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How To Clone Your Pc Hard Drive Using Macrium Reflect
Creating a complete backup of your hard drive by cloning it is never a bad idea. Hardware can fail, and it’s a pain losing your data. There are also times where you’d like to swap out a hard drive whether in a laptop or a desktop for something faster, but you want your PC to be the same as it was before the swap. In either of these cases, Macrium Reflect is a solid program that easily clones a drive. Why Macrium? It’s the first one we used, it works, and we didn’t find any reason to switch to another.
There are two ways to go about a hard drive swap. You can purchase a hard drive enclosure and hook your PC up to the new internal drive for a direct clone before replacing it this method will take the least time. If you don’t want to go in for a hard drive enclosure, you can clone the original drive to an external drive, do the physical swap, boot Windows from the external drive, and clone back onto the new internal drive.
If you need a new external hard drive for this process, have a look at our roundup of the best external drives money can buy. If you’re in the market for a new internal drive but unsure of where to start, check out our SSD buyer’s guide.
Transfer Data From Pc To Pc With Minitool Partition Wizard
The first free PC to PC data transfer tool you can use is a program named MiniTool Partition Wizard.
This program is actually an all-in-one disk partition manager. It has many powerful functions and aids you to manage your hard drive and computer from many aspects. Hard drive data transfer from PC to PC can be easily realized with this tool.
Its copy disk, copy partition functions should be helpful when you change a new PC/laptop. It is extremely easy-to-use and delivers an ultrafast speed in operation.
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Create A Shared Folder To Transfer Files From Pc To Pc
In Windows 10 or Windows 11, you can share files on your computer with other users over the network. Using the File Sharing feature is the method you can use. You can share files with virtually any device, including Mac, Android, and Linux devices.
In the same LAN, you can directly use large files locally. The files can be used by multiple people at the same time. It’s very convenient for business users.
Use these steps to share files on your local network using the express settings:
Step 1. Find the file you want to share. Right-click or press it, and select “Give access to” > “Specific people”.
Step 2. Select a user or group to add. Click “Add”. Add the username you want to share. If you are open to all users, you need to add “Everyone” to this user. Adjust the privilege level as needed.
Step 3. Click the “Share” button to enable network discovery and sharing in the dialog. Then, press “Win+R”, Enter “\\IP address”. Then, you’ll see all the shares of the IP address.
If you don’t know your IP address, press “Win+R”, type cmd, then input “ipconfig”. Press “Enter” and you’ll see your IP address. If you select multiple files at once, you can share them all in the same way. It works for folders, too.
If you want to share files over the network without needing a password, use these steps to disable password protection for file sharing on Windows 10/11:
Transferring Files From Pc To Pc For Free With Onedrive

Another easy to transfer data from old PC to new PC is to use Microsoft OneDrive cloud service. When you sign up a Microsoft account, you have a 5GB free storage space. If 5GB is not enough, you can subscribe a fee for more storage space, namely, $2 for 50GB per month, $7 for 1TB a per month.
You can transfer your files or folders in your old PC to OneDrive cloud service only if the computer has an internet connection. And then you can log in OneDrive with your Microsoft account on the new PC, and download the files to new Windows 10 PC.
You can only use OneDrive to transfer files and folders from computer to new computer. Other data cant be transferred.
There are many other popular cloud services like OneDrive allowing you to transfer files from PC to PC. , Dropbox are also good choices.
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Cloning To A Smaller Or A Larger Hard Drive
Dealing with partitions when moving to a hard drive of a different size requires a couple of extra steps. If you’re moving to a smaller hard drive, you want to ensure your data fits. The first thing you want to do is clean up your original drive so that it has less data than the new drive can hold. If you’re moving to a larger hard drive, you want to expand the primary partition so that it takes up the entirety of the new disk.
Here are the changes you need to make in Macrium Reflect when dealing with hard drives of different size. Insert the following steps in between step 6 and step 7 in the preceding instructions.
Click Cloned Partition Properties.
Click OK.
You can now continue with steps seven to ten in the preceding section.
