Solved User data migration from old W10 machine to new W11 machine

The last time I did a user data migration was no migration all, I did the free WU from W8.1 to W10. This time around, I won't be that lucky, since my W10 machine cannot be upgraded to W11, so I have to plan for migrating my user data (all my user data and only my user data) from my old W10 machine to my future, new W11 machine.

How did you all do your user data migration?

I know that at least one of us has all his user data in the cloud, and at least one of us has all his user data in a NAS, so for them there's no user data migration at all, since all their present and future devices simply access the user data in the cloud/NAS. Also, at least one of us has all his user data on a separate physical data drive that could/should be transplanted/transplantable in a new machine.

However, many of us (like me) have user data on C: that would need migrating.

I looked at File History (in a parallel thread) that in my testing has problems restoring the old W10 user data on a different machine, such as the new W11 machine.

I looked at the PowerShell Copy-Item cmdlet (in another parallel thread) that preserves time stamps on files, but not on folders. In other words, it appears to be worse than Direct Copy that preserves time stamps on files and folders!

I am still looking at Robocopy (in yet another thread) If you have good scripts for backup and restore, please share!

I am still evaluating Macrium Reflect (version 8) that I am beginning to like more and more, but it appears to me a tool more appropriate for backup and restore on the same machine (same OS) rather than a tool for migrating user data from an old W10 machine to a new W11 machine.

I have uses a PAID app known as EaseUS ToDo Data Transfer -- which allows you to migrate settings, data, and apps from one PC (or OS) version) to another. I don't know if they have a free version.

There is also LapLink PC Mover -- and I think the FREE version allows you to migrate user data and settings -- but you would have to check into that.

You have several options:

1. Use a USB drive (either flash drive or external HDD/SSD). Copy user data files from old computer to external drive. Plug external drive into new computer and copy files over.

2. Connect both computers to same local network. Share files on the old computer. Access the old files and copy to new computer over the network.

3. Use Macrium Reflect to create an image of the old computer. Use an external drive to save the image to, or save it directly to the new computer over a network connection. Using Macrium Reflect on the new computer, mount the image file and copy the files from the image file to the new computer.

4. Macrium Reflect will allow you to boot an image file as a virtual machine - or old computer could be run in VM on the new computer.

5. Physically move the SSD/HDD from the old computer to the new computer. You might be able to boot it, or you could copy files from it.

6. Retore a Macrium Reflect image to a new partition on the new computer - again, you may be able to boot into that partition, or you can copy files over from it.

Haydon said:

How did you all do your user data migration?

....I am still evaluating Macrium Reflect (version 8) that I am beginning to like more and more, but it appears to me a tool more appropriate for backup and restore on the same machine (same OS) rather than a tool for migrating user data from an old W10 machine to a new W11 machine.

Click to expand...

Reflect can be used to migrate a system image of the entire installed OS, software and user data to a new machine. It can even convert from a Legacy/MBR install to a UEFI/GPT one as part of the migration.

That's how I migrated my main machine (with its W10 OS and all my software/data) from my old System One over on Ten Forums to my new System One here on Eleven Forum. Effectively I am still running the same 'main machine' but with all its hardware replaced.

First I imaged the old Legacy/MBR machine, then clean installed the same version of W10 on the new machine as UEFI/GPT. Then I restored JUST the C: partition from the old machine to replace the C: partition of the clean install. Finally I ran the Reflect rescue media's 'Fix Windows Boot Problems' tool to rebuild a correct BCD table.

On the first boot up after the migration Windows 10 found itself running on new hardware (now on AMD, was on Intel), spent a few minutes installing appropriate drivers, then restarted and went to my familiar 'main machine' desktop with all my software and data ready and waiting for me. Subsequently Windows Update offered the Windows 11 upgrade to my (now fully compatible) main machine.

Thanks for the comments, folks, here are my thoughts.

@Mark Phelps I am not sure if 'EaseUS ToDo Data Transfer' and 'LapLink PC Mover' will migrate from one OS (W10) to a different OS (W11)

@NavyLCDR 1, 2 = Direct Copy. On 3, 4, 6, I am not sure if MR W10 image will mount/boot on W11. 5 = disk transplant, OS may not transplant, but user data could/should be.

