file and setting transfer

Yes you'll have to tell the File Transfer Wizard where to pickup the files from.

Remember that you can move the My Documents and any other folder to different places on a HDD or to a different HDD depending on how safe you want the system to be.

As for using the existing Apps you'll need to reinstall most of them or at the very least do a Repair Install of them to put the bits that reside in Windows into the system.

Just a side note here I used a HDD out of a clients old computer a couple of years ago and when it died 12 months latter the owner forgot that he had insisted that I move a drive over and accused me of using an old drive in his New Computer [i] things got very nasty for a while there[/i] so it would be a good idea to make a note of this on the invoice when you supply the new system so it avoids problems latter on.

Also instruct this person on a Backup Regime so if worst comes to worts he will always have a backup of all his data. I've found from past experience that internal HDD are not a reliable Backup method. So if you can get him to backup to some form of external media it would be a good idea. In the above mentioned case the person in question religiously backed up all his Business data but forgot about everything else so when the second HDD died with all of the Pictures of his Grandchildren he demanded that I recover them. Of course when it proved impossible to get the drive working and I got a quote from a Data Recovery House he suddenly discovered that he could get the replacement copies for different sources. :D

Col

I'm not positive that the Wizard will do the job all by itself. You'll likely need registry settings too.

Use the custom list of files and settings option in the Wizard to grab everything you think you may need.

This scenario would cause me to give some serious thought to cloning, then add new drivers as required as long as the OS on the IDE drive isn't corrupted in some way.

The F&S Wizard doesn't work in all cases. External drive copies of all important data are much better. The Wiz, all too often, doesn't recognize the .utc files or data source if the "new" pc is at a different state of update than the old pc. You'll be prompted to run the Wizard on the "old" pc if you update the "new" pc with all updates and the "old" pc didn't have all of the updates. This is not a cool thing if the "old" pc was recently reformatted.
The Wizard (thanks M$) is NOT entirely backwards compatible and doesn't import important data if the programs on the "new" pc aren't EXACTLY at the same update status as the programs on the "old" pc or maybe it's just me.
Please, somebody tell me what I'm doing wrong and/or give me a link to a program that will open the Wizard F&S folder/file to extract important data.
This type of issue can probably be filed under live and learn. I don't work on a pc where the customer demands that NO data is lost unless I can copy the entire drive to some space on my 1TB storage system in a system restore format as well as a duplicate/copy drive (readable) format.
I also have a signed disclaimer upfront.