transferring files between computers

[newlyretired]

I have just bought a new Windows 11 PC

I'm wondering what is the best way to transfer files from my old Win 10 PC

Can I do this directly, they are both on the same network, or do I need to go with transfers via DropBox or USB memory sticks.

When I look at the network it only shows the printer and the router as available resources.

newlyretired

[ReformedCharacter]

I have just bought a new Windows 11 PC

I'm wondering what is the best way to transfer files from my old Win 10 PC

Can I do this directly, they are both on the same network, or do I need to go with transfers via DropBox or USB memory sticks.

When I look at the network it only shows the printer and the router as available resources.

newlyretired

You could set both machines up on the same network but that can be a bit of a faff, if you just want to move some files from one machine to the other then I'd suggest a USB stick would be the quickest solution. If you want to network them:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-i-connect-two-2-desktop-windows-10-pcs-to/d20132fc-dc2e-4582-a13e-3b2d51481c20

RC

[Infrasonic]

Unless you've deliberately disabled it you'll probably find many of your files automatically backed up to OneDrive on the W10 machine, have you checked?

There was a recent update to W10 called Windows Backup that is on by default, so even if previously you weren't being backed up to OneDrive that probably would have done it now. If so you should just be able to log into your Windows account and have the W11 machine sync with the existing OneDrive account.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/m ... ackup-app/

[MrFoolish]

I've always found it odd that transferring files between two computers has not been made easier. Ethernet seems to involve a lot of settings that are not exactly user-friendly. USB has cabling complications and you risk blowing up your port if you get it wrong. Bluetooth is rarely straightforward to pair and the required menus seem to shift like the Hogwort's staircases with each version of Windows.

I'm reasonably computer literate but I'd end up using a USB stick, which hardly seems efficient.

[Nocton]

I've always found it odd that transferring files between two computers has not been made easier. Ethernet seems to involve a lot of settings that are not exactly user-friendly. USB has cabling complications and you risk blowing up your port if you get it wrong. Bluetooth is rarely straightforward to pair and the required menus seem to shift like the Hogwort's staircases with each version of Windows.

I'm reasonably computer literate but I'd end up using a USB stick, which hardly seems efficient.

It is easy. Use Dropbox or the built-in OneDrive as infrasonic says.

[yorkshirelad1]

Depends on the quantity of files and where they are located on your Windows 10 machine.

As others have said, a USB stick would do the job

One notch up: have both machines booted and connected to the same network. Share the location of the files on your Windows 10 machine, connect to the Windows 10 shared location from the Windows 11 machine and drag and drop the files.

[Urbandreamer]

Depends on the quantity of files and where they are located on your Windows 10 machine.

As others have said, a USB stick would do the job

One notch up: have both machines booted and connected to the same network. Share the location of the files on your Windows 10 machine, connect to the Windows 10 shared location from the Windows 11 machine and drag and drop the files.

ARGH, NO, NO, NO.

Do not drag and drop the files. There is no error checking or retries involved using drag and drop. It doesn't mutli-thread well and has path name limits.

Ok, as a Linux user I'd use rsync which can compress the files before sending and decompress at the other end.

However windows comes with robocopy installed that is actually INTENDED for the job.
Just one issue with either, you have to use the keyboard!

This is a video on why to NOT use drag and drop and how best to use robocopy to best transfer files over a network.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q3rGK_IMZg

[Howard]

Can I back up (pun intended) infrasonic's advice.

I don't have any computer knowledge except using them for everyday purposes and have a W10 desktop and bought a W11 laptop. Both access Onedrive and I didn't have to do anything apart from turning on the new laptop!

Sometimes it does take an hour or so for Onedrive to catch up with a file saved on the PC but otherwise it happens automatically.

So if it's files and pictures etc Windows saves them on the cloud as well as on the computer.

regards

Howard

[MrFoolish]

It is easy. Use Dropbox or the built-in OneDrive as infrasonic says.

I don't see why you should be forced to do it via the cloud. It's essentially a way of them trying to tie you into a subscription service.

[Infrasonic]

It is easy. Use Dropbox or the built-in OneDrive as infrasonic says.

