The continuing hard drive worries.

In message , Jabba writes

Only office 97 and I still have the CD for that.

I guess it is the hoarder element in me. 8 years worth of *stuff* laboriously typed (I haven't progressed beyond one finger) lost to posterity!

Yes.

Umm.. So if I download the installation files for Mozilla and save to CD/stick I can use that to fire up the replacement M/C?

OK

Not other than Norton or Windows

Right. So download on current m/c using Norton to check source site safety and then transfer to new job with memory stick?

This might be doable:-)

If you already have a Win7 machine with the software you want, cloning its hard disc and fitting that to another machine can work - although you'll likely have go through the hoops of making Windows happy about this.

I don't think it's possible to simply transfer any software into another Windows installation - you'll need the original installation discs.

Tim Lamb wrote

You could move to a free office program like Open Office, which will use up to date document formats.

I had a similar amount of stuff on a mail program that wouldn't work on my newer OS - I kept a copy of the files, but I've never looked at them since. I did a touch typing course years ago, well worth the effort in the time I've saved since.

M/C ? You've lost me.

With a new pc, you format the hard drive, install Windows and then install programs. If you have a stick or CD with programs on them, it saves you needing to go online before you've have your safety belt of firewall and antivirus installed.

In message , Jabba writes

I'm not sure that I would encourage anyone to move from Turnpike. One of its great advantages now is that because it's obsolescent, it doesn't keep changing, unlike Thunderbird. Here I run Thunderbird and Pan for some news, but all my main email and news stays on Turnpike, simply because it works superbly, does exactly what I want and has all the old emails. I do find that I now and again need to look up some old email or some activation info for some program that needs to be moved to a new machine. Maybe it won't go on for ever, but I'm even prepared to run a virtual machine just to keep it going on 64-bit Win7 or 8.

Your situation is presumably different but the lack of IMAP access in Turnpike completely rules it out for me.

I now use Thunderbird, and yes, I copied all my old emails from Turnpike quite easily.

Having got used to Thunderbird I much prefer it to Turnpike, overall. There are of course areas in which Turnpike is better, but nowhere near enough to make me regret moving.

In article , Tim Lamb scribeth thus

In article , Tim Lamb scribeth thus

Download this one, its free and is a very good compatible clone of Office:)..

Yep but none are quite as good as TP;)

Especially news readers...

Microsoft SE is quite good as at the other alluded to below..

In article , Bill scribeth thus

Indeed, that was why I stopped using Turnpike (except for news, which I don't read so much nowadays, but do for a few groups, and can't be bothered to find soemthign else when Turnpike works fine for that)

I did intall Thunderbird, I never quite got on with it for some reason. It still runs here, but mostly just to keep a local copy of emails.

I mostly read and send emails on my phone nowadays though. Unless it's long enough to be worth using a proper keyboard for.

OK. I have writable CD or plugable memory

Prolly only 10 gig spare on the hard drive.

In message , tony sayer writes

Tim, I have various Turnpike installation files tucked away. Shout if you need one by e-mail. I also have the instructions for moving TP from one machine to another, although that is also within the TP help files.

that is JUST enough for a basic Linux mint install *alongside* windows, for dual boot

I've got a pretty full install here and its about 10GB

excluding windows virtual machine and any large user data.

Bare install is about 5GB

Much depends on the software in question...

MS have got their act together on this recently, and so long as you have the key code that came with the software (or can extract it from the installed version*) they will let you download and install it again in many cases with the slight inconvenience of needing (or having to create) a Microsoft account.

(Magical Jellybean and Produkey will between them do all versions of office up to 2010)

Other manufacturers may also have legally downloadable versions.

After that, illegally acquiring and ISO of the install CD is probably the next easiest for other titles.

To actually transfer from an existing install to another is somewhat more geeky - it can be done but can get complicated and need tools to sniff file and registry accesses to work out what dependencies the application has.

They will usually have windows since that will be licensed to the machine and not the owner. Other applications are less likely to be legit.

In message , News writes

OK. Thanks. I have 5.02 tucked away safely and tick *keep* on any related posts in d.i.s.t I managed to transfer this version without any major glitches. I have *entire* as a shortcut on my desktop and managed a *repair installation* job recently.

I have a lot of important correspondence pending (probate job) and find noisy hard drives a little frightening:-)

To the semi-literate, computer speak is a mystery minefield.

Anything older than Office 2003 can have problems with Win 7 and later (unless you want to start playing with virtual machines etc)

Yup you could, alternatively just run the MS browser choice app and it will download whatever browser you want (or just use IE and download what you want).

Win 7 has a built in firewall which is adequate for basic intrusion protection, chances are however you are connecting via a router which includes one anyway.

TBH, as long as you get them from the manufacturers sites there is little hard in downloading them on the new platform.

In message , nemo writes

I do think with any refurbished machine you might need to check the exact spec. For example my son ended up with a pile of Dell machines in his kitchen after a change in his business. I brought one round here as it looked ideal for what I wanted. It came with a different monitor connector from the standard old fashioned ones I use. OK he found me an adapter. Then it only had usb for keyboard and mouse. At that stage I put it to one side as the KVM setup I have here used "proper" keyboard and mouse connectors to let me run the 4 desktops with the one mouse keyboard combo.

This might not be a problem, but it is something to think about and be aware of.

Nearly all the distros will do a try-before-install boot up and run from a CD, albeit slower as it accesses the steam-age device. It's actually quite useful. I was so pissed off with Windows last year I jumped into Lubuntu/Kbuntu and ended up with a very nice installation that was the bastard child of both, that I really enjoyed using. The only thing that pissed me off was the lack of working of the satellite card and the utterly useless, worse than a barrowload of s*it-smeared monkeys, media suite, XBMC. That, and a couldn't be arsed with the Linux equivalents of uTorrent and a couple of other things, but they were relatively minor. This time around, I'll put a Linux guest via Virtual Box on Win7/64 and retain my sat card on the host, while getting the Linux web access I liked.

KVM is a bit 1990s isn't it? One computer you're using, RDP or X or whatever to get to the others.

Though the other question is what are the four doing that a single one or single + server can't do?

No a bad combo.

I like mint persobally but tjose are close

The only thing

? satellite card? for saqtallite TV?

Most of those work fine - Ive got digital TV going fine -0 though sometimes you need a firmware driver.

XMBC is vile. I use Kaffeine which should fit Kubuntu perfectly.

That, and a couldn't be arsed with the Linux

Same here.

what card is it? as I say I managed to get mine working OK.