Unlike a complete reinstall of Windows followed by a reinstall of the software, restoring a user's personal settings is much more tedious. You need to return the old wallpaper, sort out personal folders in the library, and most importantly, restore many different settings associated with the user account. In a word, one hassle and nothing more.
In such a situation, a small, uncomplicated, but very useful utility called Transwiz can help out a lot. It is intended for backing up and transferring profile data to another computer or the same computer running Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 after a complete reinstallation of the system.
Transwiz differs from analogues in simplicity and ease of use - the procedure for copying and transferring is carried out using a step-by-step wizard. There is no Russian language in the program, but this should not become a hindrance. After creating a profile archive, its contents can be viewed in a ZIP archiver or Explorer, and, if necessary, extract the necessary files from it.
Some features of using Transwiz
You can only back up data from one account from another, but if your PC has only one main profile, you willy-nilly have to create a second one or activate the built-in administrator account and make backups from under it. This is especially true for the transfer of the local administrator profile, which will be considered used by Transwiz even if you run the program under a regular user account.
Note
We remind you that you can activate the hidden Administrator account with the command net user Administrator /active:yes executed in an elevated CMD console.
How to work with Transwiz
When you run the utility, the wizard will ask you two questions: “I want to transfer data to another computer” and “I have data I want to transfer to this computer”, that is, are you going to transfer data to another PC or to the same one. Select the first one and click Next.
In the window that opens, select the desired profile, click "Next" and specify the directory to save the backup copy of the profile.
You can enable compression at this point (optional).
When proceeding to the next step, the utility will offer to set a password for the archive with a copy of the data, here we also leave everything at your discretion.
After that, the backup procedure will be launched, the progress of which you can see at the bottom of the application window.
The created ZIP archive includes library folders (Music, Documents, Favorites, Videos, etc.), desktop configuration, OneDrive folder, logs, databases, as well as a hidden AppData directory with software settings.
Approximately the same, but in the reverse order, the procedure for restoring a profile on a new system is performed. Having launched the program, this time select the option “I have data I want to transfer to this computer” and specify the path to the data archive.
We do not change the computer name (Enter the domian), click "Next".
Transwiz will display a message that this account does not exist and immediately offer to create it. Click "Yes" and select the type of account you want, for example, Administrator.
In the next window, you can specify new user data, or leave everything by default. In the latter case, the data will be taken from the backup.
Almost everything is ready, it remains only to click "Next" and wait for the backup copy with user data to be unpacked. Upon completion of the procedure, close the current session and log in with a new old account.
If you did not specify a username and password in the Transwiz window, when you enter the restored account, the system may prompt you to change the password. You need to enter it only in the two lower fields, leave the first upper one blank.
In any case, you can reset or change the password from a work account by opening a command prompt with administrator rights and running the net user user password command, where user is the local username and password is the new password. Better yet, first enter your old local login and password in the program window and tick the “Password never expires” checkbox.
Note
You can transfer data to Transwiz not only between Windows of the same version, you can import a profile from Windows 10 to Windows 8.1 and even 7, and vice versa, only in this case full compatibility of components and settings is not guaranteed. As for universal applications, they will need to be updated when you enter the transferred account.
Have a great day!
Hello dear readers of the blog www.site. Today we will complete the description of the process operating system migration Windows 7 with saving user profiles, installed programs, data and settings on two hard drives. One of the drives is a solid state drive SSD 60 GB, the second is a conventional mechanical HDD.
The decision to make a dual configuration of hard drives was made after the volumes occupied by the operating system and user data. Due to the fact that they clearly exceeded 60 GB in total, it was not possible to transfer everything to one small SSD drive.
Looking ahead, I’ll say that for a desktop computer, such a solution turned out to be not only successful, but also very profitable from a financial point of view. The total cost of a small SSD and a mechanical HDD is still less than the cost of one large SSD.
Even if you don’t feel sorry for money “for your own”, most likely, the volume of one SSD is really not enough. For example, my photo folders alone take up about 130 GB. And this despite the fact that the photos are mostly in jpg format. Who's in RAW? What if video? This I mean that you still have to either install another HDD, or connect an external one.
