Migrating my database to a new computer system

[MikeBaynes]

I'm in the process of building a new computer to replace my elderly (>6 year-old WinXP) system.  This seems like the right place to ask questions about the pitfalls of such a move.  The database is in the form of a single Lightroom catalog of Raw files (not DNG).  The images were ingested using IIp into a naming scheme and file structure that I'm happy with, and want to replicate on the new Win7 system.

1:  The plan was to temporarily move the old hard drive into the new system and move the entire database to its new location on new drives.  Then have a new instance of Lightroom import the files at their new location.  Does that make sense?  Is there a beter way?

2:  But since I've been using only Raw files up to this point,  I'm also considering converting to DNG at the same time.  Maybe, using IIp, I could re-ingest (and re-verify) everything from the old drive to the new one converting to DNG in the process.  Are there any pitfalls to this? 

3:  What do I need to do to insure everything in the "old" Lightroom catalog comes along into a new instance of Lightroom?

It's going to be a real joy to have a Core I7 with 8 GB of RAM and 1.6 TB of hard drive space instead of my ancient Pentium with .5 GB Ram and 320 GB of drive space.   

Thanks for any suggestions you can offer.
   -Mike

[peterkrogh]

Mike,
1. Why reimport?
2. If you convert to DNG, best to have Lightroom do it, so that it can keep track of the file.
3. Compare number of files in the catalog, maybe?  One thing - Lightroom is not the best for this. It can skip file types that might be int he archive, but can't be indexed by Lightroom.  You'll want to make sure nothing like that gets left behind.
Peter