Transfering Files

[saintpeter48]

What is the best way to transfer, files, documents etc from old PC to new PC. Do I copy and paste, cut and paste or drag and drop. I was going to copy and paste to external hard drive then cut and copy from that to new PC. Please help as I'm not that technically minded, thanks.

[VHG]

I think it is best to copy them to an external hard drive first, then you have them "backed up" on the external hard drive if anything goes wrong.

Then plug the EHD into the new PC and copy them off the EHD on to the new PC.

You can use copy and paste, or drag and drop, or even the "Send to" option.

I don't like using "cut and paste" as this removes them from the source and if anything goes wrong with the paste you have lost them.

Copy and paste keeps the originals on the source while doing the copy so you have still got the originals if anything goes wrong.

[VHG]

Note that Microsoft have written a program called "Easy Transfer" which is supposed to help you move files from one PC to the other.

I have never used it so I have no idea how good it is.

I would still back up all your personal files to an external hard drive FIRST just in case anything goes wrong.

Here is Easy Transfer. This is for Windows 7 but I believe there are ones for other versions of Windows.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/products/features/windows-easy-transfer

[BradyWalker]

You may go ahead and back-up everything using an external hard drive OR upload those files on an online cloud drive. Whichever option you choose, all you need is to download all those data again. I personally don't have an EHD so I back up my files either on my email or a cloud drive. Then when I want to trasfer something, I simply download it from there. When using an EHD, you may want to copy and paste instead of using the cut-paste method.