I don't see why you should be forced to do it via the cloud. It's essentially a way of them trying to tie you into a subscription service.

It's also a way of them providing you with offsite folder/ file/ settings backup by default - so in the event of a house fire or similar total loss you'll stand a chance of getting at least some of it back.

There's plenty of ways to DIY backup onsite and offsite using third party local apps or cloud services that having nothing to do with the big players like MS/Google et al. Disable all the built in backup options if it bothers you that much...

The reality is 99% of users don't want to even think about it, let alone learn how to set up things like a Synology NAS' (other brands are available...), My Cloud and Syncthing - they 'just want it to work'.

How do you think Apple have become so big with their walled garden approach?

[MrFoolish]

It's also a way of them providing you with offsite folder/ file/ settings backup by default - so in the event of a house fire or similar total loss you'll stand a chance of getting at least some of it back.?

I'm not really talking about backup. I'm talking about the ad-hoc transfer of a tiny number of files between computers. They've made it far more cumbersome than it needs to be. And sometimes one of the computers doesn't have internet connectivity because it's not in range or it hasn't been set up on the network.

And 99% of statistics are made up!

[yorkshirelad1]

Depends on the quantity of files and where they are located on your Windows 10 machine.

As others have said, a USB stick would do the job

One notch up: have both machines booted and connected to the same network. Share the location of the files on your Windows 10 machine, connect to the Windows 10 shared location from the Windows 11 machine and drag and drop the files.

ARGH, NO, NO, NO.

Do not drag and drop the files. There is no error checking or retries involved using drag and drop. It doesn't mutli-thread well and has path name limits.

Ok, as a Linux user I'd use rsync which can compress the files before sending and decompress at the other end.

However windows comes with robocopy installed that is actually INTENDED for the job.
Just one issue with either, you have to use the keyboard!

This is a video on why to NOT use drag and drop and how best to use robocopy to best transfer files over a network.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q3rGK_IMZg

I would tend to agree with you, but as I prefaced my comments with "it depends". If it were me, it would be a full image (e.g using Macrium Reflect) to an external hard drive, then moving the external hard drive to the new machine, and importing from the image file. But that's me.Horse for courses, I'd say.

[ReformedCharacter]

I'm talking about the ad-hoc transfer of a tiny number of files between computers. They've made it far more cumbersome than it needs to be.

It's called security.

RC

[Urbandreamer]

ARGH, NO, NO, NO.

Do not drag and drop the files. There is no error checking or retries involved using drag and drop. It doesn't mutli-thread well and has path name limits.

Ok, as a Linux user I'd use rsync which can compress the files before sending and decompress at the other end.

However windows comes with robocopy installed that is actually INTENDED for the job.
Just one issue with either, you have to use the keyboard!

This is a video on why to NOT use drag and drop and how best to use robocopy to best transfer files over a network.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q3rGK_IMZg

I would tend to agree with you, but as I prefaced my comments with "it depends". If it were me, it would be a full image (e.g using Macrium Reflect) to an external hard drive, then moving the external hard drive to the new machine, and importing from the image file. But that's me.Horse for courses, I'd say.

It also of course has the "advantage" that you don't need to use the keyboard. Seriously using a Macrium image is not a hugely bad idea, as having one would probably be a good idea at the point of moving machines.

However as you say, horses for courses. I keep multiple copies of important files on multiple pieces of hardware. Exactly the task that dropbox or onedrive seeks to offer, but without giving the stuff to others. As such copying the entire OS including candycrush (do Microsoft still automatically install it) alongside my personal files seems a bit of overkill.

[Infrasonic]

... As such copying the entire OS including candycrush (do Microsoft still automatically install it) alongside my personal files seems a bit of overkill.

With paid Macrium Reflect you can do the OS and Folders/files as separate full/differential/incremental back up schedules i.e more frequent for folders and documents.

Windows itself also has a local File History option, I use it in conjunction with paid Macrium Reflect and cloud but I wouldn't want to rely on File History solely as it's a bit basic...

