unless you're confident about drive jumper settings so you don't get any hardware conflicts.

[Excalibur]

OK folks, hows about this one for Q3?

Will it do what I want? Can I lash it into the case, and swap HD's with ease, safety, and reliability? SATA,
http://cpc.farnell.com/_/hd-hdock01/docking-stn-usb-to-sata/dp/CS1646705?Ntt=cs1646705

or eSATA?
http://cpc.farnell.com/_/hd-hdock01/docking-stn-usb-to-sata/dp/CS1646705?Ntt=cs1646705

[DazzyD]

Would've thought so as long as you choose the right one for your drive.

I was looking at a PC the other which has a drive docking port like this actually built in to the top of the case. The blurb said it was a particular brand of drive, though. I think it might have been a Medion PC or something like that.