Tranfering games, programs & files to windows 7

[steve09]

I know that I can use Windows Easy Transfer to move files from my old XP desktop to a new Windows 7 one which I'm hoping to get next week , but do I have to download all my games again, like TF2, CS:S, HL2 (all of them) and all the other numerous Steam games I have, or is there some way I can copy them across? I will be moving from 32-bit to 64-bit since just about every version of 7 is 64 in a PC shop. I know I can copy the maps and sounds folders across by copying the steamapps folder, but I have loads of other games and programs like Microsoft Office, Halo: Combat Evolved (which I really don't play but I still haven't gotten to the end of yet) blah de blah too many to put here.

So what I want to know is this: is there an easy way to transfer files and programs to the new desktop, or am I better off sticking the old HDD in the new machine and upgrading it to Windows 7? If I upgrade it to Windows 7 and don't activate it can I then transfer programs across since the registry will effectively be the same?


PS. What is ReadyBoost and why does it only work on Flash Drives?

[Egonny]

You'll have to reinstall programs like Office and games like Halo:CE, since you're moving to 64-bit, but you can just copy all your Steam games by copying your steamapps folder. Unfortunately, there is no better way.
Don't stick your old HDD in your new PC and upgrade, because upgrading from 32-bit to 64-bit will cause everything to be either erased or put in a map called C:/Windows.old , so it's practically the same as a clean install.

Also, ReadyBoost is a trick implemented by Microsoft, which uses your flash drive as extra (temporary) RAM. It gives a really small increase in performance, so small that it is in fact useless for PC's with more than 2GB RAM.

[steve09]

Yea ReadyBoost is useless. Tried it on a laptop with 4Gb DDR3 with Intel 4300 Dual core and there really was no increase in performance.

As for the transferring, I spoke with a friend last night who told me the same stuff pretty much. Annoyingly the mobo has a heatsink on the chipset so the big air cooler we got doesn't fit on unless we mod the fan slightly, plus it's gonna overhang at least 1 if not 2 of the 6 DIMM slots if we put it on the way it should go after modding the fan, so we might just change it and get a Corsair H50 instead. If you have anythoughts relating to that let me know cos the cooler is brand new, it has been out the box but it didn't have seals, and we've not actually put it on a CPU so the thermal compound is still intact so we could send it back.

New rig consists of: Intel Core i7-860, Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD6 mobo, Samsung Spinpoint 1Tb HDD, MSI N470GTX Twin FrozR, Antec Truepower blue 750W PSU, Antec 300 Gaming case and probably a Corsair H50 cooler. Add in 4Gb of Corsair XMS3 DDR3 RAM and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and it's gonna play TF2 on a 1280x1024 screen with (hopefully) 60-100FPS. Either way it's gonna be better than what I use currently.

[Egonny]

With an i7, you'll be able to play it at 1680x1050 at 60~100fps (as long as you don't use too much AA.)

Great rig btw, but I'd go for an i7-920 and 6-8GB of RAM. I'm not a mobo expert though, but I have some friends who are, I'll ask them (but at first sight, that motherboard will cause you trouble if you mod the fan or not.)

[steve09]

It's cool, we decided against modding it since it was brand new & we could probably send it back since it's not been on a CPU. We went instead for the corsair H70 closed loop water cooling system, which does fit & allows us to use all the RAM slots. It also seems to keep the CPU quite cool, & the fact we're having a loop of air, e.g. we're sucking air in the back of the case through the radiator & sucking the warm air out the top of the case with a 140mm fan, keeps it cooler. Both of these fans are 3 speed Antec ones that come with the case, we do plan on putting an extra fan on the other side of the radiator that would be controlled, so when I hear it speeding up I can speed up the other 2 fans respectively, we've managed to get the fan switches out the case which is handier than having to open the case to change the fan speed.

I installed Windows & it wouldn't accept the product key cos we did a clean install with an upgrade disk, tho I found a workaround that involved modding the registry & it seems to have worked.

I installed Steam & a game called Droplitz which wouldn't run on my previous computer (the screen would go black and eventually the computer would hang, some message said its a possible driver problem) and the CPU didn't go above about 37C and that was 1 of the 4 cores & the fans on low so I think it's working fine. The GPU only went to 42 when playing for about half an hour as well so it's all working. We'll probably be upping the RAM to 12Gb in the future, the i7-920 was too expensive & didn't offer anything more than the 860 other than a higher clock speed & triple channel memory.

I really don't want to have to download 6Gb of TF2 again, then transfer my maps & sounds, also I don't want to have to start games like the Half-Life 2 series or Portal again from the beginning, can I transfer my saves?

[Egonny]

Congratz on the rig, I'm jealous .

As for Steam, copying the entire steamapps folder should do the trick.