Many of you know that I am an expert in my field of computer repair and work out of a retail store. Oh, yes I could tell you many tales of woe- but not today. A common service is transferring data from one PC to another. Usually from an older machine to a new one they just bought. Not always, but it doesn’t generally change the process.
First, the best method is to use an external hard drive. This also provides a backup of files for the client. What I do is copy the old files to the external hard drive, migrate them to the new computer, then set up an auto backup using that same external hard drive on the new computer. Personally, I prefer multiple backup copies to be safe. Whether it’s multiple external drives or a combination of cloud storage and external drives. But make sure you and your clients have a least one backup solution. WD My Passport External Drives work great. They also include handy backup software.
If the old computer is still working, we can simply plug in the external drive and copy data easily enough. Some places, such as with my employer utilize special software tools to streamline this with a virus scan. If the old computer will not boot or the internal drive visible, you’ll have more work on your hands. Take the drive out of the computer and use a hard drive dock. I recommend the Thermaltake BlacX Duet 2.5”/3.5” SATA I/II/III USB 3.0 External Hard Drive Enclosure Docking Station. I’ve found them to be solid, reliable, and fast.
Once we have the data we are migrating to the new PC, we can plug in the external drive and start copying the data. Simply copy and paste like we did to get the data on the external will do nicely. Now here is where I see the biggest disconnect between techs. Maybe it’s laziness, maybe not. However, where you place those files is very important to your client. The biggest mistake I see techs make is by creating a folder on the desktop called ‘backup’ or ‘data transfer’ and simply dumping all those files there. This leaves the client with a mess to sort out. Please, make your clients day and put the files in the same location as they had them on the original PC.
In the image to your right, you’ll see the best place to copy data from and to. In this example the username is ‘thepo’. Opening that folder under C:\users in Windows 10 (Windows 7 and 8, as well) allows us to copy and paste all the folders at once. Pretty easy and like I mentioned before this will make your clients happier than making this sift through and organize all their files.
Here, you can get a better view of the folders to copy and paste. I suggest you skip the hidden folder AppData. Most of these files are irrelevant on the new machine and may cause problems. Likewise you can generally skip any folders that start with “.” such as “.oracle_jre_usage”. These folders contain data for specific applications that are not needed on the new PC. When all is said and done, your clients documents will be under documents, pictures under picture, and so on.