@Bree If I understand you correctly, you imaged W10 old, restored on W10 new, and WU to W11. If I understand MR's Knowledge Base correctly, I would lose BitLocker that I would have to re-configure.

Haydon said:

If I understand MR's Knowledge Base correctly, I would lose BitLocker that I would have to re-configure.

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Yes, if you use Bitlocker then I think that you should turn it off and decrypt the drive before migrating by my method. My migration was for Windows 10 Home, so it wasn't an issue for me.

Transfer Windows 10 over then upgrade it to 11.

How do I accomplish data migration with a new PC, you ask?
I recently unboxed my new Dell XPS 15 9510 OLED, it came with W11 Pro.
All my data was there the instant I first logged in to Windows.
That's because I keep all my data and images on Microsoft OneDrive.

Well, that's what I mentioned in the OP as user data being in the cloud. Google, DropBox, etc. provide the same service.

I also mentioned in the OP the NAS, some NAS vendors market their products as 'your personal cloud', etc.

All that is about user data that is not on C: so that there is no user data migration at all.

The topic of this thread is a little different, it is about user data on C: so that user data does need to be migrated.

MY OPINION-Unless you have applications on your old machine that you do not have product keys for, I feel you would be better off
installing all your programs clean on your new Windows 11 machine. Getting your files over to the new machine is as simple as copying them to a USB drive on the old machine, inserting the usb drive into Windows 11, and copying them into it. You end up with a new machine with clean OS, apps and files with none of the junk that might be in Windows 10

When you say data migration, I am assuming you mean not only your personal files and folders, but all your applications as well. (if you mean only your personal files that's not what this procedure is about. Do what I said above. This procedure keeps everything. Also, this procedure applies only if your partition structure is UEFI on your old machine) Any time you attempt to do such a procedure as this, there is always a chance of error so keep that in mind. That's another reason to keep Windows 11 as is and install your apps clean.

1. Old machine-verify it is UEFI partitioned and Bitlocker is off. Install any backup program that offers restore to dissimilar hardware ie: universal restore. EaseUS Todo Backup Free does but I used the paid Macrium Reflect 8 Workstation. Free version of Macrium does not offer universal restore. You want such a program so all those old drivers do not migrate to the new machine.
Make usb recovery media for your backup software.
Make a full system backup of Windows 10.

2. New machine-as soon as it is initially set up and registered with your Microsoft account-make sure bitlocker is off-boot to recovery media you made in step 1 and make a full system backup of Windows 11. (this is your insurance policy) If it will not boot from recovery media-turn off Secure boot in bios first.

3. New Machine- backup all your drivers to usb drive. (another bit of insurance) I use free Double Driver Backup and Restore which is a portable program. Run it as administrator.

4. New machine-boot to recovery media and restore backup you made in step 1. Make sure to use the universal restore feature of the software.This makes your new machine Windows 10. Universal restore will not restore your old incorrect drivers from your old machine.

5. New Machine-it should boot to Windows 10. Using device manager, verify that Windows has installed all the necessary drivers for the new hardware. Running Windows update should find missing drivers. Windows update should also now tell you the machine qualifies for free upgrade to Windows 11.

6. New Machine- Once drivers are sorted, go into bios and make sure TPM is on. Turn secure boot back on if it was disabled in step 2.

7. New Machine-Upgrade to 11 through Windows update or the preferrable method is to use Windows 11 Installation Assistant Upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10 with Windows 11 Installation Assistant Tutorial

8. New Machine- Using Device manager, verify all drivers are installed. Any missing drivers can be found by running windows update again or you can use Double Driver Backup and Restore to restore any missing drivers that you backed up in step 3.

9. You should now be running Windows 11 with all your files and apps in place. You will have to reinstall any of the OEM apps that came with WIndows 11.

Haydon said:

Well, that's what I mentioned in the OP as user data being in the cloud. Google, DropBox, etc. provide the same service.

