Migrating files

I'm migrating my files from my old computer to the new one using Dell Data Assistant. Does anyone know whether this process involves putting files together that may reside on different places on the hard drive, or is it making a carbon copy of the drive with nothing changed in any way? If the former it would be easy to verify with a checksum and it would take up less space on the new drive. If the latter the transfer should go at least a little faster. Has anyone used this and can comment on their results?

Sorry, I've never used a migration application. Dell Data Assistant says it transfers files and settings to a new computer and erases personal files and settings from the old one. The transfer part sounds good. It's the erase part that would trouble me since things can always go wrong. I've always backed up my data manually and restored said data manually. Please let us know how it goes.

What files ... user created files or system files (although the latter is not recommended)

Migration tools are a legacy of a bygone era and older OSs. Flavour of the day/week/month is now imaging > restoring (or the more frequently unsuccessful method of cloning)

It appeared to be working well although the tech set it up on WiFi when I told him I could use an ethernet cable which would make it faster. After about 8 hours and 24% migrated it's frozen. There is activity in the browser of the old machine but nothing is being written. After waiting another hour I've emailed the tech rep who is assisting me and asked what do I do now. I wonder whether a restart would pick up where it stopped or if it might start all over again at the beginning. Well, I paid $69 for this service when I bought the new computer so it's up to them to make it work. It was writing to the new computer at an average of 17 MBPS when it was writing. At the 24% mark it estimated it would take 20 hours to finish. That's after running for about 8 already.

larrydonline said:

It appeared to be working well although the tech set it up on WiFi when I told him I could use an ethernet cable which would make it faster. After about 8 hours and 24% migrated it's frozen. There is activity in the browser of the old machine but nothing is being written. After waiting another hour I've emailed the tech rep who is assisting me and asked what do I do now. I wonder whether a restart would pick up where it stopped or if it might start all over again at the beginning. Well, I paid $69 for this service when I bought the new computer so it's up to them to make it work. It was writing to the new computer at an average of 17 MBPS when it was writing. At the 24% mark it estimated it would take 20 hours to finish. That's after running for about 8 already.

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Depending on the amount of data, imaging > restoring would take 20-30 mins

I suspect this is a "tech" skilled in hardware but not in software (unless the "tech" is only doing what you specifically requested, ie. "migrate" data. Even so, a more software atuned operative would have advised you differently)

If we are talking about an SSD drive a complete clone of SATA type is about 20-30 minutes. M.2 disks are faster, so they take less time. This duration is for cloning to a USB target. If you have both source disk and target disk connected internally, it should take half the time or 2/3 at most.

Migration did finish successfully. It copied 263,177 files or 1.35 TB and 21 settings in 8 hours and 33 minutes. I didn't get a chance to watch the video because I think what messed up the first attempt was my continuing to use the computer. So I left everything alone the entire time. Now to check the work and see how accurate it was.

Now that you've finished .....

You could have also considered what condition/state your old system was in. When I get a new computer, I don't want it bogged down with all the warts and barnacles that build up on a existing system, over time. A clean fresh new system is concomitant with a fresh new device.

Maybe something to think about down the track ....

Needless to say again that a simple system (Office and a couple other applications) is better done from start, but a very complicated system (tons of applications and data) is better if you can keep your data and files and upgrade. Reinstalling and reconfiguring a complex system from start would take days and you are never sure it will be how you want it.

While the migration went very well, it only copied data and I still have to install all the programs I use. I prepared for that by saving a file of passwords on a USB. As of now I've reinstalled Mailbird, dbPoweramp, Money, Approach, Chrome, Firefox, Bulk Rename, EditpadPro, AnyDVD, LastPass, and a couple more.

The biggest disappointment is that I've been unable to make my HP Officejet Pro 8600 printer work correctly. It doesn't print entire pages but just a line on 20 or 30 pages when asked to print just one page. Troubleshooting doesn't find any problems. The software for it no longer runs on WIndows 11. I think I had Windows XP or maybe Vista when I bought it. It's been a great a printer but I guess it's time to upgrade that too.

This must be the tenth time at least that I've set up a new computer and it's still a pain but less frustrating when you know what to expect. My first computer was a Commodore 64. I used an Atari ST for four or five years before they came out with Windows 95. The hardest part was having to use a wired keyboard and mouse and a small monitor until the migration was finished. I keep those things around just in case.
I give the Dell Migration tool a passing grade. There's no other way I know of to capture 1.3 terabytes of data and get it on the new computer in a single day.

larrydonline said:

While the migration went very well, it only copied data and I still have to install all the programs I use. I prepared for that by saving a file of passwords on a USB. As of now I've reinstalled Mailbird, dbPoweramp, Money, Approach, Chrome, Firefox, Bulk Rename, EditpadPro, AnyDVD, LastPass, and a couple more.

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Imaging > restoring would have avoided the need for this

larrydonline said:

The biggest disappointment is that I've been unable to make my HP Officejet Pro 8600 printer work correctly. It doesn't print entire pages but just a line on 20 or 30 pages when asked to print just one page. Troubleshooting doesn't find any problems. The software for it no longer runs on WIndows 11. I think I had Windows XP or maybe Vista when I bought it. It's been a great a printer but I guess it's time to upgrade that too.

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Nope, can't imagine this, it should work. Suspect the problematic "migration" process has corrupted drivers. Uninstall and re-install.

larrydonline said:

This must be the tenth time at least that I've set up a new computer and it's still a pain but less frustrating when you know what to expect. My first computer was a Commodore 64. I used an Atari ST for four or five years before they came out with Windows 95. The hardest part was having to use a wired keyboard and mouse and a small monitor until the migration was finished. I keep those things around just in case.
I give the Dell Migration tool a passing grade. There's no other way I know of to capture 1.3 terabytes of data and get it on the new computer in a single day.

Click to expand...

Imaging > restoring would have avoided all this. Additionally, that volume of personal data more ideally should be on an external USB drive that can be connected to any computer, avoiding the need to move/transfer/"migrate"/etc between devices.

Wish I'd thought of your last idea. I have a couple 5 TB USB drives that I could have just copied to and from to get it done, maybe faster.
To answer a question I raised before the process finished which was would restarting the process (which is what I had to do) start the whole thing over again or would it know what had already been copied? When it gave me the final results it showed 356 Gigabytes already on the drive.

Also one post gave the impression that the process deletes all the files on the old drive. The instruction do indeed give you that impression. However after the process is over it gives you a window with two choice "Delete Files" or "Close". I just closed the program with the second choice and the two computers lost their connection. A delete files would probably do no more than garble the FAT so they couldn't be found by any program that relied on FAT. Of course, there are programs that can find them.

You can also clone the old disk to the new disk. Then boot the new disk on the new computer and wait for Windows to find drivers. Once in the desktop install remaining drivers. Now you have your old system in the new computer. You can proceed with installing Windows updates and upgrading your applications. If you have an old Windows version (such as Windows 11 21H2), you can also upgrade to the latest version. Much faster if you think you save the time you would need to backup your data and reinstall everything.