Selkowitz Technology | Seattle's small business network and telecom consultant » How-To http://selkowitz.org The Life and Times of Seattle's Only Small Business Systems Consultant. Articles and advice on small business phone systems, phone and internet services, VoIP, and all things technology related. Mon, 21 Jul 2008 19:15:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 en How To: Transfer User Profiles to a New Computer the Even Easier Way http://selkowitz.org/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer-the-even-easier-way/ http://selkowitz.org/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer-the-even-easier-way/#comments Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:52:25 +0000 Kevin Selkowitz http://selkowitz.org/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer-the-even-easier-way/ A while back I wrote an article How to Transfer User Profiles and while that article is still useful for certain situations, if the old computer still boots there’s now an easier way! Forensit has a beta of User Profile Transfer Wizard, which makes moving systems a piece of cake.

Download the program on the old computer, connect an external hard drive, and run the wizard - it will ask which user to backup and then just tell it to backup to the external hard drive. Wait a few minutes for the file to be created, copy the wizard to the external hard drive, then disconnect the drive and connect to the new computer.

At the new computer run the wizard from the external hard drive, then select the file to restore. A few minutes later all your files and settings will be back in place on the new machine!

One note is these techniques bring over files and settings, not programs. You’ll need to reinstall those from disk/download.

]]> http://selkowitz.org/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer-the-even-easier-way/feed/ How To: Transfer User Profiles to a New Computer http://selkowitz.org/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer/ http://selkowitz.org/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer/#comments Mon, 11 Sep 2006 05:14:56 +0000 Kevin Selkowitz http://selkowitz.org/2006/09/10/how-to-transfer-user-profiles-to-a-new-computer/ Lets say you bought a new Windows PC, here’s the easiest process to switching.

Overview
With the advent of Windows 2000 and XP, each user of the system got a “profile” which contains all their files, settings, emails, favorites, etc. Not long ago we found a way to copy these profiles so setup would take less time as all the user’s stuff would remain the same.

Programs are not transferred in this process, those must be reinstalled by CD/download again. You can try to copy the programs folder, but the programs won’t actually work.

These directions work for Windows 2000 and XP only and will work between them - for example transferring from 2000 to XP or XP Home to Pro. Macs already have an easier and more powerful migration tool built-in.

The Steps:

  1. Setup the new computer and make accounts for any users you want on the machine.
  2. Remove the hard drive from the old PC
  3. Connect the hard drive to the new PC via the internal hard drive connectors (don’t disconnect the new drive) or even easier use an external USB2 hard drive adapter.
  4. Once the old drive is mounted, open up two explorer windows to the ‘Documents and Settings’ folders - one to the new drive and one to the old drive.
  5. In the documents and settings folder you’ll see the profiles for each user, copy from the old machine to the new one.
  6. Download Forensit’s “User Profile Manager,” install it, and reboot.
  7. Open up the User Profile Manager in the Control Panels. Check the “Show Unassigned Profiles” checkbox. Select one of the unassigned profiles you copied over, then click assign. Enter the name of the user you created in step 1 to assign the profile to.
  8. Assign all the profiles, log out, log back in as one of the users who’s profile was migrated - prepare to be amazed!
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