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I've looked at Acronis, Cloudberry, Macrium Reflect, Laplink and Aeomi (both Backup and disk partion).

Windows 7 to Windows 10

Anyone with similar situations? Thanks muchly.

1 posted on 11/11/2018 5:18:37 PM PST by steveo
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To: steveo

I forgot to state I have a 2TB external HDD available


2 posted on 11/11/2018 5:23:22 PM PST by steveo
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To: steveo

In my opinion a clean install as opposed to an upgrade install is always best.

One way to do it would be to get the installation keys for all your software and reinstall them on the new computer.

There are many free apps that will snag the keys of your existing software from your old laptop.

https://www.lifewire.com/free-product-key-finder-programs-2625119

Belarc Advisor is the one I use.

You can move the data with a flash drive or external hard drive.


3 posted on 11/11/2018 5:26:01 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Democracy dies when Democrats refuse to accept the result of a democratic election they didn't win.)
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To: steveo

My Windows 7 Laptop died,had to switch to Windows 10.
Turned off everything I didn’t like about it and started over,downloading everything I had on the old laptop.


4 posted on 11/11/2018 5:26:28 PM PST by mdittmar
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To: steveo

To be honest I have a 2 year old Dell desktop with windows 10. Have had no issues. I always have McAfee on. Use a portable hard drive plugged in always and save everything of value onto that. I don’t use the cloud.


5 posted on 11/11/2018 5:27:32 PM PST by MomwithHope
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To: steveo

I am starting my journey to my new laptop too(great deal at Costco!). It is Windows 10. I will install Classic Shell as I did my current one. It makes my life so much easier.


7 posted on 11/11/2018 5:40:10 PM PST by ozaukeemom (9/11/01 Never Forget. Never.)
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To: steveo

A few years ago my Brother-in-Law gave me an HP laptop with Vista installed. It had so many viruses that it would barely work, often not at all.

It took a while but I finally got it to wipe everything clean. I then used a Windows 7 Professional disk which had come with a refurbished computer. When it asked for the code, I used the one which was on the disk package and it worked fine.

Maybe a month later I got a notice from Microsoft asking me for my computers serial number. I just put in the number on the laptop and again no problem. It has worked fine ever since. I installed a McAfee total protection program and it has so far found no viruses at all.


8 posted on 11/11/2018 5:43:03 PM PST by yarddog
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To: steveo

You have my sympathy. I lost my Windows 7 too...and after a brief, loveless fling with Windows 8, I bought a laptop with Windows 10. The moving was easy because I’m not an adept, I just put everything on usb’s, which I collect like squirrels have nuts.
The headaches begin with the updates. Windows 10 has a mind of its own. It decides when to update, what to update and whether to open the pod door when it’s done its nasty business.
Best of luck to you.
Backup everything!


9 posted on 11/11/2018 5:47:45 PM PST by Buttons12
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To: steveo
I need to move my lovely Windows 7 to a new laptop running the evil Windows 10.

Come to the dark side...

10 posted on 11/11/2018 5:52:23 PM PST by MAexile (Bats left, votes rights)
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To: steveo

I have always gone with the USB external.

This last time I have NAS and use that almost exclusively for storage.

Now if things go south, I “map network drive” and everything is where it was.


12 posted on 11/11/2018 6:19:19 PM PST by Ouderkirk (Life is about ass, you're either covering, hauling, laughing, kicking, kissing, or behaving like one)
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To: steveo

Going through it too. It’s living hell.


13 posted on 11/11/2018 6:24:33 PM PST by lizma2
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To: steveo

Just to be clear; you can’t migrate one computer to another even if they are the same make and model.

All you can do is transfer files. All programs and the OS need to be re-installed.

As mentioned; use your external hard drive to back up your files so you don’t lose them then copy (not move and not cut and paste) them to the new computer from your external drive to the new computer.

Back up your files at least once a month or more often if you have critical files/data.


14 posted on 11/11/2018 6:26:18 PM PST by Boomer (The best leftists are those who have left us for another country)
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To: steveo

You can buy a nice, brand new laptop for $500 and get a faster processor, more memory, migrate all your old Windows files and settings, and get Windows 10 factory installed.

Why go to all the trouble of adapting an old laptop?

Unless you enjoy playing around with them, of course.


16 posted on 11/11/2018 6:31:32 PM PST by zeestephen
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To: steveo

My first question is what Windows 10 will do for you which you can not do with Windows 7.

I recently purchased a refurbished Dell Laptop which came with Windows 10 installed. Windows is just an operating system, just a tool. My own software runs exactly same as in windows 7 as in 10.

My Windows-7 installation USB would not work with the existing disk format on which Windows 10 was installed by the refurbisher.

Here are the simple steps how I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 7. All I needed was the Windows-7 Installation USB (it was USB since my laptop does not have a CD drive, and I did not want to purchase external drive). No other software is needed.

To Format hard drive acceptable for Windows 7 Install,
Boot up from the USB drive (change Bios if necessary)
at the first screen of the install,
“SHIFT + F10” to enter command prompt.

Command> diskpart
(to run disk management utility)
diskpart> list disk
(If only hard drive is present it will show as disk 0)
diskpart> select disk 0
(or whichever number indicates your hard disk)

diskpart> clean
diskpart> create partition primary
diskpart> select partition 1
diskpart> active

diskpart> format fs=ntfs quick
diskpart> List Volume
diskpart> exit

At that point, you will return to the installation of first screen of Windows 7 installation.

