Transfer Settings and Data to new Mac or PC

You want to Transfer settings and data to new Mac or PC, but find the task intimidating especially if you are not fully organized. This article will list ways and tools to help you get started with this task.

The process in quite straightforward and quick if you have been creating regular backups. That is why if everything is scattered over your PC or Mac, you could lose precious data if your hard drive dies or some other computer problem.

Therefore, backups are necessary.

Transfer settings and data to new Mac or PC: Using a File-Transfer Tool

You can use file-transfer utilities for automatically transferring files, programs and settings to your new computer. You will need to install your old programs you used on the new computer, but these utilities will help to move your data and some important settings over. The personal files are most important things to transfer anyway.

Mac Migration Assistant

Apple has a Migration Assistant tool integrated into the Mac OS X, which can help transfer stings and data to new Mac from an older Mac device. This device can also help to transfer and migrate from Windows PC to Mac as well. Just download the migration assistant for Windows from Apple to start. Launch the Migration Assistant tool in your Mac. (Use command + Space, type in Migration and press Enter to open the application)

There are some other tools too like the paid Laplink PCmover software. Microsoft actually partnered with the company in releasing a software for helping XP users move to Windows 7. The software is not free anymore, and you should not be paying for a software just to transfer settings and data to new Mac.

Windows Easy Transfer

Microsoft also has its own tool for transferring files. The tool is built into Windows and is known as “Windows Easy Transfer”. The tool unfortunately has become less useful in Windows 8.1 and no longer provides the option of transferring files and settings over network. However, one can still manage to transfer data and settings from external hard drives of old PCs and offers their own tool, known as “Windows Easy Transfer.” It’s built into Windows. Unfortunately, it’s become less useful in Windows 8.1 and no longer has the option to transfer files and settings over the network. However, you can still connect an external hard drive to your old PC, run the Easy Transfer wizard to transfer your stuff to the drive, connect that drive to the new PC, and run the easy transfer wizard to transfer your stuff from the drive to the new PC. The tool is built into Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Launch it by tapping the Windows key to open the Start menu or Start screen, typing “Easy Transfer” without the quotes to search for it, and pressing Enter. You can also download the “Easy Transfer” tool from Microsoft, if you are upgrading from XP or Vista.

Transfer settings and data to new Mac or PC: Use a Backup and Restore Tool

One should be regularly backing up data and settings. I assume that you have been and one final step remaining is to restore the files from backup on your computer.

You need to be careful though. Windows 7 File recovery doesn’t work on Windows 8.1. Windows 8 has this feature to recover backed up files on Windows 7 but Windows 8.1 does not.

But, if you’re using practically any tool, like integrated Windows backup features to Time Machine on a Mac or a third-party backup solution, you should be able to backup files to an external drive and restore those files onto your new PC or Macs.

Transfer settings and data to new Mac or PC: Just Copy the Files

The manual copying of files solution works for basic backups, and also of course for basic file transfer. You just have to attach a large external drive on the computer you want to copy files from. Just detach the drive from that computer, connect it to the computer you want to transfer files to and just paste the files on that computer.
So it can be that simple and, if you have organized your files properly, you would know wherever your files are and then quickly locate and copy manually.

Of course, this means that you would be able to transfer your personal data, but not important settings. If you want to copy browser content like bookmarks, history etc. you can import them into the browser on your new computer. Most modern browser like Firefox and Chrome have sync options that can migrate these to a PC or Mac with same account logged in.

Transfer settings and data to new Mac or PC: Cloud Storage Tools

One last option for transferring your settings and data to new Mac or PC is using Cloud (online) storage services that can make it much simpler and easier. This is like using a webmail service like Outlook, Gmail or Yahoo. The emails you can access anytime but are stored securely on a server somewhere.

This is true for other applications and services that store your data, settings online. Cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox and Onedrive work well for this. Install the cloud storage client on PC or Mac and just copy your files into the folder. Log in to your cloud service account and the software will download any files you might have stored online during sync process.