User Data Migration Plan

I welcome comments on the User Data Migration Plan as per pic below.
(I am planning on posting a System migration plan in a separate thread, please focus on Data migration in this thread, thanks!)

As to the mechanics of the user data migration, I could:
1) Basic copy and paste via an external SSD
2) Macrium Reflect Home File and Folder backup and restore via an external SSD as per File and Folder Backup in Macrium Reflect Home (MRH) or a slight modification thereof
3) RoboCopy via an external SSD (with a reversal of source and destination) as per Question on RoboCopy Syntax or a slight modification thereof

I would especially welcome comments on the pros and cons of the migration mechanics options, thanks!

Until I started using OneDrive. I used the copy and paste to USB drive method.

Haydon said:

I welcome comments on the User Data Migration Plan as per pic below.
(I am planning on posting a System migration plan in a separate thread, please focus on Data migration in this thread, thanks!)

As to the mechanics of the user data migration, I could:
1) Basic copy and paste via an external SSD
2) Macrium Reflect Home File and Folder backup and restore via an external SSD as per File and Folder Backup in Macrium Reflect Home (MRH) or a slight modification thereof
3) RoboCopy via an external SSD (with a reversal of source and destination) as per Question on RoboCopy Syntax or a slight modification thereof

I would especially welcome comments on the pros and cons of the migration mechanics options, thanks!

Click to expand...

It really depends on how involved you want to be with the process.

Since you're not upgrading the OS, I recommend doing it manually, via external (fast) drive, and use copy functions or Robocopy or even TeraCopy or some other utility for large volume copying.

Also, some of those folders' contents may not need to be migrated (Searches, for one, unless you've developed and saved specific searches that you want to use again, and which may break going from 10 to 11 anyway).

Also, do not copy / move anything from OneDrive on the old system to the new system. Use the OneDrive app to set up your local storage and such.

Links is another folder that probably has nothing you'll really need. Favorites should sync automatically if you've enabled browser synchronizing in Edge (if you use Edge on the Win10 machine - and it might not be a bad idea to install it and set it up - however, manually moving them is fine if you're not using Edge / synchronizing it to your Microsoft account on Windows 10).

The other folders - verify the contents in there and that you need any of those data files instead of blindly copying them.

HTH

Copy and paste is the simplest option, but loses file attribute info which may be useful for troubleshooting if something goes wrong, or just for verifying the data migration. Note that this simplest option does not give you any logs. Any sage advice on this issue?

Haydon said:

Copy and paste is the simplest option, but loses file attribute info which may be useful for troubleshooting if something goes wrong, or just for verifying the data migration. Note that this simplest option does not give you any logs. Any sage advice on this issue?

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what your worried about losing. Copy and paste works fine. You'll still have the original files if needed.

I use the pro version of this. Fab's AutoBackup

Fab's AutoBackup Home & Office​

€10.00



Fabs AutoBackup 7 Home & Office is a very handy tool allowing to back up and restore various files and settings (documents, music, videos, e-mails, web browsers settings) from any Microsoft Windows computer.

I use EaseUS Todo Backup to create an image on a remote drive. After doing a clean install on a new system I would then install EaseUS Todo Backup on the new system, access the image in question on the remote drive, mount it, then drag and drop whatever I needed into their prospective locations on the new system. I'll keep the image for quick access to whatever else I may need in the future. Quick and simple...

Winuser said:

Until I started using OneDrive. I used the copy and paste to USB drive method.

Click to expand...

OneDrive couldn't handle my data load.

Click to expand...

@johnlgalt You made good points, I edited the pic in my OP so that it will hopefully be more useful for others, too

Haydon said:

Copy and paste is the simplest option, but loses file attribute info which may be useful for troubleshooting if something goes wrong, or just for verifying the data migration. Note that this simplest option does not give you any logs. Any sage advice on this issue?

Click to expand...

Windows 10 --> Windows 11 should be NTFS --> NTFS, and thus all information should be preserved.

Unless these WIn10 files are on a FAT32 partition (highly unlikely), at which point they actually have less information than what NTFS stores. So, either way, the info on the files should be fine.

If you're talking about permissions and such security related-stuff, most data files won't have an issue like that. For those that do, if you need user level access, take ownership of them as needed. But this should be an extremely rare even.

