Backup Old Computer to Brand New One.

Paulb112 · 23 Oct 2020

HP Slimline Desktop 410-010 (Energy Star.)
Operating System was Windows Home 10 v. 1809
It was fully loaded with Software. Windows 10 1809 64

I had a spare computer which I'm using now.
hp pavilion Desk Top P7-1410, its working pretty well.
Operating system is Windows 8.1 (build 9600,19206)

Now the Issue: I purchased a HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-0165z PC.
Operating System is Windows 10 Order Number H338055641
Now this New Computer is completely empty
and I want to Backup my computer data from the computer I'm using now.
I must admit I know very little about this procedure.

Any ADVISE would be greatly appreciated.
Paul

dalchina · 23 Oct 2020

Hi, if you simply wish to use it to store backups, rather than using a NAS or simply 1 or more external drives, you could set up a network so all PC's can 'see' each other - in particular share folders. Then you could simply arrange to transfer files by whatever means you wish.

The Tutorial section has information on configuring a network - a multi-step process on each PC.

It's perhaps not the best option to solely rely on a powered online PC to act as a backup, as it could be infected by viruses and not so easily stored securely offline as could an external drive, for example.

What sort of backup system you want rather depends on things like
- the size of data
- how critical it is
- how much of it is fast changing
- how securely you need it stored (multiple copies, multiple locations, consider fire, theft, flood...).

Backup options include:
- disk imaging (of all Windows partitions and any other partition you wish- allowing you to restore said partitions to as they were at a range of particular dates/times - also acts a full backup from which you can retrieve files
e.g. Macrium Reflect (free)
- File History (included in Windows- destination drive typically an external drive). Useful for fast changing data e.g.
-Tutorials available.
- 3rd party backup programs- manual and scheduled backups.
etc..

Consider that you can get large HDDs for £40-£60 say.

NavyLCDR · 23 Oct 2020

Paulb112 said:

Now the Issue: I purchased a HP Pavilion Desktop TP01-0165z PC.
Operating System is Windows 10 Order Number H338055641
Now this New Computer is completely empty
and I want to Backup my computer data from the computer I'm using now.
I must admit I know very little about this procedure.

Any ADVISE would be greatly appreciated.
Paul

Did you mean backup the data to the new computer or transfer the data to the new computer? To backup to the new computer means just to store a copy of the data on the new computer just in case the old computer dies, you will still have it stored away. To transfer the data to the new computer means to actually have it for use on the new computer. I've got a feeling what you are really asking is how you can transfer what you have on the old computer to the new computer so you can continue to use it.

There's a couple ways of doing that. You could just physically move the hard drive from the old computer to the new computer and try to boot from it. That would be the highest risk, though, of losing data on the hard drive if something went wrong, and I would highly recommend having a backup of the hard drive made before you attempt it.

Or, backup the C: drive (and any data partitions, which I doubt you have) using a program such as Macrium Reflect Free to an external USB disk. Then restore that backup to a partition on the new computer and set up dual booting. If everything works the way you want it to - the transferred Windows from the old to new computer boots up and everything is working, then you could delete the original OS from the new computer, if you wanted to.

dalchina · 23 Oct 2020

And if you wish to transfer a lot of installed programs to a clean installed O/S, user profiles and data, there are a couple of good 3rd party programs that can do that- a huge time saving.

Trying to move everything manually from browser favourites to data files, settings and data is time consuming.

Another approach is to use syncing: use onedrive and sync settings to help you.