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1. Please make sure you have all the installation CD's for the software that you routinely use, especially things like personal finance software, photo library software etc.
2. There is no saying why you can not have both computers running at the same time. A simple router costs about $20 online. I would recommend a wireless router, just in case you get an android or iphone in the next couple years, and a wireless-N (802.11n) router is only $35 or so. Then you can hook both computers up to the router, and copy data files over to the new computer, without having to mess moving hard drives by hand. Almost none of the internal components from the 8yr old (processor, motherboard, power supply, memory, hard drive, optical disc drive) are really compatible with the new computer (with buying special adapters that would cost more than the current value of the old components; e.g. a brand new 2000Gig hard drive is $100, so how much is the old 80gig hard drive from the old computer really worth? compared to the $20 that you'd pay for PATA/SATA-USB adapter plus a fan to keep the drive cool during transfer?
3. When getting the new computer, place data on a separate hard drive from the system disk drive. Then use a hard drive imaging/cloning software to snap a shot of your system disk. Then install all the software (from point 1. above) that you use routinely. Then use the same hard drive imaging software to snap another shot of your system disk. These snap shots are frozen states of your system hard drive that you can fall back on. Windows does have a habit of picking up random detritus when used online. You are doing very well to have run the old machine for 8yrs without having to wipe the system disk a couple times already. New versions with automatic updates from various software vendors can potentially be worse. That's why periodic snap shots of the system disk is highly recommended. I keep those snap shots of my various computers' system disks on a couple 2T disk drives (duplicates of each other).
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