-1

I am on the cusp of obtaining a new laptop; is there a "shortcut" to saving all my "personal" files (those created by me - documents, spreadsheets, source code, etc.) from my old laptop so that they can be copied over to the new machine?

I have more than enough space on my [one,sky]drive account for everything. I could upload folders one at a time, but I'm wondering if there's a less tedious way - something like "transfer everything except what was on the old laptop when it was purchased.

Is there a standard method for transferring all "user" files to skydrive?

3 Answers 3

1

If you are working manually, save the entire "Users" folder (usually C:/Users). This will contain a lot of information you will not transfer, but better more than less.

Then, on your new setup you can go and transfer what you need back (My Documents, Downloads, Desktop, Etc). There are those programs like chrome that have program specific user files that you can copy back if you are feeling ambitious. DO NOT overwrite the entire Users folder onto the new setup as there is application data that should not be copied over.

I personally do have some programs that have customized files outside of the Users folder, (Example custom LISP files for AutoCAD), but these are usually specialized cases that are rare compared to the average user case; mostly know saving even the "Users" folder may leave a few items out so a full backup is the only "foolproof" solution.

Finally, keep the data a few weeks for those few straggling files you might have missed, then delete the backup when you feel comfortable.

To recap it's simplicity, save "Users" folder, then copy back the contents of the few folders you need on the new system.

1

This tutorial walks you through how to sync everything with Microsoft OneDrive (formally SkyDrive). Once sync'ed, you can then attach the new laptop and sync on that end.

1

Well.. you could simply connect both computers to the same network (preferably with ethernet, but wireless will work, it'll just be a bit slower), then share the files on the local network, and copy them over the network directly from one computer to the other.

If the files you're backing up aren't too massive in size all put together (we're not talking like hundreds of gigabytes) you could also simply archive them into a zip, rar, 7z or other archive format, and compress them while at it, this will make the file transfer from one computer to the other significantly faster (whether you do it through ethernet or using a usb hard drive/flash drive)

Otherwise well, if you don't wanna be oldschool like me, then yeah you could use skydrive, there's no need for shortcuts it's pretty straightforward, right?

If you don't want to upload them one folder at a time, put them all into one folder and upload that (or archive it into a compressed zip or rar or 7z file.) I bet if you're sane all your user files are located in pretty much a small handful of folders (documents, desktop, etc), unless I misunderstood you and you mean to copy your user account and all the crap files that have gathered up over time in your appdata folder. (That is a bad idea either way)

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .