If you have PGdebt installed on one PC, then over the months that PC will have become customised to your bureau. Many changes will have occurred to the standard letters, FS templates, creditor database, statistics set-up etc. and you will need to make sure that all these changes are transferred when you buy a new PC and move PGdebt to that.

Unfortunately, because old versions of PGdebt do not recognise a disc in drive A on Windows 2000 and later, the process cannot be automated. NB. Do not use the PGdebt 'backup' procedure which is designed to backup and replace files on the same PC, not move them to another which may not be set up the same way.

(If the original PC has PGdebt5 installed (PG5), this procedure will not move the creditor database which needs to be converted to a new format, see Tech. bulletin 05 for details of how to convert this.)

You will have to make several steps.

1. Locate important files on the old PC
2. Copy these files onto a floppy, zip, CD etc.
3. Install PGdebt on the new PC
4. Copy the important files from the floppy or other media onto the new PC
5. Check some items on the new PC
6. Optional items

Step 1. Locate important files on the old PC

On the old PC start PGdebt.  

Then go to the Options/supervisor/file-paths screen. This screen will be similar to the one shown below and contains the locations of your client data files, standard letters and shared files.Observe the folders listed on this screen and make a note of them on a piece of paper, then close PGdebt.

With PGdebt7/8/9 there will be another folder for draft files, include that as well for these versions. At this point, there is no need to consider the bottom 2 boxes, which are concerned with backups.

Step 2. Copy these files onto a memory stick

1. Take a new memory stick (or other media) and place it in the appropriate drive on the old PC. Close PGdebt
2. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer
3. Copy the 3 folders to the memory stick
4. If you take care you will end up with folders on the memory stick with the same names as on the old PC. (data, stanlets and common in the example above)
   
5. When all folders are copied safely, remove the memory stick and proceed to the new PC

Step 3. Install PGdebt on the new PC

Just install the program using the PGdebt CD if you have PG5,6,7 or 8...see the manual for instructions if required.
If you are upgrading to a later version of PGdebt, install the new version now, not the old one.
Make sure it runs properly, it should run OK, but of course your data will not be available yet.

Step 4. Copy the important files from the floppy or other media onto the new PC

1. Start PGdebt on the new PC and go to Options/Supervisor/Files-Paths...the same screen as before, but on the new PC
2. Note the locations of the various folders on the new PC. These may or may not, be the same as on the old PC. If they are different it does not matter, it is not necessary to change them. Make a note of the folders on a piece of paper and close down PGdebt.
3. Put the memory stick in the drive (or insert the other media)
4. Open Windows Explorer or My Computer and copy the files from the folders on the memory stick to the new locations on the new PC. So the files that were in the data folder on the first PC go into the data folder on the new PC, and so on for all folders. A common error here is to move the whole folder, not the files within that folder...it is the files within the original folder which need to be moved into the new folder on the new PC, adding to those already there, overwriting if necessary.
5. Start PGdebt, it should run, and have your data, standard letters and creditor database available
   

Step 5. Check configuration on the new PC

1. Go to Options/supervisor/files-paths and check that the directories to be backed up section contains the folder where the data files are located. ( It will have some extra squiggles after it...this is correct). Place a tick in the box to lock the data folder if this is desired. Check that the backup location is the one you desire. With PG5 and PG6 running on Windows XP or Windows 2000, do NOT use drive A for this as it will not be recognised.
2. Go to Options/supervisor/defaults and check that names etc. are correct
3. Go to Options/supervisor/security and set new passwords
4. Go to Options/supervisor/Agency (PG9 only) and fill in the information
5. Make a new backup as soon as you are sure everything is running properly. Do not use old backup discs...start afresh with a new memory stick for the new PC and configuration.

Step 6. Optional items

The procedure so far does all that is really necessary, but there are certain other files that could be moved over. These are located in the main PGdebt folder (C:\pgdebt6 in the example above). Depending on the version of PGdebt certain of these files may not be present, but if they are there you could locate and move them over. It is not essential to move these files, but if you have extensively customised the FS template, you can save having to do this again by moving the template files (PG5 and 6 only).

Finally
When you are absolutely sure, (this may take a day or so !) that everything is OK, then delete PGdebt from the old PC. Delete the data files manually and use the REMOVEPG program to remove PGdebt itself, this will be found under Start/programs/PGdebt. This is important as you do not want to have two copies of everything. Also this information should be removed before disposing of a PC to protect client confidentiality. You should really use a secure deletion utility to remove data from a PC before disposing of it