Members Paully Posted December 21, 2006 Members Share Posted December 21, 2006 I recently had to replace the Hdrive and reload everything. Fortunately I saw the crash coming and did preemptive file backups to an external drive. Still a massive job to get everything back to normal. My question is: Windows has a Wizard that allows you to upload current setting, files, etc. to a different computer. Anyone know if this upload can be sent to an external HD for storage instead? Life would be so much simpler when the crash comes. The links to the wizard are: From the desktop: Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. Any info would be much appreciated. Best, Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dylan Walters Posted December 21, 2006 Members Share Posted December 21, 2006 You can direct the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to store the backup on any drive that is attached to your system or a mapped network drive. Is this what you are trying to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paully Posted December 22, 2006 Author Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 Originally posted by Dylan Walters You can direct the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to store the backup on any drive that is attached to your system or a mapped network drive. Is this what you are trying to do? Hey Dylan, Ya, exactly. I started to follow the wizard, but it seemed to lead only to uploads to a second computer or network. Mabee there's an option deeper in (via 'browser options' search) to transfer settings to a location such as an X-hard drive. That would sure make life simple to get back up if the OS got infected or the new drive fails. Took a full week to get my original setting back. Of course I have no idea how one would back-load from an external hard drive and into Windows . Have you ever fiddled with this wizard? Thanks, Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Sayers Posted December 22, 2006 Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 The wizard will backup to an external drive - and reverse the process back again. Just say this is your OLD machine, next page assign the external media and find your external drive. Piece of cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paully Posted December 22, 2006 Author Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 Originally posted by John Sayers The wizard will backup to an external drive - and reverse the process back again. Just say this is your OLD machine, next page assign the external media and find your external drive. Piece of cake. Hi John, I gave it a shot, and here's what happened. Three 'destination' options came up: 1) connection to a 2nd computer using the serial port. 2) saving to floppy A or B 3) saving to any disk drive or folder on my current computer. Number 3 is the only real option, and with both external drives(one USB, one IEEE) turned on, the browse option didn't recognize/list either of them. The only option I could find would be to "create a new folder", which I did. It appeared at C:/ > Documents and Settings > My Documents. Is the trick to let the wizard load data into that new folder, then manually transfer (copy/paste) it to one of the externals? Otherwise, it doesn't seem to work. Any thoughts? I'd transfer to floppy, but will they hold all the info? I'd probably need a dozen or more. Hope I'm not being a pest. Confused, Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members John Sayers Posted December 22, 2006 Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 Paul - firstly state that this is your OLD computer and then on the next page use 3 - the "other" - option and browse to find your external drive and it will save it all there. When you fire up your new computer you reverse the process stating it is you "New" computer and again browse to find your external drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Paully Posted December 22, 2006 Author Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 The browser definately won't recognize an external drive, but I think I may have got a connection. Needed a couple extra steps. What I had to do was: 1) Before opening the wizard, create an empty folder on the external drive and name it, then open the wizard. 2) Under option 3, instead of 'browsing', type in the destination drive letter and the folder name as a path, then hit 'next'. It looks like it will then redirect using this procedure. I was lost when the wizard kept sticking the 'New Folder' on the current drive, although that would probably work with copy/paste. Thanks again for your patience. Best, Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blackpig Posted December 22, 2006 Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 While we're at, my laptop's processor (the most expensive bit) died the other day so I went out and bought a new laptop. I was planning on buying a new one anyway as I could see the end coming for the old {censored}ebox. What I did not do was backup songs, photos etc. onto a cd as that drive was broken as well. What I'd like to know is this: can I take the hard drive out of my old machine, put it in the new one, transfer the files onto cd and then put the new machine's hard drive back in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted December 22, 2006 CMS Author Share Posted December 22, 2006 Originally posted by blackpig can I take the hard drive out of my old machine, put it in the new one, transfer the files onto cd and then put the new machine's hard drive back in? Probably, if you can get to it. Many laptops have hard drives that are prettyeasy to exchange, others bury them. Obviously you need two of the first kind. Unless of course your new computer uses a SATA drive and your old one (almost certainly) uses a standard parallel IDE interface (now called PATA to distinguish them). Those are incompatible at the hardware interface level. You'll probably want to boot Windows in the Safe mode so that it doesn't try to load any drivers from your old computer's disk that the new computer doesn't like. I think you get to that mode by holding down the F5 key before it starts to boot. A handy thing to have is a USB adapter for a disk drive. I have one that's just a cable (plus an external supply) with a standard IDE drive ribbon connector on one end and a USB plug on the other. If you have (or get) one of those, plus a little adapter to convert the pins on a laptop-sized drive to the standard IDE pinout, you can just plug your old drive into the new computer. That's probably the least harmless solution. Or you could get a USB drive case for your old laptop drive (most of these power the drive through the USB cable), stick it in the case, plug it in, and transfer your files. Then, reformat it and use it to back up what you didn't back up the last time. Heres's an example Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members blackpig Posted December 22, 2006 Members Share Posted December 22, 2006 That bit about usb-ribbon cables is music to my ears, Mike. That would make life very handy. It means I don't break any warranty seals on my new machine getting the drive out. You are a gentleman, a scholar and a fine judge of good brandy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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