First, install UFT on the new machine, preferably accepting the defaults.
Second, install any updates that have been issued by Palladium (see UFT FAQ 2 on our site for the current status).
Third, make a backup (perhaps to floppy disks, but see "Methods of moving the SQZ file" below) of one of your projects on the old machine. Be sure to include the library and Image Library (if you have imported any images to any of your projects) in the backup options. If you have version 2.8 or later of UFT you should also include the "Support Databases" and "Dictionary" (but not the latter if you have not added a significant number of words to your dictionary).
Note that we do not recommend using GEDCOM as a transfer vehicle because too much data is lost in the process (see "Why not use Event 1.0 GEDCOM?"below).
Fourth, run UFT in the new machine, to "open an existing project", and select "Backup", the drive and the backup file you have on the disk(s). You will be asked to cycle through your backup disks three times if you have more than one disk. Your project should open automatically; if it does you are finished (although this would be a good time to make a backup if your two copies of UFT were on different drive numbers).
If your project does not appear or if you get the statement "System Error: Windows cannot read from drive" followed by a drive number, it likely means that you had UFT on your old machine on a drive which is a CD on the new machine. If the latter, just put any CD in the drive (don't even run it - just have it there) and select "retry".
Fifth, if you have more than one project, repeat steps three and four for each of your other projects but, if they all use the same common library (UFT's default) then you only need to back up the project, not thelibrary and image files..
Last, optionally and only if you did not use the version (2.8 or later) feature to include the Support Databases and Dictionary, copy the following file sets from your main UFT directory into your new machine's UFT directory. Base your decision on the description of the files.
X_ELIND.* - This contains the event choice list, which is the list of events you see in the Events window ONLY in the Normal Editing Mode. If you add an event in the Events window in the Normal Editing mode, it is added to this list. If you add events to the Event/Role template from the build menu, it is not added to this list. The Advanced Editing mode doesn't use this list.
X_CONFIG.* - These are the ROOTS5/UFT configuration files. They store settings such as which project was open when you exited the program, whether you are using graphics or Windows Colors, the settings for the view lists, the macros you may have developed, etc.
X_TASK.* - These files contain the tasks you may have created for individuals, events, places, etc. ROOTS V didn't have tasks, but if UFT was installed in ROOTS5 first and you've added tasks, you might want to save them by moving them to UFT.
X_RMBMNU.* - This contains the right mouse menu settings.
SP_WORDS.* - This contains the spell-checking dictionary, which includes the words you may have added. This file is much too large to fit on a floppy disk; you'll have to use some other transfer method.
When you move a project from one machine to another via Event 1.0 GEDCOM using UFT versions prior to 3.0*:
1. The "preferred image" indicators are not transferred.
2. User-defined templates and role definitions are not transferred if you have failed to use valid GEDCOM tags in the definition.
3. Footnotes are not transferred; the footnotes have to be rebuilt (and hence manual changes are lost and all proof items will be reflected as footnotes).
4. The sequence of evidence items in proofs is maintained, but the (necessarily) rebuilt footnotes will be in the order of the sources in the library, not necessarily in the order of their appearance in the proof.
5. Words added to the spell checker are not transferred.
6. Macros are not transferred.
7. The image library is transferred, each image in a separate file, so moving of more than the .ged file is required.
* Note that some of these problems have been corrected in version 3.0 - but it's too soon to know for sure which ones except that #1 IS corrected.
Methods of moving the SQZ file:
As data bases get larger and as users get involved in more machinery (laptop sales are really blossoming) the use of floppy disks as a means of moving files from one machine to another is decreasing and users are finding other means to move them. The first big step is to get a ZIP or SPARQ Oor writable CD-ROM drive - these hold 100 and 1000 and 650 megabytes respectively, and cost of the order of a couple of hundred dollars. There's a really good way not involving much hardware, though, built into windows 95 and 98, called Direct Cable Connection. With this setup you buy a cable (about $8 at most computer stores) which connects your two machines through the parallel printer ports. Then you use the software built into windows to transfer files directly from one machine to the other. To find out more about this feature, look in Windows Start - Help and under the index type in "Direct Cable." Travelling Software, Inc. sells a somewhat more powerful setup for doing these things under the name "LapLink." Use of the Direct Cable Connection or Laplink is very handy if you do much switching from one machine to the other (for taking your laptop on trips, for example).
If you expect to do a great deal of transferring from one machine to another, you might consider investing in an ethernet setup. For two desktop machines the cost is about $120 for a "starter kit" (you'll need an empty PCI card slot in each); add another $90 or so for a PCMCIA card to connect to a laptop. These transfers go very fast! There are also USB transfer systems coming on the market which you might consider.