Electronics

[April]

I just purchased a new HP laptop from HSN and now I need to copy everything I have on my computer to my laptop.  Do you have any suggestions as to the best and easiest program to do this?  I want to make sure everything is transferred and nothing is erased on my computer.   Your input would be greatly appreciated.  TIA

[Lindsays Grandma]

@April ...I'm the last person who can help you with what you need,  I just want to wish you luck in getting an answer real soon.  

[glb613]

Laplink PC Mover. 

[SilleeMee]

I transfered my files from my external backup device. I also use Google Drive so things are stored there in my Google account and don't need to be transferred once I put them there. Google Drive is cloud based.

[NYCLatinaMe]

Usually you get a backup product (hardware or webbased) and then you restore the backup to the new computer.  The backup doesn't delete any files unless you set it to do that.  I can't be more specific because I have never transferred files on a pc, unless it was from a back up disk or memory drive.  I replaced my computers when they died, so I lost anything that I did not copy to a backup.  I did not want to spend money on repairs.  Since 2012, I went mac, and have not looked back.  Easy to transfer files with apple icloud.

[Caffeina]

I prefer using the tools that are already available within Windows. I share the folders and/or files, and copy them to another computer using file explorer.

It sounds like you don't have an external drive. If you're worried about losing files, I strongly suggest buying one first and running a backup. Then you can transfer that way instead as @SilleeMee suggested.

[glb613]

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@NYCLatinaMe wrote:

Usually you get a backup product (hardware or webbased) and then you restore the backup to the new computer.  The backup doesn't delete any files unless you set it to do that.  I can't be more specific because I have never transferred files on a pc, unless it was from a back up disk or memory drive.  I replaced my computers when they died, so I lost anything that I did not copy to a backup.  I did not want to spend money on repairs.  Since 2012, I went mac, and have not looked back.  Easy to transfer files with apple icloud.

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I've been trying to download photos from my iCloud drive and find it anything BUT easy.  I used "select all" and it only downoads one photo.  I've also found photos missing when compared to what I have on external hard drives.  I'm ready to download everything and cancel my paid account. 

[NYCLatinaMe]

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@glb613 wrote:

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@NYCLatinaMe wrote:

Usually you get a backup product (hardware or webbased) and then you restore the backup to the new computer.  The backup doesn't delete any files unless you set it to do that.  I can't be more specific because I have never transferred files on a pc, unless it was from a back up disk or memory drive.  I replaced my computers when they died, so I lost anything that I did not copy to a backup.  I did not want to spend money on repairs.  Since 2012, I went mac, and have not looked back.  Easy to transfer files with apple icloud.

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I've been trying to download photos from my iCloud drive and find it anything BUT easy.  I used "select all" and it only downoads one photo.  I've also found photos missing when compared to what I have on external hard drives.  I'm ready to download everything and cancel my paid account. 

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iCloud does not maintain photos that you have not backed up to iCloud.  In order for iCloud to have the photos in your external hard drives, you have to add them to iCloud storage, unless your external hard drive backs up to iCloud via wifi or other networking.  Once you delete a photo in one of your devices, it may delete it in iCloud for all your devices if the device is connected to iCloud.  I have not had any problems.  I am not sure of the situation in which iCloud is failing you with regards to "select all", so I can't comment.  Is it email?  I sometimes select several photos to email, and it can take a little time to upload the photos to the email.  Also, my email service limits the size of the data files that I can email, inlcuding photos, so it will not attach photos that exceed the data limitation.  This limitation is per the email service, not iCloud.  I do not use iCloud for email.  iCloud is cheap, and I am not concerned about Apple going out of the business of photo storage.

[glb613]

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@NYCLatinaMe wrote:

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@glb613 wrote:

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@NYCLatinaMe wrote:

Usually you get a backup product (hardware or webbased) and then you restore the backup to the new computer.  The backup doesn't delete any files unless you set it to do that.  I can't be more specific because I have never transferred files on a pc, unless it was from a back up disk or memory drive.  I replaced my computers when they died, so I lost anything that I did not copy to a backup.  I did not want to spend money on repairs.  Since 2012, I went mac, and have not looked back.  Easy to transfer files with apple icloud.

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I've been trying to download photos from my iCloud drive and find it anything BUT easy.  I used "select all" and it only downoads one photo.  I've also found photos missing when compared to what I have on external hard drives.  I'm ready to download everything and cancel my paid account. 

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iCloud does not maintain photos that you have not backed up to iCloud.  In order for iCloud to have the photos in your external hard drives, you have to add them to iCloud storage, unless your external hard drive backs up to iCloud via wifi or other networking.  Once you delete a photo in one of your devices, it may delete it in iCloud for all your devices if the device is connected to iCloud.  I have not had any problems.  I am not sure of the situation in which iCloud is failing you with regards to "select all", so I can't comment.  Is it email?  I sometimes select several photos to email, and it can take a little time to upload the photos to the email.  Also, my email service limits the size of the data files that I can email, inlcuding photos, so it will not attach photos that exceed the data limitation.  This limitation is per the email service, not iCloud.  I do not use iCloud for email.  iCloud is cheap, and I am not concerned about Apple going out of the business of photo storage.

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I have no idea what you're talking about.  I pay for iCloud storage and have thousands of photos and documents uploaded to folders I created.  I recently had to buy a new computer because of a hard drive failure and it was too old to repair.  I wanted to download a group of photos from my iCloud account and it wasn't easy! I highlighted the first photo then chose select all and only one photo was downloaded.  I then tried to manually select all photos, which was very time consuming, then download and not all of the photos were downloaded.  I finally found the same photos on an external hard drive and used it.  I have fast internet service so that isn't the problem.  Why pay $2.99 a month when I can't get the data I want easily.  I spent over an hour trying to get the photos from iCloud with limited success.  I should be able to batch upload or download fast and easy.   

It should not be this difficult to retrive what you have stored in the cloud.