I’ve got my weekend cut out for me.

You know how sometimes to get rid of one item, you need to do a lot off work first. Today’s item falls into that category.

I got a new laptop computer for Christmas. My old one do not function properly any more. In addition since I’m the designated computer help for my mum and step-mum, I need one that works. So what does this have to do with decluttering you might ask.

If any of you have ever changed over from one computer to another, you probably know there is some work involved. Like transferring stuff between the computers. That takes time. Well today I’m going to throw one more computer into this mix.

In addition to my old worn out one, I’ve borrowed a computer for one specific task that needed to be done a while ago. And that’s the computer I will “clean” out of my house during this weekend. My old one I will have to get back to after I’m done with this one 😉

This weekends’s task is – transfer my installed SW and documents from the borrowed computer to my new one. Clean up the borrowed one and get it out of the house. I know, it doesn’t sound much.. but I can promise you, it’s a bit of work, especially since it’s also two different operating systems and I might have to change some stuff around to make everything works as intended.

How do I go about this?

I do a little preparation first:

I move all documents I want to keep so they are located in under the “My documents” folder structure
I make sure all my pictures, videos, music are located in their respective “My Pictures/Music/Video” folders. You’ll find all these under “Windows explorer/Desktop/Libraries….”
I put all downloaded software (SW) files into my “Downloads” folder
I go through the Start/All programs overview and write down the SW programs I use that I need, to make sure I install these on the new computer
If I use outlook or any other mail program that downloads the mails to the computer, I make sure I have a copy of the e-mail file, and the address book, so I can import it onto the new one
I make a copy of my “Favorites” folder, so I don’t have to recreate this later
When I have everything sorted and I’m sure I have everything I need, I use an external hard-drive as my transferring media. I use this type of transfer media because I think it’s easy. It gives me a copy of everything just in case. And it means I can choose what to install on the new one right now, and I still have everything on a drive, should I need it later.
When I’ve gotten a copy of everything I want to keep, on my external hard-drive, then I’m ready and

I start the work on my new one.

Depending on how much space is available on my new computer, I transfer the most important stuff from the external hard-drive I just copied everything on to. I put the copied files into a similar folder structure to where I saved them (Documents/Pictures/Music etc.)
I install the programs I need, hopefully I can use the SW I already have, if not I try finding updates online.
After installation, I activate whatever needs to be activated, so that I can use the programs I’ve installed.
I add the old “Favorites” to the new “Favorites” folder
I set up my new email program and import my old emails and address book
Then, if there is any bits an pieces left that needs sorting. I’ll do this

And then I’m ready to go…. I hope!

As you can see.. there is a few things to do. So, I better get started 😉

Wish me luck will you…