From one PC to new PC...

[Mudguard]

When I buy a new PC how can I transfer all info from the old to the new PC including Mic 10 etc....

[BobHelm]

This is a pretty good walk through of how to do it..

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing ... ard-drive/

Microsoft don't offer a tool to do it through their system, so you will have to use an application specifically designed to do that. The 'walk through' above mentions some.
There are ease of use/cost implications to most of the cloning systems. It is probably better to have a good look at a couple of the free ones first. Personally I would not pay for an Application to do this - but that is probably just me..

[BobHelm]

Oops apparently you can do it directly with Windows 10..
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/clone- ... isk-drive/
but only if you are moving to a disk that is the same size or larger than the original. So if, for example your new machine has an SSD then it is unlikely that you can do using this method...

The issue that you may have is that you need to 'connect' your new hard drive/SSD drive to your old computer with most of these methods.
If you have your original windows 10 disk then you can create a new Windows 10 system on the new computer by just loading Windows 10 onto it & then logging on as your usual username. That should set up your Applications & Desktop exactly as your old computer setup - according to Microsoft, so don't shoot me...
You would then need to backup any personal data on your old pc & restore it onto the new one...

[rjj04]

I've used this tool a number of times, it doesn't care what is on the hard disk that is to be cloned.

http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php

[rjj04]

There is a link on that site that goes to youtube where you will find thousands of videos on Clonezilla usage scenarios.

Free, powerful, and lot's of documentation. Good luck.

[AussieBoy]

I got my old PC to new PC transferred across with all the files and programs, most of the programs setup files were stored on the old PC, copied from from original disk, most were online download programs, Took both computers to Central computer shop, next day, went over new computer and set up all the passwords that needed to done, to upgrade some of the programs, spent 2 hours with the tec testing the new setup, said he spent about 4 hours to do most of the work the day before, some 20 programs needed my password to upgrade to new computer like Roboform, Kapersky, CAD cost B400 job well done, here's about 1/4 of the programs that had to be installed, went from old hard disk to new SSD

[rjj04]

I got my old PC to new PC transferred across with all the files and programs, most of the programs setup files were stored on the old PC, copied from from original disk, most were online download programs, Took both computers to Central computer shop, next day, went over new computer and set up all the passwords that needed to done, to upgrade some of the programs, spent 2 hours with the tec testing the new setup, said he spent about 4 hours to do most of the work the day before, some 20 programs needed my password to upgrade to new computer like Roboform, Kapersky, CAD cost B400 job well done, here's about 1/4 of the programs that had to be installed, went from old hard disk to new SSD

Forgive me but sometimes my reading comprehension isn't too good these days, but why would one want to go through all of that hassle to simply move a single disk drive old computer to a new computer? Simply "clone" the old disk (assuming it is only one disk and not spread out over a raid setup or something) to the new disk. By "cloning" we mean a low level disk to disk transfer of every byte of data. Maybe I'm getting old and senile? Don't answer that, it was rhetorical!!

[pal52]

Where is Central Computer Shop.
Sounds like you got good service.
Can you show on google maps as I might need some similar work done.

[lassebasse]

Did not read all of the above. However when it comes to any kind of document or pictures etc, Dropbox is a smart alternative for mowing stuff from one PC to another.

[Udon Map]

Simply "clone" the old disk (assuming it is only one disk and not spread out over a raid setup or something) to the new disk. By "cloning" we mean a low level disk to disk transfer of every byte of data. Maybe I'm getting old and senile? Don't answer that, it was rhetorical!!

For that type of cloning, low level disk to disk transfer, don't the drives have to be identical?

[mortsyn]

I keep almost all of my data in the cloud so I can access it from my PCs, Smartphones or tablets. If I replace one of these units almost no migration will be needed.

[rjj04]

Simply "clone" the old disk (assuming it is only one disk and not spread out over a raid setup or something) to the new disk. By "cloning" we mean a low level disk to disk transfer of every byte of data. Maybe I'm getting old and senile? Don't answer that, it was rhetorical!!

For that type of cloning, low level disk to disk transfer, don't the drives have to be identical?

No. Obviously you can't go from a HDD with 200GB of data being used, down to an SSD of 64GB. There are a ton of videos on Clonezilla usage on Youtube I suggest people check them out. It is a great tool just to use an old HDD to keep a backup of the whole OS (SSD) on my server. If the SSD should have some issue, I can use the backup and not have to reinstall Ubuntu and every tool through APT. Most people probably have old HDDs hanging around.

From the Clonezilla website ...
"Many File systems are supported: (1) ext2, ext3, ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, xfs, jfs, btrfs, f2fs and nilfs2 of GNU/Linux, (2) FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS of MS Windows, (3) HFS+ of Mac OS, (4) UFS of FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD, (5) minix of Minix, and (6) VMFS3 and VMFS5 of VMWare ESX. Therefore you can clone GNU/Linux, MS windows, Intel-based Mac OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Minix, VMWare ESX and Chrome OS/Chromium OS, no matter it's 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) OS. For these file systems, only used blocks in partition are saved and restored by Partclone. For unsupported file system, sector-to-sector copy is done by dd in Clonezilla. "

I'm not sure, what is the file system used on Windows 10? In any case, as it states above, for "unsupported file system"s it will drop down to using "dd" a very low level (but powerful) albeit slower, Linux utility.

[sometimewoodworker]

For that type of cloning, low level disk to disk transfer, don't the drives have to be identical?

Just the same size or bigger

However there's no guarantee that the cloned drive will boot a different computer.

[Udon Map]

For that type of cloning, low level disk to disk transfer, don't the drives have to be identical?

Just the same size or bigger.

I do remember in the old days of early cloning systems, that the cloning was a literal clone, track by track and sector by sector without regard to content, files, or whatever; hence the requirement for identical drives. I guess that things have changed in the last 30+ years.

[gprit]

A simple (bought) package such as Acronis (about $15) will do it - although you need an external/cloud storage to clone the disk. Drivers are the main issue. Acronis will attempt to find online but you may have to visit manufacturer's website to download WIN10 drivers.

Of course if you clone an 'old' PC to a new one you still end up with an 'old' PC settings eg maybe 32 bit instead of 64 bit etc. Many programs for previous versions of Windows will not run on WIN10.

I would avoid WIN10 like the plague.....

[rjj04]

A simple (bought) package such as Acronis (about $15) will do it - although you need an external/cloud storage to clone the disk. Drivers are the main issue. Acronis will attempt to find online but you may have to visit manufacturer's website to download WIN10 drivers.

Of course if you clone an 'old' PC to a new one you still end up with an 'old' PC settings eg maybe 32 bit instead of 64 bit etc. Many programs for previous versions of Windows will not run on WIN10.

I would avoid WIN10 like the plague.....

Actually, I think perhaps I've made an error here... if it is from an old PC to a new PC with very different h/w, then maybe it will not be easy to simply clone the disk... at least in the Windows world as gprit here mentions Windows drivers, apps not working on newer h/w etc etc...... perhaps I should stick to commenting on Linux issues? I am an ignoramus when it comes to Windows these days as I haven't touched it in aeons. It seems Linux makes life a hell of a lot easier without so many of these issues. On Linux, many a time I've taken a HDD from say a laptop and installed it in a desktop and it works upon booting... perhaps better after an "apt-get update/upgrade"
My apologies

[bluejets]

Why not install win 10 on new drive and add old drive as say drive D:/

[Mudguard]

Thank you everybody for your input...Cheers, Mudguard..