NY wrote
Robin wrote
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.

But that assumes that he has got something that can contain a full
backup of the computer being replaced. Plenty dont have that.

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.

Any decent backup app will verify the backup after its done.

Then copy that backup to the new PC

That assumes its running the same version of the OS,
rash assumption. And even if it is, you can't necessarily
just restore the full backup to the new computer if the
hardware detail is rather different, as its likely to be.

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.

But those have their own verify systems.

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...

Makes more sense to use the files and settings transfer
wizard if its a reasonably current version of Win.