RoboCopy will do the job and will preserve folder & file creation & modified dates-times.

But do be careful to copy those specific sub-folders shown in your posted diagram and not the whole source's C:\Users\%UserName% so you do not disrupt existing permissions on your new C:\Users\%UserName% folder itself.
Omitting hidden items is also worthwhile to avoid trying to copy across useless *.ini files within folders.

My own 'standard' RoboCopy command for such jobs is
RoboCopy "Z:\wherever" "C:\Users\%UserName%\wherever" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR
- The "----" allow you to cope with paths containing spaces and special characters such as &

Best of luck,
Denis

From the folders you relisted, I'm curious of why the file attributes are important. Block me if you want to but I think you are making much ado about nothing!

@johnlgalt @Try3 My migration path (backup and restore) goes via an intermediate storage medium W10 > external USB SSD > W11

For the backup step of W10 > external USB SSD the RoboCopy script I use is as follows
----------------------------------
ROBOCOPY.EXE C:\Users\name D:\name /XD "C:\Users\name\AppData" "C:\Users\name\.ms-ad" "C:\Users\name\3D Objects" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG:"D:\name" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL
----------------------------------
However, the header of the RoboCopy log file looks like the following, notice that the switches in the 'Options:' look a little different.
----------------------------------
Source : C:\Users\name
Dest : D:\name

Files : *.*

Exc Dirs : C:\Users\name\AppData
C:\Users\name\.ms-ad
C:\Users\name\3D Objects

Options : *.* /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NDL /NFL /S /E /DCOPY:DA /COPY:DAT /PURGE /MIR /XJ /XA:SHT /R:2 /W:0
----------------------------------
In other words, in the backup step I exclude specific sub-folders from the user folder and I get generic sub-folder icons in the backup for 'Documents', 'Pictures', etc. However, folder and file creation dates and times are preserved.

I experimented with an older RoboCopy script where I explicitly copied the specific sub-folders of the user folder and I did get the specific sub-folder icons in the backup for 'Documents', 'Pictures', etc.

That made me wonder what else I am losing with my present RoboCopy script in the above (perhaps nothing important?)
----------------------------------
The above RoboCopy script for backup (a daily occurrence) is a convenient one-liner with a very easy to read, short summary type of log file.

For restore (a one time occurrence) I could use the older RoboCopy script (with reversed source and destination) where I explicitly copied sub-folders (and where I could even specify a very, very detailed log file if I wanted to) But I now wonder if, for restore, I could simply do a simple copy and paste and perhaps don't lose anything important?
----------------------------------
@Winuser I ask all those things because I don't know!

A normal copy and paste should be fine. As @Try3 mentioned, grabbing those hidden desktop.ini files might prove detrimental as they may try to override the default folder settings in Windows 11, including but not limited to, icons (or at the very least break the current settings / remove the icons in Windows 11 for those folders).

It is really interesting in how RC is showing both subdirs and empty subdirs as options which you specifically did not include in the command, though. I always thought that both XCopy and RC needed to have those set explicitly.

I upgraded my machine from 10 to 11, but I've installed 11 cleanly 3 or 4 times already. I just manually copy and paste, mainly because \Documents and \Photos are in OneDrive so they get brought back to life when I log in to the app, and \Videos and \Music are on a separate physical drive anyway.

The main things I copy are the \AppData and subfolders from the old install so I can easily re-set up apps with their settings / profiles preserved. Like the MS Office suite, all browser profiles, etc. So I always just do a manual copy and paste, and it works perfectly fine.

You're doing this on 2 separate, physical machines, though, right?

John,

In Haydon's command switches,
/S makes RoboCopy include non-empty sub-folders and /E makes it include sub-folders even if they are empty.
Using both /S and /E is not necessary. /E will do.

Merry Christmas,
Denis

Try3 said:

In name's command switches, /S makes RoboCopy include non-empty sub-folders and /E makes it include sub-folders even if they are empty.
Using both /S and /E is not necessary. /E will do.

Click to expand...

Folks, referring to my post #13, note that in my script I had neither /S nor /E
However, the header of the log file had both /S and /E

johnlgalt said:

As @Try3 mentioned, grabbing those hidden desktop.ini files might prove detrimental as they may try to override the default folder settings in Windows 11, including but not limited to, icons (or at the very least break the current settings / remove the icons in Windows 11 for those folders).

