There will come a time in our life,
whether in work or at home that you will be oblige, by choice or because your jobs necessitate it, to move your files and settings from your old computer to a new one. To the expert, this could be a walk in the park but for most of us who are not that information technology savvy, it’s a major undertaking.
Most people spent a lot of time tweaking their system to suit their own need and preference and it is easier said than done to transfer all those colors, fonts, wallpaper and other settings unto the new PC. Finding manually all the data and files you need from your old computer and put them in their proper location in the new PC will be require patience and time.
Microsoft however, has an invaluable tool called the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard which will help you accomplish this task. The wizard just needs to run once on your old computer to collect and backup all your files and personal settings. After the data collection, run the wizard on the new computer and then restore all the information into the new system.
Step-by-step Procedure on How to Run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard
Note: Before you continue, close any other programs that are currently running on your computer to avoid any problem or error while performing the task.
On the old PC:
1.Insert the Windows XP CD installer on your old PC cd-rom drive. Select Perform additional tasks.
2.Select Transfer files and settings.
3. Select the option Old computer when ask which computer is this?
4.Select a drive or folder where to save your backup. Make sure that you have enough free disk space on the drive where you will save your backup data.
5.Select the option that you prefer. You can choose to backup Settings only, Files only or Both files and settings. Most people will simply select the option Both files and settings and let the wizard do the rest.
6.Files and settings data collection. The wizard will then search the drive and collects your files and settings. This would take some time to complete, depending on the size of your data. Click on Finish to exit, once the wizard completed the files and settings collection from your old computer. Check the file size of the backup for you to have an idea how big it is.
7. Share the folder where you save the files and settings backup for later use. You will point to this shared folder from the new PC to read and restore your files and settings. Upload Files