As for the speed of the system, there were initially serious concerns about whether the transfer of Windows 7 user profiles to a regular mechanical disk would negatively affect it. Fears were not confirmed - everything "flies". No, for sure the response of the computer would be even faster if the solid-state drive contained not only the operating system, but also the data. But something tells me that in most practical cases this difference would not be very noticeable.
We return to the process. Last time we migrated the Windows 7 operating system to an SSD drive and user profiles to a mechanical HDD. To transfer user profiles, we tried to use the standard Windows 7 wizard "Windows Easy Transfer".
Unfortunately, the result was not quite the one we would like to see - the settings of some programs were not saved. This can be partly explained by the fact that with such a profile transfer, the absolute paths to the files change and some programs do not find them. Apparently, "Windows Easy Transfer" makes sense to use to solve those tasks for which it is directly intended. In a word, this is not Linux for you, where you can mount any partition on any disk in \home.
Today I will describe the second, very simple, way to transfer Windows 7 user folders to another drive. The idea of such a transfer was suggested to me by the Microsoft wizard at the moment when it refused to expand the saved profiles to the second disk and I had to deceive it by creating symbolic links. Here we are using them to the fullest.
Transferring Windows 7 User Folders Using Symbolic Links
We return to the moment when the preliminary optimization of the space occupied by the system on the C: drive has already been done, but the original user profiles from the C: drive have not yet been deleted. We copy the user directories to any available place or immediately to where they are supposed to be placed in the end.
You can do this in various ways, the main thing is to save permissions to files and folders and not lose system and hidden ones. For example, using the command xcopy in the command line with administrator rights:
xcopy C:\Users\UserName\ X:\Users\UserName\ /E /H /O /X
username– name of the user profile directory;
X:\Users\UserName– destination folder;
/E
/H– hidden and system files are copied;
/O- Access control lists ACLs and data about the owner are saved;
/X– File audit information is copied.
Or, also on the command line, with the command robocopy:
robocopy C:\Users\UserName\ X:\Users\UserName\ /E /COPYALL /XJ
C:\Users\UserName, X:\Users\UserName– source and result;
/E– directories with subdirectories are copied, including empty ones;
/COPYALL– all information about files is copied (data about the owner, audit information, etc.);
/XJ— exclude connection points.
Team robocopy interesting in that it is designed for data replication and can remove "extra" files from the replica. It can be successfully used to create backups without completely overwriting all files.
13 comments
Rustam, your problem cannot be related to the transfer of profiles. In any case, on C: \, even if you did not specifically create a new user whose profile cannot be transferred, as recommended in the article, there is an "Administrator". If everything is in order with the system itself, then if the second disk with the transferred profiles is unavailable, such horrors cannot happen - Windows will boot. Tell us in more detail at what point the black screen occurs, after which it started. And what does it mean
I can't even reinstall Windows.
That's just the point that I had only one Administrator profile. Then I transferred it from SSD to HHD. Then, on drive D, where I transferred the Administrator profile, I made the Users folder invisible. Rebooted the laptop. Windows won't boot. Even the Windows logo does not appear. I decided to reinstall the OS, in AHCI mode the installation does not start at all. I switch to IDE mode, it stumbles at the “installation begins” step. Further nowhere. Although I had already installed the same copy of Windows with this flash drive on the same ultrabook before.
It looks like something is wrong in the bios or what?I want to connect a laptop to a computer and format all disks. Could you tell me how to connect a laptop and see all its contents from a computer?
Something very complex you have conceived. The content is easier to view by booting from a Live CD. For example, Parted Magic with GParted. I wrote about him. I would also like to understand what kind of Windows you are installing - problems with AHCI are confusing. Again, you can partition and format disks by running the installation of Windows 7. I described how to make a bootable USB flash drive with Windows.
MBR and GPT are not tables, but records at the beginning of the disk. They cannot affect the visibility of drives in the BIOS. As far as I understand, your ultrabook does not assume independent use of SSD, but as a cache for HDD. I think that the solution to the problem should be found here. Can this laptop actually work with an SSD as a separate drive?
