Can u transfer a hard drive back up onto a new laptop?

[towny44]

Now then all you IT experts if I buy a new laptop can I use the back up from my existing laptop to populate a new laptop.
Current back up is a My Passport stand alone HD made by Western Digital (WD).
If so will the transfer bring the existing Apps set up across, eg Wndows Excel and Word etc.
Anything else I need to know.

[Stephen]

Don't know about laptops John but when I upgraded my hard drive on my desktop PC I had to buy a data transfer cable and download some software. Hooked up the old hard drive to the data cable, plugged it into a USB drive, started the software and away it went.

I was a bit dubious about how much it would actually transfer but it did absolutely everything, and it only took a minute or two.

See if Mr Google can help or take both units to your local computer boffin if your not happy about doing it yourself.

[david63]

I'm with Stephen on this - use a transfer utility for anything other than data (photos, documents etc) files. Not only is it safer but will probably be quicker.