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Actually, I don't believe they do. OneDrive keeps the OneDrive folder on your PC in sync in real-time as long as you are online. (I'm always online.) As soon as I make a change locally on any of my computers, all my computers that are online are updated at the same time.

Haydon said:

I also mentioned in the OP the NAS, some NAS vendors market their products as 'your personal cloud', etc.

All that is about user data that is not on C: so that there is no user data migration at all.

Click to expand...

Not true if you use the OneDrive option to keep all data synchronized in real-time on both the PC and cloud OneDrive. I do that.

Haydon said:

The topic of this thread is a little different, it is about user data on C: so that user data does need to be migrated.

Click to expand...

Again, my data IS migrated just as long as I use the option to keep PC OneDrive folder and cloud OneDrive in real-time sync. Just as soon as I logged on to Windows with my new PC, all my data was instantly "available". Without any more intervention, however, in the next few hours all my data is then automatically downloaded to my OneDrive folder and ends up totally in sync with cloud OneDrive. My data HAS been migrated to my new PC because it is now identically the same on all my PCs.

OneDrive default is to keep all data on cloud OneDrive and only download data "on demand" when requested. I don't use default OneDrive. I use the OneDrive option to always keep my local OneDrive folder and cloud OneDrive in real-time sync.

Haydon said:

Thanks for the comments, folks, here are my thoughts.

@Mark Phelps I am not sure if 'EaseUS ToDo Data Transfer' and 'LapLink PC Mover' will migrate from one OS (W10) to a different OS (W11)

@NavyLCDR 1, 2 = Direct Copy. On 3, 4, 6, I am not sure if MR W10 image will mount/boot on W11. 5 = disk transplant, OS may not transplant, but user data could/should be.

@Bree If I understand you correctly, you imaged W10 old, restored on W10 new, and WU to W11. If I understand MR's Knowledge Base correctly, I would lose BitLocker that I would have to re-configure.

Click to expand...

Easus PCTRANS works across versions but is quite expensive.

I do not like the licencing basis for these type of tools aa they are limited to 1 host and 1 source device, but you can use as often as you like but that is not much use.

For the cost of PCTRANS, you can more or less buy a licence of Macrium Reflect with its Redeploy feature.

However, with a little effort (all well explained in member Kari's TenForums tutorials), you can do it totally free with no 3rd party tools using Windows own deployment tools.

I redeploy using following technique

1) get drivers for new pc (easy if pc comes with preinstalled OS)

2) make custom install.wim of current OS (tutorial in tutorial section).
Note: advise you uninstall onedrive as that tends to screw it up. (Use freeup space firsr) Also cleanup,
and chkdsk c: /f are a good idea.

3) inject new drivers into install.wim (also tutorial). I just install the lot by exporting drivers from new pc first if possible. If you have to go to web, download disk, graphics, wifi/ethernet, keyboard/mouse drivers as a minimum. Rest can be sorted later.

4) make custom iso (part of first tutorial)

5) boot new pc from custom iso and install.

6) go to device manager, and tidy up any missing drivers.

7) reinstall onedrive.

8) upgrade to W11 as required.

It may seem a bit daunting doing this but I have a batch file that basically does it all, and I use it a lot and it works well.

Of course, you can just try imaging a pc using Macrium Reflect as described aa Windows 10 is good at sorting drivers but main issue is if new pc has different storage type e.g. SATA SSD on old, NVME on new as that can throw a wobbler.

Using Robocopy to Backup & Restore:


BACKUP:

RESTORE:

To add other folders (Music, Pictures, Videos etc), just add a new command for each folder. You can add as many as you wish.

Thanks for the comments, folks, here are my thoughts.

@glasskuter Too complex for simplistic me. I am cool with an off-the-shelf machine with a clean W11, installing and configuring apps (including BitLocker) and copying user data over. Just that I am concerned about what I phrased in the OP as 'all my user data and only my user data'.

For routine backup purposes, my paranoia is satisfied with a couple of tools, LOL, for the next data migration event I simply like to have one more tool available.

@TraderGary I think that's semantics. In your book sync = migration. In my book, sync = sync.

