Helps moves files and settings to new harddrive

murphyslaw · 12. Aug 2011, 04:10 AM

Hi, I'm reinstalling Windows 7 on a new harddrive and want to make it look as identical as how my Windows 7 looked on my old harddrive (which can no longer be used as a master drive due to the new motherboard).

BUT I'm not looking for a disk cloner, just want to move the important files, preferences, settings, bookmarks etc without all the junk and needless files from the old drive. Hope to avoid reinstalling all the browsers and programs again too. I think this may be called "PC Migration," . . so far the closest I can find is Laplink which isn't free.

Does anyone know if freeware for this exists? I actually went back and flipped through all 32 pages of this forum, couldn't find anything like this!

Thanks!

kendall.a · 12. Aug 2011, 04:44 AM

Have you considered using Windows 7 own built-in tools?

See this link for more information:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...sked-questions

murphyslaw · 12. Aug 2011, 07:47 AM

Thanks Kendall, I've never heard of that one! But after checking it out, it won't work for me since I can't access my old hard drive was part of an old computer that no longer works. I can't access this hard drive until my new hard drive in my new computer is running.

What I want to do is after I install Win 7 on my new hard drive, tell the program to take things in my old hard drive and move them over to the new drive, without messing up the new drivers and bringing in old junk. It'd also be great if it would bring my old programs over too since there's so much to reinstall. (ex. Microsoft Office, ugh).

If not, do you know if any of the disk cloning softwares might have advance features to do something like this?

(And btw, are there really 1706 people viewing this forum section? That's insane!

)

torres-no-tan-magnifico · 12. Aug 2011, 10:30 AM

@murphyslaw,

Perhaps the links in #2 will be of help to you:

https://www.techsupportalert.com/fre...html#post56344

I don't run W7 on my PCs but I am sure that the listed articles will still be relevant!

murphyslaw · 12. Aug 2011, 11:38 PM

Thanks Torres! I'll take a look into that once I get my new hard drive working.

12. Aug 2011, 04:10 AM	#1 (permalink)
murphyslaw Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 3	Helps moves files and settings to new harddrive Hi, I'm reinstalling Windows 7 on a new harddrive and want to make it look as identical as how my Windows 7 looked on my old harddrive (which can no longer be used as a master drive due to the new motherboard). BUT I'm not looking for a disk cloner, just want to move the important files, preferences, settings, bookmarks etc without all the junk and needless files from the old drive. Hope to avoid reinstalling all the browsers and programs again too. I think this may be called "PC Migration," . . so far the closest I can find is Laplink which isn't free. Does anyone know if freeware for this exists? I actually went back and flipped through all 32 pages of this forum, couldn't find anything like this! Thanks!

12. Aug 2011, 04:44 AM	#2 (permalink)
kendall.a Foundation Editor/Forum Manager Intern Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Colorado, USA Posts: 1,814	Have you considered using Windows 7 own built-in tools? See this link for more information: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...sked-questions __________________ <-------Is looking for his brain....

12. Aug 2011, 10:30 AM	#4 (permalink)
torres-no-tan-magnifico Copy Editor Join Date: Sep 2009 Posts: 622	@murphyslaw, Perhaps the links in #2 will be of help to you: https://www.techsupportalert.com/fre...html#post56344 I don't run W7 on my PCs but I am sure that the listed articles will still be relevant! __________________ Torres-no-tan-magnifico

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12. Aug 2011, 07:47 AM	#3 (permalink)
murphyslaw Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 3	Thanks Kendall, I've never heard of that one! But after checking it out, it won't work for me since I can't access my old hard drive was part of an old computer that no longer works. I can't access this hard drive until my new hard drive in my new computer is running. What I want to do is after I install Win 7 on my new hard drive, tell the program to take things in my old hard drive and move them over to the new drive, without messing up the new drivers and bringing in old junk. It'd also be great if it would bring my old programs over too since there's so much to reinstall. (ex. Microsoft Office, ugh). If not, do you know if any of the disk cloning softwares might have advance features to do something like this? (And btw, are there really 1706 people viewing this forum section? That's insane! )

12. Aug 2011, 11:38 PM	#5 (permalink)
murphyslaw Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 3	Thanks Torres! I'll take a look into that once I get my new hard drive working.