NY wrote
Dave Plowman (News) wrote

I do have the laptop backed up - using the Win7 facility - to an
external HD. Would I be able to retrieve my files from that if
anything goes wrong to the new Win10 while installing? Or should I do
a second backup of the files I know I might want later? JPGs and so
on.

Be cautious about proprietary backup processes which back up parts of the
PC to a humungous backup file. You would need the same program on the
recipient PC (ie after upgrade to Win10) to extract any files that hadn't
been preserved.

Yes, but the bit advantage of using one of those for the
backup is that it can do it while you use the PC and so
you don't have to do something else while doing the
backup and the backup is usually much quicker too.

I tend to use Microsoft SyncToy (other similar programs are available,
such as Robocopy) which make a simple file-and-folder backup of selected
directories, so you can do a simple copy of selected files or folders from
the backup drive, without needing special software to extract them from
the amorphous single backup file.

But those are quite crude performance wise.

As a tip, open Control Panel | Programs and Features and screenprint the
list of all the installed programs, so you know what to put back if the
upgrade doesn't preserve it. Also take a screenshot of the desktop so the
layout of the icons that you have carefully arranged (if you're anything
like me!) can be restored.

I don't use the desktop at all anymore since 7.
I find the taskbar much more useful now.

Maybe also find how your browser stored saved username/password for sites,
and either copy the relevant files or screenprint a list of them.

A proper image backup is much safer. If you find that
something like that is needed, the most you have to
do is image the new install, restore the old install,
get that stuff from the wherever it is, restore the
new install and move that stuff manually.

Make sure you have a copy of all the email files and folders in case the
upgrade screws them up.

I don't do that anymore either, I leave them all on
the server and read and write them using the app.

Likewise make sure you know email settings (POP/SMTP servers, ports,
encryption method, username/password) in case you need to re-make
anything.

Ditto.

In short: assume that the upgrade process will make a real hash of the
upgrade, leaving the PC in a worse state than it started - and be
pleasantly surprised if it works OK ;-)

But a full image of the original install does that much better.