A Storage Upgrade Is A Great Time To Start Fresh
You might not love my answer, Len, but I think its the best one: Switching out your hard drive offers a great excuse to install a fresh, decluttered version of your operating system which Ill assume is Windows 10, but if not, weve talked about that, too.
Sure, you can easily clone your entire mechanical drive over to your new SSD, but its going to require a bit more hardware, and youll probably end up using it once and forgetting about.
Replacing your laptops hard drive usually means taking the primary hard drive out and putting a new one in . Thats a bit different than a typical desktop PC, where you can install the new SSD, connect it to your motherboard, and run both drives at once. In that instance, youd clone your original drive to your new drive, disconnect and remove the old one, and hook up the new one using the original SATA connection. Generally, your system should boot up just fine with your new drive, and you wont have missed a beat.
With a laptop, this gets a little trickier. Youll need a cheap external enclosure or USB-to-SATA adaptor to connect to your SSD, allowing you to connect your SSD to your laptops USB port. Youll then run a disk clone, just like before. Depending on how much data there is to transfer over and the USB speeds youre working with, this could take some time.
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What Is The Best Way To Transfer Large Files Between Computers
How to send large files Upload your files to cloud storage. Uploading files to cloud storage is a great way to transfer large files such as photos and video. Compress the Files. Another tried and tested method of transferring files is to compress them. Use a VPN. USB flash drive. FTP. SFTP. FTPS. Jumpshare.
Try Windows Nearby Sharing To Transfer Files To New Pc Windows 10
You can also use the Windows Nearby Sharing option instead of HomeGroup to transfer files from PC to PC on Windows 10. HomeGroup has been removed from Windows 10 . However, even though it has been removed, you can still share printers and files by using Nearby Sharing in Windows 10. It uses Bluetooth to transfer files between PCs in close proximity.
Nearby Sharing works with all apps that have a sharing option including Microsoft Edge, File Explorer, and the Photos app, so you no longer have to rely on third-party file-sharing platforms like DropBox. You can easily share a file with anyone in the room without entering any passwords or pairing devices.
Note: Make sure that your Windows 10 is version 1803 or later because this feature is only available in versions after 1803.
Now, follow the details below to transfer files from old PC to a new one:
Step 1. Enable nearby sharing. Go to “Settings > System > Shared experiences > Nearby sharing”. Turn on it.
Step 2. Under “Nearby sharing,” select “Everyone nearby”.
- Everyone nearby Your PC will be able to share and receive content from all nearby devices, including those you don’t own.
- My devices only Your PC will share and receive content only with devices using the Microsoft account.
- Under “Nearby sharing,” click “Save files I receive to”, and click the “Change” button. Select a location to save files.
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Using An External Drive
Just about any external drive, including a USB thumb drive, or an SD card can be used to transfer your files from one laptop to another. Connect the drive to your old laptop drag your files to the drive, then disconnect it and transfer the drive contents onto your new laptop. If the device runs out of room when you’re uploading your files, you’ll have to delete them after the first transfer is complete and then go back to get the rest. The more available storage on the drive, the easier the process is, as you won’t have to pass the drive between laptops as often.
Ideally, an external storage device that can hold all of your files is best, because you can keep the data on this drive to use as an emergency backup, just in case your new laptop breaks down.
Transferring From One Laptop To Another
Its exciting upgrading your beat-up, war-horse old laptop to a shiny new lightning-fast model. And youll have plenty to choose from, Apples new Mac Book Pro 13, the HP Envy 13, or even Dell XPS 13 and many many more.
But whatever you choose youll want to make sure you have all your important files, images, videos transferred securely from your old laptop to your new one. And that can be a huge pain moving everything manually. Apple makes things a lot easier with the Time Machine App but if youve got a PC read on below.
But if youre confident in your IT skills you can do a DIY transfer and below are some of the options available to you:
** Note these options only apply if your old laptop is not damaged if you need data recovery, click here**
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A Portable Storage Device
Portable storage devices serve well for backup purposes and data relocation. Besides, they are intuitive and quite affordable these days.
Make sure both of your computers have fully functional USB ports. Then choose the storage device which is most adequate for your purposes.
For instance, an external hard drive is particularly suitable for storing and migrating large amounts of data. And flash drives are available at a relatively low cost, come in many different shapes, sizes, and colours, and are really convenient to carry around. Anyway, the choice is yours.
