Moving data to a new PC

Belkin's Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7

I am running a laptop with Microsoft Vista. I replaced the original hard drive with a bigger one, but that is nearly full. If I were to buy a new laptop with an even bigger drive using Windows 7, how would I best transfer all the contents – programs and data – from the old to the new laptop?
Mark Lavender

Both Vista and Windows 7 include a program called Windows Easy Transfer, which is designed to transfer your data to a new PC, but not your applications. People who don't have a copy can download the latest version from Microsoft.

Windows Easy Transfer can move data between PCs using a transfer cable, a USB memory stick or thumbdrive, an external hard drive, and so on. The drawback with using a cable is that you'll have to buy one for the job, and you might never use it again. The advantage of using an external hard drive is that you can use it to keep backup copies of your data.

Windows Easy Transfer walks you through the process, and you can get a good idea of how it works by looking at the step-by-step illustrations at How-To Geek: Migrate XP to Windows 7 with Easy Transfer and a USB Drive. However, you have so much data, it's going to be a very long process. It would be better to move large sets of data, such as movie or music folders, first, then use Windows Easy Transfer to move the more personal data, such as email and bookmarks. Personally, I do it all manually anyway.

Some programs will move applications as well as data. Examples include Zinstall's XP7, Avanquest's Laplink PC Mover Ultimate, and Spearit's Move Me. O&O Software's Migration Kit for Windows 7 also uses Laplink PC Mover.

This sort of migration can be handy if you can no longer find your original discs. However, some applications are not designed to be moved – security software, for example; some applications may only be valid on your original PC; and some applications are designed to be installed from the web.

For the best results, it's probably better to install all your applications manually before transferring your data. There are now sites that will "bulk install" a selection of programs from the web. The leading examples are Ninite and AllMyApps. Once you have everything running to your satisfaction, you can uninstall any major applications from your old laptop, if your licence only allows you to run them on one PC. (In some cases, a software licence allows you to run a program on both a desktop and a laptop.) Making a fresh start on a new PC should prompt you to think about which applications you actually need and which ones you can do without.

You should also think about whether you actually need to have all your data on one laptop, and therefore whether you need a new laptop at all. If they are mostly music and video files, for example, you could move them to an external hard drive or a small server, such as a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device. Alternatively, you could back up multiple PCs and store all your files on a Windows Home Server such as an Acer EasyStore or HP MediaSmart server. Nowadays, a small media server should have at least 1TB of storage and be expandable to 4TB. Not many laptops offer more than 500GB.

Whichever approach you choose, look for a system that can move data as quickly as possible. Even USB 2 feels slow if you need to move hundreds of megabytes. Faster options include eSATA and the new USB 3.0 standard. In the future, Intel Light Peak optical connections will offer much faster data transfer using a USB-style cable. Intel Research showed a laptop using Light Peak in May, as I reported here in Intel said: Let there be Light Peak.

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