[FRIAM] Setting up a new PC

[Russell Standish]

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-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Russell Standish
> Sent: Friday, November 08, 2019 2:33 PM
> To: friam <friam at 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        hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au
> Economics, Kingston University         http://www.hpcoders.com.au
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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-- 

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Dr Russell Standish                    Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
Principal, High Performance Coders
Visiting Senior Research Fellow        hpcoder at hpcoders.com.au
Economics, Kingston University         http://www.hpcoders.com.au
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