Click to expand...

Folks, again referring to my post #13, note that in both script and log file I had /XA:HST which excludes Hidden files, System files, Temporary files.

johnlgalt said:

The main things I copy are the \AppData and subfolders from the old install so I can easily re-set up apps with their settings / profiles preserved.

Click to expand...

Did you mean to say that after installing your apps on a clean install of W11, you do not have to configure your apps just by copying \AppData from your old W10?

johnlgalt said:

You're doing this on 2 separate, physical machines, though, right?

Click to expand...

Backup of a W10 machine with RoboCopy is a daily routine, but I did only limited amount of experiments with Restore to a W11 machine with RoboCopy (just to make sure that it works) because the latter is something that I may or may not actually do in 2 years time, I don't have a need before that.

That reminds me, since I updated the pic in my OP, I should have updated the RoboCopy script that goes with it, so here goes. Below is the updated Backup script, for a Restore just swap source and destination. Although, this time around, I use a 'copy sub-folders of the user folder' approach, and hence the multi-line script. If you run the script today, it will generate a backup folder RCnameSat17Dec2022 and a log file RClogSat17Dec2022 on your D: disk. If you make a global change tomorrow from Sat17Dec2022 to Sun18Dec2022 then the script will generate a backup folder and log file with tomorrow's date.

ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Contacts" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Contacts" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Desktop" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Desktop" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Documents" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Documents" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Downloads" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Downloads" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Favorites" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Favorites" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Music" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Music" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Pictures" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Pictures" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL ROBOCOPY.EXE "C:\Users\name\Videos" "D:\RCnameSat17Dec2022\Videos" /XA:HST /XJ /MIR /R:2 /W:0 /LOG+:"D:\RClogSat17Dec2022.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL pause

Perhaps I should say that with the help of this forum, I created an old set of scripts, then I toyed with the scripts until the version count was 27. All scripts work, and the question naturally arose, how to judge the quality of the scripts. So, some time ago, I experimented with RoboCopy GUI apps. In spite of essentially identical input, the machine generated scripts differ from each other. Moreover, I didn't particularly like those machine generated scripts. And it made me create a new set of scripts, and I toyed with the new set of scripts until the version count stands at 12 at the moment. RoboCopy is pretty simple on the surface, but you can most definitely dig deep.

@Try3 I ran your script in backup mode, and to also produce a log file, as follows:
--------------------------------
RoboCopy "C:\Users\name\Desktop" "D:\TestFolder" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR /LOG:"D:\Denis.txt" /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NFL /NDL
--------------------------------
The header of the log file is as follows:
--------------------------------
Source : C:\Users\name\Desktop\
Dest = D:\TestFolder\

Files : *.*

Options : *.* /FP /BYTES /NS /NC /NDL /NFL /S /E /DCOPY:DAT /COPY:DAT /PURGE /MIR /XA:SH /MT:32 /R:10 /W:30
--------------------------------
Note that RoboCopy changes the switches (in 'Options:') somewhat, including the /S and /E whereas you only specified only /S in your script. There are other changes as well, as you can see.

OK
[I don't know what you mean by backup mode]

Denis

Try3 said:

[I don't know what you mean by backup mode]

Click to expand...

Your script in post #11 was Z: > C: (restore mode) whereas I ran your script C: > D: (backup mode) because I didn't want the script to put anything on the C: drive, I wanted the script to put all the experimental stuff on D: which is in this case a USB stick.

I'm a copy and paste user. I find cut and paste to dangerous. I have never found a reason to worry about losing any file attributes. I do hope that you find a method that fills all of your needs. My needs are so basic that I have even used an image from my old, old desktop to my new , old desktop because I wanted to keep all of the free programs I had from those free software of the day sites. The only thing I lost was the Optane Memory that came with the desktop. I never used it because I did the image before I booted the computer into Windows. It worked out in my favor though, I later replaced the Optane Memory with a 1TB Nvme drive. I did eventually lose my free programs. The desktop would not upgrade to the latest Dev builds. I even used my older images and I still couldn't update. The older images did work when I did the original updates. This still has me baffled.