On Fri, Nov 08, 2019 at 11:45:14PM -0700, Nick Thompson wrote: > Hi, russ, again, > > I just discovered that my new computer comes up in my directory for my old > one. So.... I guess I COULD just transfer EVERYTHING on my old computer onto > my new computer. > > But surely this is a sheep-dip moment, and I should transfer only data, > emails, and other stuff in the backup.
You should only transfer that stuff. I have home areas (mounted under /home) that is backed up, scratch areas that is not backed up, and everything else just contains system software and applications. When commissioning a new machine, I could just copy the home areas, but usually also copy the scratch areas too, as this often contains most recently worked on stuff that I don't care particularly if they disappear (eg github projects), but save time and effort finding and downloading. I don't copy system stuff, but install everything as a I need it, mostly from the distro's repo, when I need it. This means that applications I used once and never used again don't get installed again. But this is a Linux computer, for Windows, it is a virtual machine, and I back up the entire machine, if only because it takes several days to set up a Windows machine. But I don't have any personally interesting stuff on the Windows machine, so I can recover in the event of it being hosed or virused anyway - the backup is just to save time. Cheers > > Save me from myself. > > Nick > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > Clark University > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Russell Standish > Sent: Friday, November 08, 2019 2:33 PM > To: friam <friam@redfish.com> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Setting up a new PC > > On Fri, Nov 08, 2019 at 01:20:31PM -0700, Nick Thompson wrote: > > Kindly FRIAMers, > > > > > > > > Do you have any advice to give, or a website to suggest, that will > > help me decide how to set up the computer I just bought. I back up > > the old computer to a hard drive every night, and I had always thought > > to transfer the data to the new one by restoring the backup file to > > the new computer. But I assume there is a LOT of crap in there I don’t > > want. SOMEBODY must have thought about this issue and written something > > avuncular for people like me. > > I always restore from backup, or from the original drive if it is still > working. Getting rid of crap is a different task, requiring dedication and > thought about what you do or don't need. I usually do that either when > slightly bored, or when my disk is full and I'm desparate for space. > > Cheers > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Principal, High Performance Coders > Visiting Senior Research Fellow hpco...@hpcoders.com.au > Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Senior Research Fellow hpco...@hpcoders.com.au Economics, Kingston University http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove