move everything off internal to external

[CobalTicz]

I have an old pc with windows xp on it and i purchased an external hdd to get all of my data onto from the old machine I can't figure a way to do it.

 

I just don't want to search through everywhere to find all of the personal photos and stuff i just want one big file to drag over if thats possible

[kwljunky]

I have an old pc with windows xp on it and i purchased an external hdd to get all of my data onto from the old machine I can't figure a way to do it.

 

I just don't want to search through everywhere to find all of the personal photos and stuff i just want one big file to drag over if thats possible

I suppose you can save it as an entire drive image..? 

 

I can't remember for xp, did it have the Users folder? 

 

That should have everything apart from the program files and operating system files.. 

[CobalTicz]

I suppose you can save it as an entire drive image..? 

 

I can't remember for xp, did it have the Users folder? 

 

That should have everything apart from the program files and operating system files..

ill look for the folder but what your saying is move the whole users folder over

[kwljunky]

ill look for the folder but what your saying is move the whole users folder over

Yeah, C:/Users should have everything 

 

Look inside it to make sure, 

 

I am not sure if it was there in XP though. 

[CobalTicz]

i didn't see it thanks for the idea though

[Captain_WD]

I have an old pc with windows xp on it and i purchased an external hdd to get all of my data onto from the old machine I can't figure a way to do it.

 

I just don't want to search through everywhere to find all of the personal photos and stuff i just want one big file to drag over if thats possible

 

Hey CobalTicz,

 

You can either use a software to make a backup of your current drive to the external one, or simply create an image or clone the drive onto a external one.

A good software for backups is WD SmartWare. It gives you the option to back up specific types of files, specific folders or your whole drive in general. Here's a link to it: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=940.

You could use a cloning/imaging software to create a copy of your drive and move it to the external drive. If you have a WD drive, I would recommend checking out Acronis True Image (here's a link: http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119). 

You could also use the built-in Windows imaging and backup tools.

A simple drag-and-drop is also an option, as long as you know where your files are.

 

Captain_WD.

[NumLock21]

For XP, it's Documents and Settings, then your user name.