OK, let's be honest......whatever hardware you've just rushed out and bought in the sales today will be staring in the antiques road show well before "Lost" comes to a conclusion or you've upgraded the sofa! With hardware manufacturers constantly enticing us with even better, faster, smaller versions of whatever, you'd think they or their software counterparts would at least do something to help us keep up with the annual exchange of metal!
Not so and thus it was with bated breath that I received my copy of PC Mover Ultimate from Amazon with my wife's redundant netbook packed full of software goodies all awaiting their new laptop home! I'd actually used laplink before, when with a cable the size of a ship's anchor and a longer wait than that for Godot - it successfully and painlessly (well relatively!) transferred all my programmes from an old Compaq to a newer Lenovo! That was some 6 years ago however, the question today was....how would the very latest version compete???
Well the answer is, a very mixed bag to be honest, very mixed indeed! To start with, installing the programme was relatively easy (despite the fact that my netbook had no disk drive!). Nothing in the ever so thin users guide to help me bridge that knowledge gap, although it did install form a memory stick and all was ready to go! The software came with the laplink cable although in theory, the transfer can be done via a network, wireless or even Bluetooth option.
Opting for safety and speed, I chose the cable method, linked the two PC's, followed the instructions and off we went.............errrm, well not quite actually. Despite successfully connecting both PC's and getting them to recognise each other, either the data transfer stopped after about 30 seconds, or I got a message saying that the connection could not be made! I referred to the manual............the prerequisites state that ALL background programmes must be switched off on both PC's(including anti-viral, firewalls, Skype etc) and both PC's must never enter "idle" or battery save mode during the transfer! OK, did all that (not as easy as it sounds!)and returned to the transfer. Another hour or so passed, this time the process would stop at all stages of the transfer, from connecting the PC's to the actual data transfer itself! The gut churningly annoying common denominator being that NO error codes ever came up, PC mover simply "stopped" with the screen displaying an ever so polite "transfer incomplete!" message with a new screen appearing offering the (by now very irate) operator the latest trial versions of other laplink products (not a good idea!). As a final attempt I grabbed the phone to ring the customer service helpline, only to discover the number did not exist!
Undeterred, I emailed the main support team and sure enough, 24hrs later came a reply. A few emails later (including one where I was told to form a windows workgroup between the two PC's and to ensure I could "ping" each PC IP address), to my astonishment - success! In a matter of 2 hours all files and selected programmes (including the hefty Microsoft office package) where safely in their new homes and even more surprisingly, all worked! Laplink automatically disabled any incompatible, old, or redundant files, allowing the user the chance to enable such data after the transfer, even all my old Outlook emails where snug and warm (and in the right files) in the new PC! Impressive!
Therein lies the irony of PC Mover. The actual product works and in truth, works very well for anyone who wishes to migrate their data and programmes from old to new. That said the manual is grossly inadequate, the actual software could be one heck of a lot more intuitive (where are those error codes, onscreen help, transfer wizards, an informative manual etc??). Furthermore, the website forum on PC mover did not list a single issue that I had encountered (how is the user meant to know about "pinging" each PC's IP address and setting up a workgroup to rectify known issues??). Had laplink invested in these key areas they would have an extremely useful product (and a lot of very happy users!). Until these issues are addressed my recommendation would be to use the efficient email support team in the case of any problems - who like myself, will eventually get you there!
Yes, recommended but could so easily have been a 5 star and pain free recommendation if only the Laplink software was designed and formatted to work with you not against you!
