Moving to a New Computer Without Losing Anything

Migration tools handle the obvious files. What people lose is everything else — the licences, the browser data, the application settings, the things stored inside applications rather than in folders.

Work through this before the old machine is wiped.

First: do not wipe anything yet

Keep the old machine intact and working until the new one has been used properly for a fortnight. Things surface — a file, a password, a setting — and having the original available turns a crisis into an afternoon.

If you must hand it in immediately, take a full drive image first, or remove the drive and keep it. See reusing a drive.

The obvious things

Documents, photographs, videos, music, downloads.

Check the whole drive, not just the standard folders. People save things to the desktop, to a root folder, to a second drive.

Search for your common file types across the whole drive to catch strays.

The things people forget

Browser data

Bookmarks, saved passwords, history, extensions, and open tabs.

Signing into the browser transfers most of it, and check that it actually completed rather than assuming.

Export bookmarks to a file as well. Sync failures happen and a file does not.

Passwords

If they are in the browser or a manager, they transfer with the account.

If they are in your head or on paper, this is the moment to set up a manager. See passwords: what changed.

Two-factor authenticator app — migrate it to your new phone or device using the app's transfer process, and check your recovery codes are saved. Do this before wiping anything, because reconfiguring every account afterwards is genuinely painful. See two-factor authentication.

Application data

The most commonly lost category, because it is not in a folder you browse.

Email, if you use a client rather than a browser. Messages, folders, rules, signatures, and the account settings.

Notes, in whatever application holds them.

Messages, if they live on the computer.

Photo library, if it is an application library rather than a folder — export originals rather than copying the library blindly.

Application settings and profiles — text editors, creative software, anything you configured. Most store settings in a hidden folder; check the application's own export option first.

Game saves, which are frequently stored locally rather than in the cloud.

Templates and custom dictionaries in office software.

Licences and accounts

Software licence keys — find them before wiping. Some can be recovered from the machine with a key-finding tool; others cannot.

Deauthorise the old machine in any service that limits authorised devices, before it is wiped.

Note which applications you actually use. Most people install far more than they use, and a migration is the opportunity to leave the rest behind.

Hardware and peripherals

Printer and scanner drivers for the new system, which may not exist for older hardware.

Anything with a dongle or a proprietary connection.

How to move it

Migration tools

Both major systems include one, and they work well for files, accounts and settings on the same platform.

They also carry across accumulated problems. A clean start on the new machine, with files copied deliberately, produces a better result and takes longer.

They do not move applications between platforms, obviously, and generally not licences.

Manual copy

Via an external drive, which is straightforward and gives you a copy in the middle of the process.

Directly over the network, if both machines are available.

Via cloud sync, which works and is slow for large amounts.

The order that works

1. Set up the new machine and let it complete its updates.

2. Sign into your browser and your password manager, which restores most of the daily working environment immediately.

3. Migrate the authenticator, before anything is wiped.

4. Copy the obvious files.

5. Install the applications you actually use, and enter licences.

6. Move application data — email, notes, settings, saves.

7. Configure the things you always change — display, keyboard, backups.

8. Set up backups on the new machine. Before you need them.

9. Use it properly for a fortnight, keeping the old machine available.

10. Then wipe the old one.

Before the old machine leaves

Check nothing remains. Search the drive for your common file types once more.

Sign out of everything, and deauthorise where accounts track devices.

Find the encryption recovery key if the drive is encrypted, or the drive becomes unreadable afterwards.

Wipe it properly. Deleting files does not remove them, and a factory reset is not always sufficient on a mechanical drive. See how to wipe a hard drive.

Then dispose or pass it on. See repair, upgrade or replace.

A checklist

• [ ] Files from the whole drive, not just standard folders
• [ ] Browser: signed in, bookmarks also exported to a file
• [ ] Password manager transferred
• [ ] Authenticator app migrated, recovery codes saved
• [ ] Email, including settings, rules and signatures
• [ ] Notes and messages
• [ ] Photo library exported as originals
• [ ] Application settings and profiles
• [ ] Game saves
• [ ] Licence keys recorded
• [ ] Old machine deauthorised in services
• [ ] Backups configured on the new machine
• [ ] Old machine kept intact for a fortnight
• [ ] Encryption recovery key found
• [ ] Old drive wiped properly

The short version

Keep the old machine intact for a fortnight — things surface, and having the original turns a crisis into an afternoon.

Application data is the commonly lost category — email, notes, photo libraries, settings and game saves are not in a folder you browse.

Migrate the authenticator app before wiping anything, or you will reconfigure every account.

Find the encryption recovery key before the old drive is erased.

And set up backups on the new machine before you need them, not after.

For broader technical standards and computing references, see NIST Information Technology Laboratory.