Transferring data from Win 2k to Win 7

[Worms]

Here's one for Kirisute then

 

Anticipating the arrival of my new PC I'm contemplating the long drawn out inevitability of shifting all of my work files, photos, address books etc. without losing a single file and having a seamless transition :wallbash:

 

Anyway, networking or physical (?) transfer of the data using a usb hard drive would seem the two sensible options. Anybody done it yet or, can anyone suggest a usb powered hard drive that is compatible with Win 2k and Win 7?

[chesters1]

all of them should be USB is generic .

good idea to grab wjhat you can and i can also recommend downloading (if its not built into 2k) the windows files and settings dooda for win7 which worked very well exporting from XP to win7 on my sisters machine ,infact it made it effortless scarily even 32 to 64 bit ,your usb drive can then be used for both the manual grabbing of essential stuff and the windows grabbed bits as backup theres an xp version here is there a win2k version?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows...s-easy-transfer

as well as files dont forget to grab your cookies etc from your browser in your manual grab i used a 16 gig usb stick

my niece had a hoist of crap errr stuff on hers pc so i kept the whole thing in my loft after transferring it over to her new one 6 months down the line theres been no "cant find or where is"

its also worth downloading the win7 compatibility prog to see anything that will cause problems her only one was a printer that could only now be used in a basic mode as win7 drivers weren't out then

 

not so much for your pc but any existing stuff your going to use on the new one

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows...upgrade-advisor

 

win2k is pretty unsupported by the looks of it and you maybe forced to do it manually ,can you upgrade your win2k to XP temporarily its far easier with XP

Edited March 3, 2011 by chesters1

[corydoras]

Here's one for Kirisute then

 

Anticipating the arrival of my new PC I'm contemplating the long drawn out inevitability of shifting all of my work files, photos, address books etc. without losing a single file and having a seamless transition :wallbash:

 

Anyway, networking or physical (?) transfer of the data using a usb hard drive would seem the two sensible options. Anybody done it yet or, can anyone suggest a usb powered hard drive that is compatible with Win 2k and Win 7?

That's easy. There is no supported method of migrating a Windows 2000 workstation to a Windows 7 machine. You will need to upgrade to Windows XP first.

 

There is no supported migration path from Windows 2000 to Windows 7 using the User State Migration Tool (USMT). You must first upgrade to Windows XP and then migrate to Windows 7 with USMT 4.0 included with the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK).

 

http://support.microsoft.com/ph/1131

 

An external USB HDD is what I would use. The trickiest thing to transfer is going to be your emails. What email software are you using. I hope it's not Outlook Express.

[chesters1]

in firefox you can save them to a local file of your choice ,i did one better by saving them on the BT mail server as well as backup but if you havnt deleted them from the mail server your mail program should download them all again anyway i presume.

 

AH yes i remember the panic when i got my blackberry going when it started downloading years of emails,i switched it off then saved my mail on the BT server then deleted it so the blackberry only downloaded from then on

Edited March 3, 2011 by chesters1

[corydoras]

in firefox you can save them to a local file of your choice ,i did one better by saving them on the BT mail server as well as backup but if you havnt deleted them from the mail server your mail program should download them all again anyway i presume.

 

AH yes i remember the panic when i got my blackberry going when it started downloading years of emails,i switched it off then saved my mail on the BT server then deleted it so the blackberry only downloaded from then on

Email is going to be the tricky bit. Especially if he's being using Oulook Express.

[chesters1]

good old outlook its used as a sync program for my pdas so it (the mail part) fights with thunderbird every time i finish syncing

[kirisute]

Here's one for Kirisute then

 

Anticipating the arrival of my new PC I'm contemplating the long drawn out inevitability of shifting all of my work files, photos, address books etc. without losing a single file and having a seamless transition :wallbash:

 

Anyway, networking or physical (?) transfer of the data using a usb hard drive would seem the two sensible options. Anybody done it yet or, can anyone suggest a usb powered hard drive that is compatible with Win 2k and Win 7?

 

well seeing as you laid down the challenge

ok by defauls user files and suchlike are placed in your "documents and settings" folder under c:\ then your username, then my documents. However outside of that folder structuce you will also have a "hidden "app data folder and various other folders.

to perform a "seemless" transfer you will need to copy all your relevant data from the username folder to your new windows 7 instalkl.

however things aint that easy

windows 7 uses a different file structure for documents and settings, instead opting for a c:\users folder followed by your username; which then contains my documents etc

MS have been kind to a certain extent and provided Windows Easy Transfer which come with Windows 7..and will allow you to transfer all your "data" from your win 2000 station to your windows 7 pc! HOWEVER its wont transfer settings..

