Windows Easy Transfer - Transfer To & From Computers

How to Transfer Files from One Computer to Another Computer with Windows Easy Transfer​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to transfer your user files and settings from one computer to another using the Windows Easy Transfer tool.

   Note

This feature is available in Vista and Windows 7. It can also be used as a handy backup if you are thinking about installing a new build of Windows 7 on your current machine.

   Tip

This process can also be used between accounts if, for example, your old account has been acting up and you do not want to re-install and transfer your old data.

   Tip

To do this you will need to follow the steps outlined in Step 1 below, then create a new user account. Next, log into the new User account and proceed to follow Step 2 below to invoke the copy process.

Many thanks to Ztruker for testing & highlighting the above possibility.

STEP ONE

Save Transfer File from Old Computer

1. Open the start menu and type transfer in the search line, or navigate to All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and click on Windows Easy Transfer.​

2. Click on Next when the application opens.

3. Choose destination to save the Transfer file and click on Next.
NOTE: Please note for the purpose of this tutorial I have selected the external hard disk or USB flash drive.

4. Select This is my old computer from the list.

5. Windows Easy Transfer will scan for files that can be transferred.

6. Select which files you wish saved suring the transfer process, then click on Next.

​

7. You will be prompted for a password in the next screen, but this is optional.

​

8. Choose where to save your Transfer file and what to name it, then click Save.

​

9. Windows will begin the saving process.
WARNING: This can take some time depending on the overall size of the data being saved.

​

10. Windows will prompt when saving has finished.

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STEP TWO

Transfer Files to New Computer

1. Follow steps 1, 2 & 3 in the STEP ONE section above.​

2. Select This is my new computer from the list.​

3. Windows will display a notification asking if you have already saved files from your old computer, select Yes.

4. Select the Transfer file previously saved in the STEP ONE (step 6) section and click on Open.

5. You will be shown a selection of options that can be transferred. Choose which the options you want and click on Transfer.

6. Windows will start transferring user files and settings to your new computer.

7. Once finished, Windows will give the option to view which files have been transfered....

and which programs you will need to install for some settings to work correctly.

8. You will recieve a final completion notification and asked if you wish to restart your computer.

   Note

Once Windows restarts, you can now access all the files and folders that have been transferred.

Related Tutorials

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• How to Run Windows Easy Transfer from XP or Vista to Windows 7

 

[mcleod55]

How to Transfer Files from One Computer to Another Computer with Windows Easy Transfer. I have XP & Vista (different HDD's) same computer. I plan on putting Windows 7 on the XP hdd. Can I transfer files from the Vista to Win 7. (different hdd's but same computer) I hope that makes sense.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi mcleod55,

In short, yes you can. The Easy Transfer for 7 is the same (if not very slightly different) from Vista and will transfer all the files you require. You can even download W.E.T for XP from Microsoft.

Hope this helps


OS

 

[JonLa]

Installed Win7 last night. Tonight I'm going to install my apps and then import the Windows Easy Transfer I did from the old system.

Question: My C (Windows) partition is 50 GB and I've set up a much larger data partition.

My Easy Transfer is about 80GB.

Will it try to install all 80GB on C? I noticed that my install has said up my user account on C so I've changed the default for all of my libraries to the data drive - will it recognise this and sort out the files accordingly?

 

[JonLa]

Answered my own question. Even though I'd set the default locations in my profile to the much larger partition (thanks to another tutorial here) windows easy transfer still refused to put my 80GB of files into the 50GB System partition. Could find no workaround.

Eventually I elected not to to transfer the Itunes folder, as I have a manual backup of it, and let the system work its magic.

 

[wyndwolfe]

32 bit to 64 bit

I seem to have run into a problem while doing the easy file transfer.
I have upgraded from Vista to Windows 7. I initially used the "upgrade" option to go from vista to 7, however I was also hoping to go from 32 to 64 bit. As I wasn't paying close enough attention at the time, I ended up with the 32 bit version of Windows 7 installed. At this point I realized that I would require a "clean" install, so used the Easy File Transfer utility and saved my files to a removeable USB hard drive.
After completing the clean install of the 64 bit version of Windows 7, I started the EFT utility only to discover that when I select the file that I saved to, it tells me that it cannot read the file.
Is there any EASY way for me to get to these files?

 

[zx81]

Orbital Shark,

Thank you very much for this clear and handy tutorial!

A small correction:
6. Select which files you wish saved suring the transfer process, then click on Next.

Should be during I think.
I hope you don't mind me for correcting this

Best regards,

zx81

 

[Darryl Licht]

Make sure you run EZT from DVD...

