Data transfer from old Windows 7 PC to new Windows 7 PC

[resucami]

Hello Forum,

How do I move best data and settings from one (old) Windows 7 PC to another (new) Windows 7 PC? From what I read on various websites Microsoft's own transfer tool "Windows Easy Transfer" seems to be made only for transfers from XP or Vista to 7 - and strangely enough is there absolutely no information about data transfer from 7 to 7 to be found on Microsoft's website.

Or does Windows Easy Transfer work for transfer from 7 to 7? If so, is it already installed with Windows 7, or do I have to get it somewhere?

Or should I use a third party program like the "Bravura Easy Computer Sync" software? See here: Plugable USB 2.0 Windows Transfer Cable | Plugable

Please be patient with me. I am more a Mac person but I have been asked to help a friend to do this.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Mellon Head]

Check out this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/135077-windows-7-installation-transfer-new-computer.html?ltr=W

Is that what you are trying to do?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'd generally be suspicious of software that says it will transfer "settings" as such.

Windows Easy Transfer was very shaky the last I looked at it, which was 6 or so years ago.

If you want to transfer "personal data" (pictures, videos, Word files, text files, mp3s, etc), I'd use a flash drive if the amount to be copied wasn't many times larger than the capacity of the flash drive.

If the amount of personal data to be copied WAS many times larger than my flash drive, I'd probably prefer to temporarily connect the old drive to the new PC and just drag the stuff from old drive to new drive with the mouse. You could do it even with a smallish flash drive, but it would take a bunch of round trips.

If you are referring to moving a bunch of installed applications such as Office or Photoshop from the old PC to the new, I'd forget about that and just do a fresh install of those applications onto the new PC. Installed applications have to make nice with the new Windows registry and would frown if you tried to move them from C on the old PC to C on the new one. That applies to their "settings" or configuration as well.

Or do you mean you have a new PC that does NOT have a Windows installation or a new Windows license and you want to move EVERYTHING from the old PC to the new PC?

 

[genetics73]

I have been successful, over the years, using Acronis TrueImage Home to restore, clone and modify all my partitions, including system partition, MBR and everything else. Of course, it works with backups as well. It works with bare metal disks, and will transfer and restore your favorite layout. In my opinion, the software is worth paying for.

 

[maxseven]

...strangely enough is there absolutely no information about data transfer from 7 to 7 to be found on Microsoft's website.

Or does Windows Easy Transfer work for transfer from 7 to 7? If so, is it already installed with Windows 7, or do I have to get it somewhere?

It seems to me when I tried WET when I upgraded to another PC I used built-in Help. In any case it worked quite well, did it last summer from one W7HPx64 PC to the new W7Prox64; I see no reason for you not to try it.

I did my transfer using my Gbe network iirc. Kept the old PC around for months (still have it in fact) but had no real need for it.

It does seem to me as I think about it now that when I did the transfer, I did not have each & every program that was on the old computer installed yet onto the new computer. So there was some fiddling to do with settings but all in all I can recommend it.

 

[resucami]

I had to transfer data and applications from an old PC with Windows 7 installed on it to a brand new PC with Windows 7 installed on it. I did use "Bravura Easy Computer Sync" with a special USB cable to transfer the data and the settings - and it worked very well; it took about 15 minutes to transfer 50 GB of data from old to new.

The applications I had, however, to install all manually again. Therefore the next question:

I have been successful, over the years, using Acronis TrueImage Home to restore, clone and modify all my partitions, including system partition, MBR and everything else. Of course, it works with backups as well. It works with bare metal disks, and will transfer and restore your favorite layout. In my opinion, the software is worth paying for.

Are you saying that I could have made a clone from the old PC's hard drive with Acronis TrueImage Home onto an external hard drive and then have made a restore from this clone onto the new PC's hard drive?

The old PC was a self-built machine with a 32bit Windows on it; the new PC is an HP with a 64bit Windows on it. Would that have worked anyway? Would there not have been many hardware-specific (driver) problems?

 

[genetics73]

Yes. When you want to clone your operating system, applications and data to a new disk, the utility in Acronis allows you to do just that. It will even adjust partitons sizes to fit your layout.
You could also create a backup of the original, and restore it all from the backup. Specific instructions are available in Acronis user manual.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Are you saying that I could have made a clone from the old PC's hard drive with Acronis TrueImage Home onto an external hard drive and then have made a restore from this clone onto the new PC's hard drive?

The old PC was a self-built machine with a 32bit Windows on it; the new PC is an HP with a 64bit Windows on it. Would that have worked anyway? Would there not have been many hardware-specific (driver) problems?

As you describe it, it wouldn't have been a "clone" of the old PC's hard drive. It would have been an image that was later restored. Cloning and imaging are distinctly different.

Even if you'd done that (restored an image), the Windows license on the old PC would not have been valid on the new PC, UNLESS that Windows license was "retail" as opposed to OEM. You'd have ended up with 32 bit Windows instead of 64 and you would have over-written the new 64-bit installation. It might have worked temporarily, but you would have been taking a chance that it would later be invalidated due to the licensing issue.

Maybe your old Windows license is retail, since that PC was self-built. You haven't said. If it is retail, you could reinstall that retail version on as many PCs as you want--ONE PC AT A TIME. Only one. You can continue to move it to new hardware at will--unlike OEM.