moving all the data from one laptop to another...help

myself | 7-13-14 | TZ

[TurboZamboni]

I was given the gift of a new laptop- HP Pavilion Smartouch 17. not my first choice, but it was a nice gift and the giver knew my old Toshiba Satellite L505-a6946 is dying and that I'm too cheap to buy a new one.

The Satellite uses Vista and the new HP is Windows 8.1 .

I need to know what's the best(easiest) way to move all my data from one to the other including AVG,Hitman Pro, Malwarebytes,emails(Outlook)and other vital programs.

While I'm at it, I assume it came with all sorts of unwanted 'bloatware' so I will need to remove that ,too. (It was a demo model, if that matters)

[KYGrandma]

Just bought one about an hour ago at Office Depot for $8.99. Keep several around the house.

[Malsua]

For what it’s worth, I DO know how to do it myself and I still use pcmover. It’s specially useful for XP to Windows 7 moves. I’ve probably done 25 machines using it. I just install the software, set each machine up and do it over the network. I go off and do other work for an hour or two and I have it notify me by email when it’s done.

I’ve had one bad move with it that required that I re-format the target machine, but I put that down to it being an older laptop and a driver caused it to blue screen and without spending hours to fix, it was just easier to re-install Windows 7. I was a bit more selective(fewer “possible apps”) next trip through and it finished just fine.

[tophat9000]

Sure you can do ez tranfer from vista to 8..see link

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

ping

[TurboZamboni]

Cool.

is there a specific cable I need to buy?

I have a never used Passport external drive, but I think it may need to be formatted for my old computer(not sure on how to do that)

[TurboZamboni]

ok- tried that.

when I got to the part to transfer from my portable HD on to the new computer, it gave me an error message:
“your files can’t be transferred. windows easy transfer can’t transfer the files from windows vista or windows xp”

[tophat9000]

I’ve done it with no issues before
go to the following tutorial at the link and double check your steps..if you still having issues you will have to copy over you data files manually

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/transfer-data-from-old-computer-to-windows-8/

[discostu]

Buy an external drive shell for laptop sized drives (they’re usually like $20). Crack open the old laptop, put the HDD in the shell. Now you can copy everything to the new machine, and you’ve got a portable drive.

[TurboZamboni]

I may try it. I’ve failed so far.

Where’s the best place to buy it?

[Malsua]

Newegg sells it. They also have a download version if you don’t need an ethernet crossover cable. You can also buy it directly from Laplink.com

---

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832300030&cm_re=laplink_pcmover-_-32-300-030-_-Product

[TurboZamboni]

trying to back up the hard drive on the old laptop to My Passport portable HD before attempting transfer

isn’t working,”backpu did not complete successfully” “system cannot find tge file specified. (0x80070002)

good grief.

[TurboZamboni]

...but apparently NOT 8.1.

it seems Windows 8 was the last version in which you could transfer from XP or Vista using Windows Easy Transfer. Microsoft is trying to force people into using their cloud service, Sky Drive.

[kjam22]

Are you trying to back up everything at once? What if you backup directories. Starting with directories where your data is?

[tophat9000]

EZ tranfer is still supported in 8.1 just not over the network or tranfer cable.
You need to save old files to external device..
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tlWrzTefLIQ

[TurboZamboni]

thanks.

guess I’ll try some more tonight.

[catfish1957]

Good luck. I have owned a PC since 1986, and learned the hard way that the best way is storing anything important or of value on a external drive of some sorts, (along with your regular hard drive).

This redundancy has made life easier for me through the years, and will protect you whether the next hardware upgrade is planned or an emergency.

[TurboZamboni]

I have an external drive(Passport)

I tried to download everything to it and it stopped 3/4 way through with some stupid error message .

It’s not due to being undersized either- I checked that.
It’s 500 GB and everything on my laptop is only 231 GB.

I don’t know if it’s not formatted for Windows or what.

[TurboZamboni]

thanks.

my Passport was supposedly already formated for Windows.

tried to download everything to it and it stopped 3/4 way through with some stupid error message .

It’s not due to being undersized either- I checked that.
It’s 500 GB and everything on my laptop is only 231 GB.

I don’t know if it’s not formatted for Windows or what. Not sure how to tell.