File Transfers

[secsee1]

As a complete computer novice I need the help of some ABers, I have just acquired a nearly new laptop running win7 I already have a clapped out laptop running winxp but it has all of my documents, photos and music etc on it and I would like to put everything on the newer laptop, a friend has offered to lend me a portable hard drive to transfer everything but will the files on XP transfer OK to win7? and if they will are they automatically put into the correct places ie photos in my pictures, music in my music, documents in my documents etc.
As I have not got the faintest idea of how to do this any help would be greatly appreciated

[jno]

as far as I know they don't transfer "automatically", you transfer them yourself by clicking and dragging, so you can put them anywhere you like.

[VHG]

Buy your own portable hard drive as if you ONLY have them on your laptop and that is lost or stolen or crashes you have lost everything.

Buy a portable hard drive, then COPY (don't move) all your documents, photos, music etc. on to it.

You can crate any folder names you like on the portable hard drive, so for your photos create a folder called MyPhotos (or whatever) for your music create folder MyMusic (or whatever) and so on.

Then use drag and drop or copy and paste to copy the files from your laptop to the portable hard drive. Now you have them safely backed up.

Now reverse the process, copying everything from your portable drive to your new laptop. You will have to manually put them in the correct folder (MyDocuments, MyPhotos, MyMusic etc).

If you have never done this sort of data moving before then get someone to help you (or do it for you).

While the process is fairly easy, if you do it wrong you could accidently lose or delete some (or all) of your files.

[hc4361]

I would strongly advise you to buy your own portable external hard drive - they are very cheap now and many have an automatic back up function.

This will ensure all your documents, music, photos etc are backed up safely if your laptop is stolen or the hard drive fails.

To answer your question, yes, all your files (but not your programs) will successfully transfer from XP to W7. As already said it is a simple 'drag and drop'.

You could also use a memory stick for the same thing.

[VHG]

Microsoft have created something called Windows Easy Transfer to help people move files from one computer to another.

Note I have never used it so no idea if it is any good, or how easy it is to use.

You can get it from here

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