Strollin,
As promised, here's an update as to how pcmover professional and diskimage performed.
Here's the scenario. I installed a second harddrive in my desktop. The old harddrive has XP operating system and the newly installed one has Windows 7. Someone told me of pcmover so I decided to check it out. After contacting them, they informed me I would also need diskimage since I was not transferring from computer to computer, but from harddrive to harddrive.
I decided to use pcmover and diskimage just for kicks. If they failed, I'd just reinstall windows 7 and manually install programs, etc.
Here's the steps performed:
1) I used diskimage to create an image of the xp drive and saved it to the external harddrive.
2) Installed Windows 7 on new harddrive.
3)Installed diskimage and pcmover on windows 7 computer.
4) Mounted the image on the new harddrive. (shows in my computer as a drive)
5) Opened pcmover professional and used the image and drive assistant to transfer applications I wanted, data and settings to the windows 7 drive.
After the process started, it showed "not responding" at step 4. Fortunately, I waited it out and after 5-10 minutes it started the process of looking at everthing on the xp drive.
After about 45 minutes a screen poped up showing 6 categories to review. This gave me the option to choose what I wanted to install from each category such as application, files, etc.
A number of things showed as something to the effect of "will not transfer properly". So I did not try to transfer them, nor did I want them on the new harddrive anyway.
A few items showed as could be a problem to transfer. I also did not want these items either.
So, with a cross of the fingers I chose to proceed and the process started. I had it transfer 26 applications, as well as files, etc. It took all of 12 hours to transfer everything. Please note, after the process is started, you cannot touch anything, or it may cause the system to lockup.
I did have a few problems after the transfer.
1) Turbo tax did not transfer properly. I see the files, but the program is not there. Would have been better to fresh install it.
2) Outlook 2007 transferred everything, but I did have one problem. After opening outlook, an error message would pop up stating "the add-in "redemption helper outlook extension" cannot be loaded and has been disabled by the manufacturer. This was easily fixed by following directions I found on the web.
3) The audio drivers did not transfer properly. had to be fresh installed.
4) Keyboard drivers did not transfer.
5) Roboform transferred all the data properly. But I'm going to have to reactivate it.
All in all, it did a pretty good job. Microsoft Office 2007 transferred perfectly, all my documents are intact - minus the small error.
From my experience, it will transfer mainstream items fine. Anything it does not recommend to move should probably be left alone and entered manually.
Hope all this makes sense. If I were more tech minded, like the highly talented John, I would probably have fresh installed everything. But this stuff is a struggle for me at times and I was hoping for an easy solution.