I can’t understand how you contrived to transfer a single user to another disk - when copying a profile, there should have been a huge number of errors due to file locks. But most importantly, I can not understand how even this wrong action could affect the inability to reinstall the system. There must be something else. M.b. did you change something in the BIOS?
Yeah. With the transfer, it is now clear that there was still a service account. But with a laptop it is completely incomprehensible. If you manage to solve the problem, and I have no doubt about it, be sure to unsubscribe. Very interesting. Unfortunately, without having a similar sample at hand, it is problematic to give you some practical advice. Sometimes the solution is hidden under the very nose. I remember how we once fought half the night with a server that refused to start after changing the controller. What they didn't do. Thank God they didn't really ruin it. But it turned out that by this moment they had already gone crazy and were trying to boot from the wrong device.
It may very well be. Acronis can easily not see something. For example, for me it does not see disks connected via USB to a computer with an Intel DX58SO motherboard. Previously, too, constantly something came up of the same plan. To create backups, I now mainly use Live-CD with .
Well, he did everything right. Rebooted, everything worked ok. And then even the OS stopped loading. I can't even reinstall Windows. Only black screen.
Thanks for the Parted Magic program. Downloaded, but apparently something in the tables is not right. When trying to create or format a partition, an Input / Otput error during read or during write on dev / sda error is generated. Then the HHD and SSD boot sectors in the BIOS generally disappear. I don't understand what to do. It looks like something with GPT, MBR tables. Is there any way to fix the tables? By the way laptop Asus Zenbook UX32A.
Yes, the SSD is meant to be a cache, but I installed the OS on the SSD. And everything worked great. Then I decided to move the user folders to another drive. Transferred and... 🙂
Well, to transfer a single user, I created a temporary administrator, and after the transfer, I deleted this temporary administrator account. When copying user files, there were a couple of questions, but I skipped them. I don’t understand about the impossibility of reinstalling the system (It’s just that the impossibility of installing a new OS appeared even before I dug into the BIOS. But even after resetting the BIOS changes, it’s still the same.
I made a bootable Acronis flash drive.
And it gave an error "E000101F4: No hard drive found". How can this be if the BIOS has this situation:
Boot Opton Priorities
I go to
Hard Drive BBS Priorities
and there:
Boot Option #1
Boot Option #2
Transferring user profile folders from the system drive to another drive is needed to free up a relatively small system drive (for example, an SSD).
The operation is unsafe and controversial - who does not know how and why - should not be done.
Additional required. xxcopy utility. Pro version required. Although it is paid, its official trial period of 60 days is quite enough for our task.
So:
- Install xxcopy.
- We create a new temporary user with a name, for example, "TU", which will be used to perform the data transfer operation and give him administrator rights.
- We reboot (to eliminate locks on the files in use) and log in as a new user ("TU").
- Launch the Windows command prompt in administrator mode. To copy a folder from drive C: to drive D: run the command:
xxcopy c:\Users d:\Users /E /H /K /SC /oE1
If you have different drive letters, substitute your own. As a result, the folder will copied properly. Mistakes, if any, can be ignored. - Next, run the command regedit.In it we find the registry branch HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.In this branch, we change the values of the keys:
- Default to "D:\Users\Default"
- ProfilesDirectory to "D:\Users"
- Public to "D:\Users\Public"
- In the same branch, there are branches with parameters of user profiles already registered in the system (branches with long names, this is what they are) - for each user, you need to change the value of the key " ProfileImagePath» to a directory on a portable drive.
- The temporary user is no longer needed - everything that was required of him is completed. At the same time, so far, nothing irreversible has been done - all the data in reality was copied, not transferred. Therefore, in the case of "something went wrong ..." you can always return the status quo. Now reboot again and log in with a real administrator account.
- We make sure that the login is correct and the system boots without questions. Now you can proceed to the next steps.
- Launch the Windows Command Prompt again in administrator mode and run the following commands:
- rd "C:\Documents and Settings"- deleting a symbolic link to the old Users folder
- rd "C:\Users" /S- deleting the oldest folder Users
- mklink /D "C:\Documents and Settings" "D:\Users"
- mklink /D "C:\Users" "D:\Users"
Your system now has the Users profile folder on the correct drive, and it also has symlinks to the new folder to protect the system from being mishandled at the old address.