By the way it is very easy to create a bootable USB stick for use with Laptops without CD drives. Then just copy all files from Windows-7 Installation CD to the USB stick, and then you can install any version of Windows 7 on Laptops (Home Premium, Profesional, Ultimate etc)


17 posted on 11/11/2018 6:39:05 PM PST by entropy12 (One million LEGAL immigrants/year is too many, without vetting for skills, Wealth or English skills.)
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To: steveo

My first question is what Windows 10 will do for you which you can not do with Windows 7.

I recently purchased a refurbished Dell Laptop which came with Windows 10 installed. Windows is just an operating system, just a tool. My own software runs exactly same as in windows 7 as in 10.

My Windows-7 installation USB would not work with the existing disk format on which Windows 10 was installed by the refurbisher.

Here are the simple steps how I reformatted the hard drive and installed Windows 7. All I needed was the Windows-7 Installation USB (it was USB since my laptop does not have a CD drive, and I did not want to purchase external drive). No other software is needed.

To Format hard drive acceptable for Windows 7 Install,
Boot up from the USB drive (change Bios if necessary)
at the first screen of the install,
“SHIFT + F10” to enter command prompt.

Command> diskpart
(to run disk management utility)
diskpart> list disk
(If only hard drive is present it will show as disk 0)
diskpart> select disk 0
(or whichever number indicates your hard disk)

diskpart> clean
diskpart> create partition primary
diskpart> select partition 1
diskpart> active

diskpart> format fs=ntfs quick
diskpart> List Volume
diskpart> exit

At that point, you will return to the installation of first screen of Windows 7 installation.

By the way it is very easy to create a bootable USB stick for use with Laptops without CD drives. Then just copy all files from Windows-7 Installation CD to the USB stick, and then you can install any version of Windows 7 on Laptops (Home Premium, Profesional, Ultimate etc)


18 posted on 11/11/2018 6:39:06 PM PST by entropy12 (One million LEGAL immigrants/year is too many, without vetting for skills, Wealth or English skills.)
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To: steveo
It is not clear what you mean by "move." You can't transfer the OS directly. If you absolutely insist on continuing to use Windows 7, you can buy a new 64-bit Win7 Home Premium installation DVD on Amazon for about $190. You can overwrite your new laptop's Win 10 with that installation disk. You will then have a "new" Win 7 computer. I think that would be a crazy thing to do -- Windows 10 is usually a stable OS -- but you can do it. Extended support for Windows 7 will end on January 14, 2020.

If you want to move your purchased programs that have been installed and registered with their manufacturers, in some (NOT ALL) cases you can uninstall a program from the old computer, let that uninstallation notify the software manufacturer over the internet during the uninstall process, then use the program's installer to install to the new computer using the original installation key. Whether or not this will work depends on the specific program.

I doubt that any of the OS migration programs you mentioned can handle that re-registering process automatically. AFAIK they just transfer data files between computers. They will move files from the old My Documents folder to the new My Documents folder, or from one Pictures folder to another, etc. That process does not install programs. Most Windows programs must be installed before they will run.

The safest option is to install new programs to the Win 10 laptop, and transfer your data files by copying them to your external drive from your old computer, then copying those to the new computer. It's a PITA but it works.

19 posted on 11/11/2018 7:08:35 PM PST by TChad
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To: steveo

Keep your Windows 7 machine.

Backup files to save on DVD on the Windows 10 machine. Wipe and format drive on the machine. Make a clean install of Xubuntu or Debian Linux using XFCE for GUI.

Use Firefox with No Script plugin and login with https: (secure shell)

Never have another slimware exploit.

I’ve been running some form of Linux since 1994, exclusively Linux for my personal machine for over 10 years.

Never going back. (I ran all of MS DOS versions, All of Windows Versions until 10. There is not a thing I now miss using Linux, except the instability and headaches cleaning it up. And upgrades are no hassle.


20 posted on 11/11/2018 7:30:56 PM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: steveo

Not sure about migrating to a new box, but I’ve used Acronis to move to new HDs without any problems, other than having to reregister Windows. I’m assuming it’s the HD serial which gets attached to your copy of windows. You will have to reregister each time you switch out the drive.

HDs are cheap and easy to replace. Buy a spare and copy your current windows 7 HD to it and use it in the new box while saving the HD with Windows 10 for future use.

I’m running 5 boxes with Windows 7. I’ve got Acronis running on 3 of them. I use acronis for daily backups, and for backups of multiple apple and android devices.

Get a set of cables which allows you to access a HD externally via a USB port. You can find these at Amazon.

Check YouTube for videos of how to do it.


22 posted on 11/11/2018 7:57:11 PM PST by amorphous
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To: steveo

Thinking about it, I have swapped operating HDs from one box to another. The main issue, IIRC, was the need to update drivers for the new hardware.

Hope that helps.


23 posted on 11/11/2018 8:16:11 PM PST by amorphous
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To: steveo; dayglored

I have TWO Win 7 laptops and using one now. The best. I just dont want to migrate to W10 and our office OS are all W10 until next year when no more upgrades LOL

But I am interested how to do it. Our Windows expert Freeper dayglored is the Man to talk to...join up with his ping list or PM the dude..


24 posted on 11/11/2018 8:33:59 PM PST by max americana (Fired libtard employees 9 consecutive times at every election since 08'. I hope all liberals die.)
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To: steveo

Acronis user guide at bottom of page: https://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/disk-manager/


25 posted on 11/11/2018 8:40:44 PM PST by amorphous
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