Seeking experience migrating data from old to new laptop computer
 

Just received a new 2021 HP Notebook computer after 9+ years on an outdated Toshiba Laptop.

Can someone, with computer knowledge, please share their experiences in the process of migrating all of the programs, data, applications from an old computer to a new one?

I believe there is software out there that makes this process "easy". I would appreciate responses from anyone that may have gone thru this and what might be the best method to use. I may know may way around computers, but I do not consider myself any sort of expert.

Please help!

It depends on how many gb of data is being used on the old computer's hard drive. But, I would copy the entire hard drive to either a thumb drive or an external hard drive. You can get a thumb drive that will hold up to about 1tb of data, but I wouldn't trust one that large. Once you have the old data on an external device you can then copy the data as needed to the new computer. Note that, when you copy programs, often the files will copy, but the program will not function on another computer unless you reinstall it with a special disc or product code. I wouldn't automatically transfer everything to the new computer unless you are certain that you are going to use the data and programs. There is probably a lot of data on the old computer that you don't need.

If you're going from 7 to 10, Laplink PCmover works great, but you have to get the professional version to have all the programs move. No idea if it works on 11.

There are a lot of ways to skin that cat, but for ease of use, pcmover can't be beat.

Not so sure you want to copy programs & system data.
Lots of data and newer versions are probably on your new unit.
Jus say'n.

Copy documents, pictures, etc.
Start up your email on the new unit.
After this, you might be surprised.

Good Luck.

By the way, if the new computer has Windows 10, the new Windows 11 will be available on October 5, so you may not want to make any major changes until then.

Forgot to mention, I am utilizing Windows 10 on the old computer and will also be using Windows 10 on the new one.

There is many ways to transfer the data. If you have a router, it’s possible to plug both laptops into the routers Ethernet ports and drag n drop files from one pc to another .. however in some situations you may need to adjust your laptops administrative settings to make this work. You can do the same transfer via wifi … Or if you have a “crossover” Ethernet cable you can connect the two laptops directly with this cable (no router required) and drag &drop your files between devices.

The simplest method (but not as fast) is to copy the files to an external hard drive and then copy again to the new device.

I would not attempt to move programs … Just do a fresh install of the programs you want on the new device ..Moving programs seldom works well.

Don’t throw out your old laptop for 12 months …. You may find later that you forgot to move some data or directories … and then you still have your old laptop with data.

That is what I used and it was worth the cost. Especially useful if you have several programs such as Photoshop, etc installed.

Use the cloud. Back up your old computer to the cloud, and download to the new computer. Easy peasy. If you use a cloud back up app...like Carbonite for example...it's super easy. You should be backing up to the cloud 24/7 anyway, so if you aren't...maybe start.

I am paying a professional (in MA) $130 for them to install a new "Solid State" hard drive into my existing computer. Part of the new install is to "Mirror" the data I had on my old computer (hard drive) onto the new hard drive. That way when you turn on the computer with the new hard drive it looks and acts exactly like the old computer set-up. Hope this works.

New computer
 

Safest way - take it to Best Buy.

YouBreakIFix behind the Shell station on 466

YouBreakIFix behind the Shell station on 466 - Jose

That may work with your data files, but it may not work for Windows based programs. You cannot transfer or copy Windows from an old hard drive to a new one. You will still need to use the old hard drive to run Windows, or buy another copy of the Windows software. And, other Windows based programs may not work either. I don't see much value in putting a new SSD in an old computer, unless your existing hard drive is totally filled up or is defective. You could just copy the old computer files to a cloud drive or to an external SSD.

Sounds like you would be best to shop for someone to do it - there is no thing you can get that just does it