If you are transferring old data from XP or Vista, make sure and run Easy Transfer from the Win7 install disc. You will find it in the X:\Support\Migwiz folder (where X is the drive letter of your DVD), just double click on the migwiz.exe app to start it. The version included with Win7 is much faster and robust than previous versions.

Orbital, you might want to add that to the tutorial!

 

[kaanstain]

hi guys,
can i clone all my data's(include windows) with this way??

 

[Darryl Licht]

hi guys,
can i clone all my data's(include windows) with this way??

Welcome to sevenforums Kaanstain!

Not sure what you mean by clone, but this will get all your docs, pics, videos, music, and Windows settings from old setup to new win7 setup. It is meant as an easy way to transfer your existing data and settings... not a backup!

 

[kaanstain]

You can see i'm from Turkey,and i'm working in cafe, we have 40 computer here.
all of them had xp, i wanted to try win7 and i decided to change my system...
each has 500gb HDD, and 400gb Game we have... i installed everything one of them after that, i tried to clone hdd to the others.
i tried first acronis work edition
acronis home 2010
norton ghost 14

but i couldn't

at the last i tried windows backup and recovery program

it's perfect now....

i cloned each hdd easily


thank you win 7.


thank you win seven forums...

 

[spdracer]

Excellent tutorial,will definitely use this when I upgrade to 64 bit

 

[Dave76]

Thought this link would be useful and you might consider putting the MS links in your tutorial.

Windows Easy Transfer - If your old PC isn't running Windows 7, you'll need to install the appropriate version of Windows Easy Transfer.

 

[Darryl Licht]

Thought this link would be useful and you might consider putting the MS links in your tutorial.

Windows Easy Transfer - If your old PC isn't running Windows 7, you'll need to install the appropriate version of Windows Easy Transfer.

Why DL it when you have it on the Win7 DVD?

You will find it in the X:\Support\Migwiz folder (where X is the drive letter of your DVD), just double click on the migwiz.exe app to start it.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Thought this link would be useful and you might consider putting the MS links in your tutorial.

Windows Easy Transfer - If your old PC isn't running Windows 7, you'll need to install the appropriate version of Windows Easy Transfer.

Why DL it when you have it on the Win7 DVD?

You will find it in the X:\Support\Migwiz folder (where X is the drive letter of your DVD), just double click on the migwiz.exe app to start it.

Quality, thanks for the info

 

[Dave76]

Thought this link would be useful and you might consider putting the MS links in your tutorial.

Windows Easy Transfer - If your old PC isn't running Windows 7, you'll need to install the appropriate version of Windows Easy Transfer.

Why DL it when you have it on the Win7 DVD?

You will find it in the X:\Support\Migwiz folder (where X is the drive letter of your DVD), just double click on the migwiz.exe app to start it.

Is the XP and Vista version on the Win7 DVD?

I thought Vista was the same and XP different. Does anyone know if the XP WET is different?

 

[nate42nd]

Thought this link would be useful and you might consider putting the MS links in your tutorial.

Windows Easy Transfer - If your old PC isn't running Windows 7, you'll need to install the appropriate version of Windows Easy Transfer.

Why DL it when you have it on the Win7 DVD?

You will find it in the X:\Support\Migwiz folder (where X is the drive letter of your DVD), just double click on the migwiz.exe app to start it.

Is the XP and Vista version on the Win7 DVD?

I thought Vista was the same and XP different. Does anyone know if the XP WET is different?

It would seem logical since Microsoft has different links. They would not do that unless the files were different. It would be too confusing to some.

 

[Gilly Boy]

Used Windows Easy Transfer on Windows xp 2 months ago, unfortunately, I forgot my password.

I am now attempting to extract those files under Windows 7. Is there a way to bypass the password part?

Tried using MigRecover, no good. Thank you.

 

[curleyg]

Can the easy transfer wizard be used to transfer files and settings from a Win 7 32 bit machine to a Win 7 64 bit machine?

Thanks folks

 

[Darryl Licht]

Can the easy transfer wizard be used to transfer files and settings from a Win 7 32 bit machine to a Win 7 64 bit machine?

Thanks folks

Yes, I've done it!

 

[Scaz50]

Really hoping that some of you experts can help out with this one!

My old XP PC has been giving me problems recently, frequent crashes and slow performance. I have, today, been out and purchased a new Windows 7 PC.

After looking at the forums I decided to use the Easy Transfer Wizard over Ethernet method. All was going well until my old PC crashed half way through the transfer. Thus I had to start over, again, my old PC died half way through.

Now I know that it is possible to mount my old internal hdd in my new PC as an additional drive. However, I was wondering if it is possible then to run the Transfer wizard from my old HDD to the new one within the same PC? I realise that I could manually copy the data and config files between drives but was hoping that the Wizard can handle this situation. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!