"Robin" wrote in message
...
On 20/11/2016 12:54, Broadback wrote:
I am considering replacing my desktop computer. what is the best way of
transferring data from my old one to the new?

Using your backup of the data. That way you know know you have the data
on your new PC and on the backup media before you touch the old PC.

And you also find out if you really do have an up-to-date backup that can
be read

If you want to play it safe, make a *new* backup (rather than a series of
incremental backups over time) to be sure that all the files are good copies
of what's on the old PC. It's one thing to make sure that the list of
pathnames and the timestamps match but that doesn't check that the contents
of the files match.

I suppose to be really sure you'd back up the PC to the backup drive then do
a WinDiff between the two. Then copy that backup to the new PC and WinDiff
the backup with the new PC. If you're paranoid!

This assumes that you use backup software that creates an copy of the
files/folders (as if you'd done a normal copy), such as MS SyncToy, rather
than using a package that merges all the files into one huge backup file
that needs proprietary software on both PCs to write files to and to read
files from the single backup file.


I must admit I usually remove the hard disc and connect it to a USB-SATA
interface and copy the data that way - but I can see that there is a very
remote possibility of damaging the filesystem on the donor disc.

It's a shame that hard discs don't have a write-protect switch so you can be
sure that when you are reading from a HDD its contents won't be accidentally
changed in any way.


There is another way. Share the drive (or some folder and its subfolders) on
the old PC with read-only permission, then copy from \\oldpc\sharename to
c:\users\newuser\pathname - maybe using backup software such as SyncToy so
you can break off and resume the copy process without having the hassle of
answering all the "file already exists" questions if you resume the copying.
Do this over Ethernet rather than wireless, as the latter will be much
slower...