sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Computers & Programming Computers, Software, Accessories migration to new computers

I am assisting a non-profit orginization migrate there old mostly win 98 pc's to newer win 2000 pc's that ABC TV donated to them.

The donated pc's are all pass word protected, so I assume the only thing to do there is reinstall an operating system or something.

first is there a program that I can use to recover the passwords for these win2000 boxes?

secondly, they do not want to lose the data, and programs stored locallay on the old machines. Is there a program (preferably free, I hate paying for software, and they are a non-profit with little funds) that someone can recommend for the migration?

My only other thought on a possible soloution would be to take the HD from the old PC, and make an image copy of the entrire drive to the new drive (if it is larger) and reinstall the OS on top of the win 98 that is on the computers now.

Google for Linux password busting software. I've downloaded free software on a floppy, booted the computer and change the password to whatever you want it to be. Works on NT and W2000.

For the info on the hard drives, why not just take the hard drives out of the old machines and make them slaves in the new machines? Win2k will read Fat32 drive with no problem and if you stick the slaves on the secondary IDE channel you can set your virtual memory settings to store the swap file there getting a slight speed boost as a bonus.

As far as the softwar xfr; this is not possible in most cases. I get asked this all the time, "I have office 2k, cant you copy the files and move over to the new machine." The problem is trying to retreive all the relevant files (literally 100's of *.dll) and moving them in to the porper directories. Software that messes with window registry is essentially impossible to revcover and install, unless you have the orginal install disk. There are programs like alohabob that claim they can migrate the files.

I know this is a very old post, but had to reply in regards to NON-PROFIT type companies and software issues.
There is a company called " TechSoup" the link being www.techsoup.org that sells all kinds of software and hardware to NON-PROFIT companies.
Like... WindowsXP PRO for $ 7.00 a copy.

This is a legit company and you have to provide proof you are NON-PROFIT, before they will sell you anything.

Check it out... its all on the link above!


Bill

The question you need to ask yourself is:

Are they the non-profit or are you?

It's kind of idiotic to "update" to Windows 2000 when it is already two generations behind. The easiest thing to do here is to copy all the files from the old hard drive onto a new, reformatted, hard drive and make it bootable using the SYS command. Then when Windows 98 starts up on the new computer, it should recognize the various components in the new computer and run with them.

That is one of the advantages of Windows Old Technology.

Off Topic but, Micheal Paul I just noticed your tag line "When Roses Bloom You Vomit". I haven't heard that one. I was taught "While Running Backwards You Vomit" or "We Raise Big Yellow Violets" as well as "Boy Over Girl Brings Pleasure"