What is the risk of reinstalling the operating system? Not so much the loss of personal files, since they can be saved to removable media, but the loss of personal settings. Desktop screensaver, sorting files in libraries, account settings - it takes more than one hour to restore all this. Therefore, if you need to reinstall Windows, but you don’t want to lose your personal settings, you should transfer your profile from one PC to another.
How to transfer a user profile to Windows 7, 8 and 8.1?
There are many programs on the network that allow you to easily and quickly transfer a user profile with saved settings from one computer to another. However, you can use the regular Windows tools - the Windows Easy Transfer utility, which is preinstalled in Windows 7, 8 and 8.1.
This utility is quite easy to use, and also has a Russian-language interface. Here are a few of the restrictions:
- It does not transfer programs, but only user settings;
- It is not possible to migrate a profile from a 32-bit version to a 64-bit one.
The instructions for transferring a user profile using Windows Easy Transfer are as follows:
- Click "Start", "All Programs", "System Tools" and select "Windows Easy Transfer". In Windows 8, you can simply enter this query in the search box, since there will be no utility in the utilities.
- A new window will open showing the items available for transfer. We press "Next".
- Next, you need to select the device to which the user data will be copied. There are 3 choices available:
- Data transfer cable. This is a special cord, one end of which is connected to the source PC, and the other end to the receiver PC.
- Net. If the computer to which you want to transfer the profile is connected to another PC via a local network.
- External drive or USB flash drive.
- For example, the last method will be used (with a flash drive).
- Next, select "This is my source computer."
- A system scan will start and check the possibility of transferring data.
- Information about the amount of transferred data will appear. Accordingly, the drive should not be smaller in volume.
- If you do not have a second hard drive or you do not need to copy some data, for example, shared data, then you should uncheck a certain item.
- At the next stage, the program will prompt you to create a password to protect your data from viruses. It is worth writing down the password so as not to forget.
- Select a storage location for data transfer.
The data will be copied to the flash drive.
- When finished, click "Next".
Now you need to connect the USB flash drive to the PC to which you want to transfer the user profile.
IMPORTANT! When migrating a profile, you may encounter the error "Windows Easy Transfer could not sign in with a domain account." This error indicates that the number of profiles does not match the number of users. On the new PC, you should create a new account with the same name as on the original PC and only then perform the transfer.
We transfer user data to a new PC as follows:
- Click "Start" and in the search bar type "Windows Easy Transfer". We start the utility. Click "Next", select the flash drive. Now you need to select "This is my new computer."
- Next, click "Yes".
- Specify where a copy of the profile is stored.
- The data transfer will start.
Now, if you log into the new computer as the user that was migrated, you will need to change your password when logging into your account. Only after that will all the settings of the old profile become available.
How to transfer user profile in Windows 10?
Sorry, Windows Easy Transfer or Easy Transfer for Windows 10 is not available. However, the Microsoft website states that as part of the cooperation program, you can transfer a user profile to Windows 10 using PCmover Express. However, this program was only available to users who switched to Windows 10. Now the software is paid.
In order not to spend money and transfer the file to Windows 10, you should use the free Transwiz utility.
The principle of its use is quite simple:
- If you have one account, you should create a second one, since the profile of the main account will be copied from under it.
- Next, download and install the program. Run exe.file. You can do this through Total Commander.
- Select the profile to be copied. We press "Next".
- Choose the location where we will save a copy of the profile. We press "Next".
- We specify the password.
- Copy will start.
- After the end, you need to repeat all the same steps, only select the second item in the utility and indicate the place where the image is stored.
- Then follow the prompts of the Wizard. We do not change the computer name. Create a new account where the profile will be copied. As in the case of Windows 7, when entering a new account, you will need to change the password.
The folders Video, Documents, Music, General, cloud storage, logs, desktop, databases and the hidden folder AppData will be transferred.
The Windows operating system (in all its versions) has a so-called user folder, which contains folders for storing the desktop, videos, documents, for downloading files from the Internet, for music, images, and others that are used less often. Since the folders are initially located on the system drive "C", over time this drive may become full. And if you bought yourself a small SSD drive, then, most likely, there will definitely not be enough space for the files stored in the user's folders. In this case, the location of these folders must be transferred to another local drive, for example, “D”, and I will talk about this in this article.