 

personally i wouldnt touch that method with a barge pole!

what i would do is this:

take your HDD out of your old unit and plug it in as a slave on your new pc..if you can...some newer motherboards wont allow IDE connections at all...

then boot up windows 7 and manually copy all your data from the folders into their respective folders for Windows 7.

why?

faster than usb

you dont need to do it all at once...you can take your time because all your data is "online" on your slave drive

when your done you can just remove the slave drive and store it away as a back-up..or leave it in as a slave and format it for a bit of extra storage

no "**** ive forgoten to grab those files" incidents...you just keep it in as a slave and when you think..hmm i could do with that...hunt it down and copy it across.

finding emails can be a nightmare! with the drive "live" you can just browse the web for the emails location for your software and instantly "drag n drop" them where you want them.

things like My pictures and My Videos dont transfer "like for like" into windows 7..folder names stay the same but it tends to duplicate; its because of the windows 7 "library" files system. So its actually easier to manually copy the files inside your My Pictures etc across to your Windows 7 equivalent.

if you use Itunes, you can just copy your entire library structure directly across to your new itunes install

things like Adobe photoshop brushes and presets and suchlike are never transferred via auto transfers! because the software sets user preferences in the route of the program, not in the user area! having the slave drive just makes it a copy and paste situation once the software is installed on the new pc first!

for finding emails; if you run the same software on your new pc...for instance outlook express...then you can directly paste the email location route into the browser "changing to the correct drive letter for your slave drive" and instantly open your old pc's email locations....again its a alot simpler!

 

so thats how i would do it....like i say, you might not have the option because your new motherboard might not support ide, IF your old hdd is ide that is. If its sata then everything should be fine.

running the old drive as a slave is a "luxury" way of transferring your data..i would only automate the situation if its a last resort!

windows 7 "might" state that you dont have permission to access the old drives files....if it does it will also give you the option to "take ownership"...just say yes and it will automatically give you full permission to access all the old drives files...

 

this methodology has worked for me countless times...its the way i transfer client data to new pc systems and ive done it for all previous OS from 95 through to Vista, onto Windows 7. i used "easy transfer" once and it didnt catch half the files i asked it to...

its also the same methodology is use if i upgrade my own pc to a new OS! if its good enough for me then...

Edited March 3, 2011 by kirisute

[chavender]

worms ,mate i'll give you a usb cross over cable and software needed next weekend ,you connect to both computers and send files between the two ,its redundant too me .as i've several cased spare hd's and hd docks and flash drives i use for data transfers.

 

if it wasn't for you living down south ,i could of lent you my old duel sata Hd dock (also redundant now ,soon too go on e-bay as i've upgraded too a usb 3 version that takes both ide/sata drives and flashdrive/card reader built in ) .you could of simply plugged your old hd in and used it as a temp external drive ,or i could of lent you my new usb 3 duel ide/sata hd dock .or a external hd .

 

but the usb crossover cable you can have ,and i'll do you a win 7 recovery console disk,same as the full win 7 disk ,but without the Os ,and just the recovery options ,as its got the win 7 easy transfer program on it ,and theres a good chance you wont get a win 7 Os disk with your pc ,do you know if your new windows 7 pc is 32bit or 64bit ? .i'll pop them in with my fishing stuff

[Worms]

Ooh blimey, so many helpful responses.

 

Thanks to all (and yes Cory it is Outlook Express but to be honest I've never had a problem shifting emails and stuff once you know where to find 'em...which I do).

 

I think the slave drive and drag and drop option will be the quickest. Fortunately I do have an IDE connection on the motherboard so that's all good.

 

Oh well, back to the grindstone!

 

Thanks again.

[kirisute]

just make sure your win 7 install is protected with a virus scanner that scans in realtime...Avast certainly does....

this will ensure any un detected nasties on your old drive be caught when you transfer.

 

you know where outlook express stores your emails so thats fine...Windows 7 integrates with Windows Mail though...or even Live mail if you update it.

Luckily both allow a full import of Outlook express contacts and emails..so you should be fine there; if you want to be really lazy then you can actually run outlook express from your old drive, and drag and drop emails and folders directly into windows mail on your new drive anyway! that can be a real fast way of doing things and means you dont get the awful "imported folders" rubbish that can happen in the automated method.