The problem is, this method requires lots of manual work and therefore can be quite time-consuming.
Use Nearby Sharing Instead Of Homegroup

With the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, HomeGroup was retired. Replacing it is a new feature called Nearby Sharing that uses Bluetooth to transfer files between PCs nearby. It should be enabled by default on your PC, and you can tweak settings to have everything set up exactly how you’d like.
Nearby sharing is great for transferring files to a new PC, but it will not work the same way as, say, cloning, where you essentially duplicate everything, including Windows 10 and your data. If you’d like to try out this feature, be sure to look at our guide on how to use Nearby Sharing to transfer files between PCs with everything you need to know.
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What To Transfer To New Computer
Transferring files to a new computer in Windows 10 is undoubtedly a matter. Because they mean a lot for you, and you will use them in the near future. Moreover, they are easily damaged by any computer issues, such as, virus infacted, registry error, malware, etc.
Meanwhile, you still need to transfer programs to new computer if you don’t want to reinstall them start over. It’s said, some programs require reactivation, which will be troublesome.
So now, let’s have a closer look at how to transfer files or programs to new computer in Windows 10.
How Do I Transfer Data From One Laptop To Another
Struggling to find the best solution on how will you transfer data from one laptop to another? You might have just bought a new laptop and now you do not know exactly on how to transfer data from one laptop to another. Well, you dont need to worry, because we have some quick ways to guide you through, so that your task becomes simple and convenient. It is not always easy to get help with computer problems from the local technician, and therefore it helps to know basic things about computers.
Transferring data is not as easy as it might seem because the process takes some time. The important thing to get right is that all of your essential data is successfully transferred from your old laptop to your new one.. Here, we are going to identify five quick ways to transfer data from one laptop to another.
If you are thinking, How do I transfer data from one laptop to another, then a simple solution is to use a USB. External storage media, a USB, is a great way to store data and backups. But also, you can take help of this to move data from your old laptop to the new laptop. External Storage Media, a USB, is a very portable and convenient way to quickly and efficiently move the data you want to keep from one laptop to another..
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How Do I Transfer Files From My Old Laptop To My New Laptop Windows 10
Use OneDrive to transfer your data. Use an external hard drive to transfer your data. Use a transfer cable to transfer your data. Use PCmover to transfer your data. Use Macrium Reflect to clone your hard drive. Use Nearby Sharing instead of HomeGroup. With the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, HomeGroup was retired.
Can I Transfer Software From One Laptop To Another
You simply cant just copy-paste programs like you would do files because you might be missing important files during the copy-paste process causing complications when running the program.
Youll have to reinstall the programs from scratch on your new computer which can be very tedious and time-consuming. This is the recommended way of doing things since it causes fewer errors and problems in the long run.
Thankfully, there are some options on this list that bypass this. A good example of this would be PCmovers professional version that fully transfers software as well. Cloning the hard drive is also an effective way to transfer programs as well. Cloning programs create an exact copy of your old hard drive so its natural to expect that it will copy your old hard drives files, settings, and even applications as well.
So yes, you can transfer software from one laptop to another but it will require special programs and methods like PCmover and hard drive cloning software.
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How To Transfer Data From Old Laptop To New Laptop
Step 1. Create a backup file.
1. Connect your USB drive/external hard drive to your source computer. Launch Todo PCTrans, click “Backup & Restore > Start” on the main screen.
2. Select “Data Backup” to move on.
3. Click “Edit” at Applications, User Accounts, and Files columns to choose the specific data, applications, etc. to create a backup file.
Step 2. Recover via the created backup file.
1. Plugin your USB drive which stores the created backup file to the target PC and open EaseUS Todo PCTrans. Click “Backup & Restore > Start > Data Restore”.
2. Click “Browse” to locate the Image file. Then, choose “Restore” and go to the next step.
3. Now, you can select Applications/Files/Accounts you want to restore.
Or you can click the “Edit” button to choose the specific data to be transferred flexibly. Click “Finish” to confirm. Besides, you can also click the edit icon > “Submit” to change the target path to recover and save the files.