Switching OS's

[Guest MIND]

When you switch Operating Systems and you want to transfer everything from one to the other what do you do? I plan on doing this when system support for Windows 7 ends in 2020.

[hex11]

Backup any files you want to keep to an external HDD.
Verify your backup (check if the disk isn't failing, or if the copy process stopped at some point, or if it created some 0-byte or truncated files). Ideally you use a tool like rsync, or even just a simple MD5/SHA hashing script that verifies all the files were copied ok.
Also, if it's not FAT32, make sure the backup file system can be read by your new OS (and the device itself too, if it's something weird).
The hard part is to make sure you didn't forget to backup some files. With Unix, normally you can just backup your entire $HOME and /etc. Windows seems to dump stuff all over the place.
Another catch is applications with proprietary data formats. If you use anything like that, better convert/export the data to something standard first, before doing your backup.

[Jello]

Depends on what you're planning to do. If you're going to keep the same hard-drive and just upgrade to Windows 10, or whatever they have at that point, the upgrade should create a windows.old folder with all your old files. Unless you intentionally reformat the hard-drive everything 'should' transfer over.

However, we are talking 4 years from now, and even at this point 1TB+ hard drives are getting pretty damn cheap, and I'm sure in 2020 you'll probably be able to get pretty cheap 1 or 2 TB solid state drives. It might not hurt to get one and back up all your data on it just to be sure. Most should be able to connect through USB. Other option if you get a new hard-drive, just get a hard-drive transfer cable, hook your old hard-drive up and copy the files off it to the new one.

I would say in 4 years the best option would be to just get a new hard-drive and transfer everything, and if you get an external you'll have a backup. Which should be done anyway, since HDD's do wear out and malfunction.

edit - yeah, what Hex11 said.

[Aliotroph?]

I just reinstalled Windows. Since all my stuff aside from my Minecraft configuration lived on my other HDDs I was good to go. Steam will even happily resync a library on another disk.

Doing an in-place upgrade to a new version of Windows ideally shouldn't require you to do anything. It just works... except when it doesn't. Making sure you have a backup of the important stuff first never hurts. My profile on my laptop survived the Windows 10 upgrade process intact and so did all my software. Sometimes NIC drivers don't, which is pretty weird. It wouldn't have hurt anything other than a wasted afternoon if it had failed on my laptop.

If you have only one hard drive in 2020 then do what hex11 and Jello said. Making sure you have the files you want is on you, even if you get somebody else to do the work for you.

[fraggle]

Restore from one of the regular backups you're already making.

[Guest MIND]

Jello said:

Depends on what you're planning to do. If you're going to keep the same hard-drive and just upgrade to Windows 10, or whatever they have at that point, the upgrade should create a windows.old folder with all your old files. Unless you intentionally reformat the hard-drive everything 'should' transfer over.

However, we are talking 4 years from now, and even at this point 1TB+ hard drives are getting pretty damn cheap, and I'm sure in 2020 you'll probably be able to get pretty cheap 1 or 2 TB solid state drives. It might not hurt to get one and back up all your data on it just to be sure. Most should be able to connect through USB. Other option if you get a new hard-drive, just get a hard-drive transfer cable, hook your old hard-drive up and copy the files off it to the new one.

I would say in 4 years the best option would be to just get a new hard-drive and transfer everything, and if you get an external you'll have a backup. Which should be done anyway, since HDD's do wear out and malfunction.

edit - yeah, what Hex11 said.

If Windows 10 is indeed the last version of Windows ever created. (i.e, there is no Windows 11 or 12), then I want to buy a copy of Windows 10 Pro to replace Windows 7 Ultimate once the support for Windows 7 ends in 2020.

I want everything from my computer now transferred onto Windows 10. Game data, photos, etc. Understand?

[Jello]

MINDustry said:

I want everything from my computer now transferred onto Windows 10. Game data, photos, etc. Understand?

I did understand, and you've gotten advice from me and several others. I even specifically said if you're keeping the same hard-drive and updating to Windows 10 it should transfer everything to a new folder when you upgrade. Kind of a douche-bag way to say "thanks for the advice".