I have a old laptop with ALLDATA loaded on it. I got it from a friend who had a auto repair shop. He sold his business when he was hired at a factory here in town. He has let his ALLDATA subscription expire.

My question: anyone know how to transfer the ALLDATA from this 20 year old laptop onto something made in this decade? I’ll be the first to admit, if I need to do anything with a computer, the first thing I do is find a 10 year old kid to help me.

I don’t know if the information can be transferred, the laptop it’s on now is just about useless. It’s been dropped multiple times, battery is junk, missing keys, and hopelessly outdated.

Thanks.

 

First of all try to find a good techie to get it to fire up then if it will open, have them ghost the hard drive onto an external drive. If that won't work you might be SOL.

 

I can get the laptop to start, I can get ALLDATA to open and run. The problem is, once you get the computer to start, don’t move it, don’t shake the table, don’t touch it any more than the keys because the power cord jack is so loose the slightest movement will shut it down. Combined with the missing keys, and the fact it’s so old people in primitive 3rd world countries would laugh and go back to cave drawings before using it. It has served me well in the garage, unfortunately it’s more hassle than it’s worth at this point.

 

So, do what Ed said.

 

How large is the file, ALLDATA? Does the computer possess a workable internal CD drive? Does the computer possess an Ethernet connector that would allow for external file transfer? I assume this is a PC and not a MAC?

 

Although you can sometimes get away with just copying all the related files to a new computer, programs like ALLDATA are often protected by some sort of proprietary copy protection which may be in the form of difficult to locate, encoded Windows Registry entries, hidden files or other methods. This makes it difficult or impossible to simply transfer the application to another computer without having the installation disks...but you can always try.

An option would be to find a newer old laptop and swap the hard drive into it. You'll have to install and/or update drivers but the computer should operate properly anyhow and ALLDATA won't be the wiser. If it's beyond your ability, have a techie type check to make sure your old hard drive is compatible with the new laptop.

 

I have removed the hard drive from a laptop and converted it to an external USB drive using one of these: