Copying files from old computer to new computer

I agree there must always be a backup of any important data, for which I use memory sticks. They hold masses of data and are very sophisticated now. I like to keep my data private.

Yes but a backing up on the cloud gives you added protection. I had no warning when mine failed, which caused a great deal of angst. It would be extremely foolish to rely solely on a single external drive, as I know to my cost.
I did eventually manage to retrieve some of the data, thanks to my son, whose degree was IT related.

Marydoll, even the computer drive can fail. They are all just drives, whether external or not. I do a lot of family history research and also back up my work on memory sticks. I don't trust the cloud. I replace the hard drive every few years after one failed, but you usually get a warning when things are beginning to go wrong. That would apply to a computer drive or an external hard drive.

Chestnut

I save all my files on an external hard drive (not on the computer hard drive). So I would say just copy them to the external hard drive and then to the new computer. It's not a big job.

I used to do that in the old days, when my school PC had limited memory.
Unfortunately, two different external drives failed.

Everything I do now is saved both on my PC and to Microsoft Cloud.

I save all my files on an external hard drive (not on the computer hard drive). So I would say just copy them to the external hard drive and then to the new computer. It's not a big job.

What I did was copy the files I have in use onto a memory stick and pasted onto the new laptop. It seems to have worked.
Thinking about it I realised that most of the files are not altered just archived on the drive.

If both laptops/computers are on the same wifi network, you should be able to see the files on the old computer and copy over wifi onto the new one. support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/file-sharing-over-a-network-in-windows-10-b58704b2-f53a-4b82-7bc1-80f9994725bf

Good luck!

My laptop blew up last week, having to rely on the computer shop to rescue it and put it onto a new laptop, won't get it back until next week, very nervewracking!

Not very good for lots of files, but if you have a webmail facility, you can send an email to yourself with some files attached to the email using webmail on one machine, then leave webmail, then log onto webmail with the other machine and download the attached files to the local memory of that machine.

It might be a slow method, but how about?
Copy one or more files from the old machine on to a memory stick.
Copy contents of memory stick onto new machine.
Doing the transfer from the memory stick allows each file to be pasted into whatever file you want on the new machine.

Hi Jeanie99 - both computers need USB 3.0 ports- see this article for different ways to transfer files.
www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/how-to-transfer-files-from-pc-to-pc
and a type of cable called a USB transfer cable (3.0). See here:https://www.startech.com/en-nl/networking-io/usb3link

Good Luck

I back up to iCloud:

support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201391

jeanie99

Thanks for that TheodoraP, I've just had a look on Youtube and it's not straight forward at all.
Not what I thought, I didn't understand what the guy was saying, it's clearly something for my son to deal with.

I would ask my kids too....I'm pretty sure I would get there in the end....but my kids will just breeze thru it quickly and job done

Thanks for that TheodoraP, I've just had a look on Youtube and it's not straight forward at all.
Not what I thought, I didn't understand what the guy was saying, it's clearly something for my son to deal with.

They are called Transfer Cables jeanie99 or sometimes data transfer cables. As TheodoraP says: youTube have a few videos.

Wen ever I don't know how to do something I go on you tube

There's normally someone on there that has done a video on how to do that

Yes they are available..couple of quid off amazon or any IT store.