Ideas on archiving an XP computer

[hunter]

7. I'd install the new drive in the computer and install Linux on that.

Then I'd put a usb adapter on the old drive and transfer everything over to a folder named "OldXP" in my new Linux home folder. Then I'd put the old hard drive in the closet.

That's the way I've been doing things since the late 'seventies.

By the time I upgrade to a new machine hard drives are generally 4 to 8 times larger than they used to be, so there's always plenty of room to transfer *everything* on the old drive to the new one, even stuff I know I'll never look at again.

Then I'll only move files and programs into the new operating system as I use them. Everything else remains behind as cruft, for example all my proprietary Windows pdf and image processing software (stuff modern open source software does better), or games I no longer play.

My favorite computers were the Atari 8 bits. I have an Atari icon on my Linux desktop that opens an emulator that transports me back 40 years. I've got all my old DRDOS and Windows machines emulated and within easy reach as well.

Maybe I'm lucky, but my old windows software generally runs well using Wine or in a virtual machine.

I quit installing Windows on my main desktop machines at 98SE. I have a laptop that dual boots Linux or Windows 10. I haven't used the laptop much since the covid crisis began.

My switch to Linux was fairly painless, maybe because I had a lot of previous experience with BSD. Most of my old BSD stuff "just worked" when I switched to Linux., stuff I hadn't touched in years.