Almost all people who use OneDrive keep local copies of some of their user data, then that's what it is, sync part of their user data (or optionally stop sync) You keep local copies of all your user data, then that's what it is, sync all your user data.

Even MS (and Google, DropBox, etc.) use the word sync = two-way update. The word migration is used for 'migrate OneDrive to DropBox' for example.

In the same sense, migrate user data from old W10 machine to new W11 machine = thread title.

@cerberus I very much prefer built-in tools whenever possible, I'll check the tutorials on tenforums.com

@ddelo Thanks for sharing the backup and restore command lines. What I especially like about robocopy is the detailed error log. I'll try whatever I can to not lose/corrupting any user data when migrating.

Symantics?
OK, I'll leave out the word "migrate".

I bought a new W11 computer.
I logged in to Windows.

Because I use Microsoft OneDrive, my data stored on my new computer is now identical to my data stored on my old computer.

Wasn't that the goal?
...

@TraderGary Many of us do not use Onedrive for all our personal files. In fact, most people I know don't. Some people just don't trust storing their files in the cloud just as they don't trust handling their financial affairs online. Personally, I don't because I've experienced a lot of sync problems over the years. I prefer an external hard drive instead for 2 reasons; my C: drive is small and my internet is not always dependable.

An easy way to do this... if you've never used Dropbox Professional...
Use normal Dropbox and move all your data into it, if there's not enough space (likely) sign up for the trial of Dropbox Pro (2TB) and then move everything. Even in the regular Dropbox, you're allowed up to 4 computers, and Pro allows even more so that won't be an issue. Once you've moved all the data you want to be saved into your Dropbox, install it on the new computer, let it sync everything, and then move it back to you're desired locations if you don't want to keep it there... and remember to cancel the Dropbox Pro trial before the end of the month so you won't be charged.

glasskuter said:

@TraderGary Many of us do not use Onedrive for all our personal files. In fact, most people I know don't. Some people just don't trust storing their files in the cloud just as they don't trust handling their financial affairs online. Personally, I don't because I've experienced a lot of sync problems over the years. I prefer an external hard drive instead for 2 reasons; my C: drive is small and my internet is not always dependable.

Click to expand...

That's irrelevant. The OP asked how we migrate our data from an old computer to a new computer. That's how I do it.

TraderGary said:

That's irrelevant. The OP asked how we migrate our data from an old computer to a new computer. That's how I do it.

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I think there is a disconnect here. I believe that your reply works well (very well!) for files created by the user - documents, media files, etc. But, unless you have OneDrive manually make a backup of \Users|{yourusername}\AppData\ folder, where all your settings for a good many of your programs are stored, you lose functionality of those applications on a new setup and have to reconfigure one or more things all over again.

Please realize that he is not just talking about Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos. Critical settings for things like Microsoft Office, including things like credentials, custom dictionaries, etc. are not easily restored through OneDrive and automatic document backup. He already has another topic regarding those types of files and backups from those repositories in another thread.

@Haydon - I typically make a manual copy as mentioned by @NavyLCDR using a separate drive when migrating from one system to another, and I typically use a 3rd party boot OS to make sure I can copy all of \Users\{username}\AppData (typically has 3 folders in it, \Local\, \LocalLow\, and \Roaming\, to a separate physical drive (HDD or, now, SSD), and then on the new system, I manually install the apps and restore their settings from the copied data.

As for the mechanism, I typically use something like SystemRescueCD to boot the system, ensuring I have access to the drives without Windows getting in the way. I also make sure that I don't ever copy \Users\{username\AppData\Local\Temp\ as that has absolutely nothing that I need. With a Linux system, while there are many copy utilities for accomplishing this, just a simple cp with appropriate parameters will work.

If you don't want to boot to a 3rd party OS, doing it from inside Windows is easily accomplished as outlined by @ddelo will work just as well. Do note to skip the \Temp\ folder as noted above - and, technically, any \Temp or \TMP folders you find (might be a couple more, I have one in \Windows\, for example, and another in \ProgramData\) are usually not necessary at all.

It is really very simple.