Now in more detail ... These user folders are primarily created for the convenience of the user, because they allow you to conveniently sort your information on your computer through the explorer, for example, videos, movies, etc. put in the "Video" folder, photos, pictures - in the "Images" folder, Well, what you place on the desktop is automatically placed in the "Desktop" folder. And even more so, the appearance of these folders is initially optimized in the system for certain data, videos, photos, music. And you don't need to create your own folders for all the good stuff that you have on your computer. In general, whether to use them or not is everyone's business.
If these folders are actively used for their intended purpose, then the information in them will clog a lot of disk space. As an example, my entire user folder is over 600 GB. What's wrong with that, you ask? Actually, there is nothing bad, but the problem will be when there is not enough space on your system disk. At the same time, increasing or decreasing the size of the system disk is a dangerous operation in which you can break Windows itself, i.e. it will stop starting.
For information about changing the size of local disks, you can read
And some users store most of their information, in general, on the desktop, which, accordingly, will also take up space on the C: drive.
It may be news to someone that the desktop in Windows is also a folder. Yes, that is right. The folder is called “Desktop” (or Desktop) and it is located in the user folder of the system under which you work, on drive C:
Or another option. Now many people put SSD drives under their system, instead of the usual hard drives. And these SSD pleasures are very expensive, well, that is, they cost much more than HDDs (hard drives), 2 times, or even 3 times. Because they work many times faster and Windows generally works much faster with them. Since these disks are expensive, they are usually bought in such a volume that it is enough only for installing Windows and programs for it. This is approximately 120 GB, a size that is enough for most of these purposes. But these 120 GB are no longer enough to store all the information on the computer, especially in the user's folders, because it is initially located on the same local drive as Windows.
Here, above, I gave 2 examples, because of which you may need to change the location of the user's folders, especially the "Desktop" folder, and both of these examples are related to the lack of free space on the "C" drive.
Let's move on to practice...
How to migrate user folders to another local drive.
The user folder itself is standardly located at the following path in Windows: C:\Users\Vladimir
Instead of "Vladimir" you will have the name of your Windows account.
Sometimes the "Users" folder may be called "Users".
In your user folder, you will see something like the following picture:
All user folders are displayed here, such as Desktop, Documents, Downloads, etc. There may also be other folders, such as in the image above, that are not circled in red. Such folders can be created by some programs, that is, this is normal.
In some cases, folders may be named in English:
- Downloads = Downloads
- Desktop = Desktop
- Favorites = Favorites
- Pictures = Pictures
- Contacts = Contacts
- Videos = My Videos (called "Videos" in newer versions of Windows)
- Documents = My Documents (called "Documents" on newer versions of Windows)
- Music = My Music (called "Music" in newer versions of Windows)
- Searches = Searches
- Saved Games = Saved Games
- Link = Links
To change the location of a folder, you need to right-click on the desired folder (hereinafter referred to as "RMB"), select "Properties". Go to the "Location" tab (1) and click "Move" (2).
Windows Explorer will open, where you need to select the folder into which the current one will be moved. It is better for the target folder (to which you transfer the current one) to create a new one with the same name, but on a different local drive.
Example. Move the Downloads folder from the old location to the new one. The old location in the example is: C:\Users\Vladimir Create a folder on the 2nd local drive with the same name "Downloads". Accordingly, when moving the old folder, in the "Location" tab, we select the new "Downloads" folder that we created.
After choosing a new location, click on the "Apply" window.
If you have any files in your Downloads folder, the system will prompt you to move them all to the new location you have chosen. It's better to move the files. To do this, click "Yes" in the window.
We do the same with all other folders that are in your user folder. That is, we first create a folder with the same name in another local drive, then transfer the old folder to it.
Of course, you don’t have to transfer all the folders directly, but it’s better to do it anyway, so that you definitely don’t take up extra space on the “C” drive. And for those who like to store a lot of files right on the desktop (I sometimes do this myself), I strongly recommend moving the Desktop folder! :)