Macrium Reflect free is going away, so for anyone who wants to get on board paid will be your only option going forwards - they normally have a decent 50% discount around November every year - hopefully that continues ...https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=macri ... nt=gws-wiz

[GrahamPlatt]

Hard drive/SSD out of old PC & into disc caddy. attach as ext drive to new PC. copy at leisure. Or just leave them there.

[servodude]

Hard drive/SSD out of old PC & into disc caddy. attach as ext drive to new PC. copy at leisure. Or just leave them there.

- or internally if you can fit it

I've tried to structure my PCs in a way that makes this easy for years essentially treating the main drive (which I figure more likely to fail) as a temporary working location
I was caught out once when a laptop SSD turned out to be a Raid 0 array and I didn't realise till after the motherboard had died
- fortunately important stuff was stored on the internal removable drive (it was a monstrous laptop) and I had a bit of fun recovering the data using software raid

But yes, if you no longer need the original computer to remain assembled, mounting its drive in a way you can access it at leisure (then stash it somewhere for later) would be my preference

-sd

[newlyretired]

You could set both machines up on the same network but that can be a bit of a faff, if you just want to move some files from one machine to the other then I'd suggest a USB stick would be the quickest solution. If you want to network them:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-i-connect-two-2-desktop-windows-10-pcs-to/d20132fc-dc2e-4582-a13e-3b2d51481c20

RC

I'm trying to get the 2 PCs networked, and I followed the steps outlined in this Microsoft answers page, but not much success.

The new Win 11 PC is connected to the router's wifi. The old Win 10 PC is connected to the router by ethernet cable.

I can successfully ping from the Win 11 PC to the Win 10 PC, but when I try to ping from the Win10 PC to the Win 11 PC the request times out.

And using MS File Explorer on the Win 11 PC, and clicking on "Network", the Win 10 PC doesn't show up.

Any suggestions welcome!

newlyretired

[Urbandreamer]

I'm trying to get the 2 PCs networked, and I followed the steps outlined in this Microsoft answers page, but not much success.

The new Win 11 PC is connected to the router's wifi. The old Win 10 PC is connected to the router by ethernet cable.

I can successfully ping from the Win 11 PC to the Win 10 PC, but when I try to ping from the Win10 PC to the Win 11 PC the request times out.

And using MS File Explorer on the Win 11 PC, and clicking on "Network", the Win 10 PC doesn't show up.

Any suggestions welcome!

newlyretired

I did a quick google as I've seen such things in the past but have no experience of Windows 11.
I found this that seems to suggest that Win 11 is set up to refuse ping requests from the network.
https://superuser.com/questions/1683853 ... 11-machine

Of course given that you are trying to copy from the Win 10 machine, you could just work on being able to access that from the Win 11 machine and ignore the reverse route.

[ReformedCharacter]

You could set both machines up on the same network but that can be a bit of a faff, if you just want to move some files from one machine to the other then I'd suggest a USB stick would be the quickest solution. If you want to network them:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do-i-connect-two-2-desktop-windows-10-pcs-to/d20132fc-dc2e-4582-a13e-3b2d51481c20

RC

I'm trying to get the 2 PCs networked, and I followed the steps outlined in this Microsoft answers page, but not much success.

The new Win 11 PC is connected to the router's wifi. The old Win 10 PC is connected to the router by ethernet cable.

I can successfully ping from the Win 11 PC to the Win 10 PC, but when I try to ping from the Win10 PC to the Win 11 PC the request times out.

And using MS File Explorer on the Win 11 PC, and clicking on "Network", the Win 10 PC doesn't show up.

Any suggestions welcome!

newlyretired

I'd suggest checking your network settings, open a command prompt on both machines:

Press the Windows Key + R, type in 'cmd', and press Enter.

When the command box opens, type 'ipconfig' and Enter, you should see something like this:



On your Win11 machine it will show as something like 'Wireless Adaptor'.

Check that the IP addresses (shown as IPv4 Address) are what you think they are when you ping, probably something like 192.168.x.x

The Subnet Mask and Default Gateway should be the same on both machines. That's a starting point

I assume you carried out the instructions shown in the link on both machines, it's probably worth checking again.

RC