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General discussion

Transferring files from external drive to 7

Jul 14, 2010 5:33PM PDT

Hi, my Dell XPS computer, running XP crashed a few days ago. The computers hard drive gave out, but I'm still able to access the hard drive and all it's contents through a usb external drive. I purchased a new computer with Windows 7. I know nothing about it, so I need your help. I would like to transfer those settings to the new computer running Windows 7, however, I cannot get Windows Easy Transfer to even work. Because the drive that had Windows XP on it is now an external drive, and I cannot seem to get WET to run at all from that drive. Probably because it's not a different computer?

Does anyone know how I can transfer these settings without turning it in Windows XP or not damage the new system? I thought about copying the "Documents and Settings" folder into the Windows 7 Documents and Settings, but I don't see that folder.

There was another post on here from way back from somebody that said copying and pasting will work fine. But will that change Windows 7 to something else? Where would I paste the Documents and Settings from the external drive? Since I don't have a computer running XP any longer, is it possible to even use Windows Easy Transfer or should I be looking at some other ideas? Is it possible to transfer the programs too?

Your help is appreciated. Thanks

Discussion is locked

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Too late for Windows Easy Transfer, I think
Jul 14, 2010 6:56PM PDT

That would have needed to be installed on your old drive while XP was running. You will be left with copy/paste and won't be able to transfer anything but data, I suspect. Win7 is structured differently and where you initially put your files and documents doesn't matter much. Win 7 does have a My Documents folder which I believe is under Libraries. You can copy the contents of your My Documents folder there. The important thing to do for now is to maintain the integrity of the old drive until you can copy over what you can. You may also have such as browser bookmarks and data from programs that don't use the My Documents folder but created their own under your profile. I'll suggest that, if your new PC doesn't have a second hard drive that you get one and copy all of your important data and folders from the USB connected drive to a separate internal drive as well. Good luck.

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I agree with Steven
Jul 14, 2010 8:17PM PDT

if you cannot access XP then WET won't work, and you will be unable to transfer 'settings' across.

I'm confused though. You say the XP's hard drive crashed, and yet you are still able to access the contents through a USB drive. How does that work?

I just wonder, if you can still see the contents of the XP hard drive, then the drive itself hasn't crashed. May be the XP system can be got working again? You don't say any details about this crash so it is difficult to say, but did you try Safe mode in the XP system?

Mark

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Here's what happened
Jul 15, 2010 4:20PM PDT

Thanks for your help both of you. Well, I don't believe my hard drive crashed but the person trying to help me fix the computer said it did. I had two hard drives, one of them was never detected in a external usb drive, but it was able to be accessed on the Dell XPS. Anyway, one day I started hearing strange noises that sounded like a distorted conversation in my computer. Then in the next four days the blue screens of death followed but they came after I installed a program. So I uninstalled the program and restored. I thought everything was fine, except the odd little sounds it occasionally had.

Then out of the blue the computer decided to hang on the Windows XP loading screen. It never went any further. When I tried to access the Safe Mode, it would hang on mup or some file like that. I read on some forums that means there's no hope for the computer. I tried reinstalling the system on my C drive, and it would freeze where it says that it's opening setup.

I tried 3 different safe mode settings, back when it worked, normal safe mode and safe mode with networking. I also tried to boot from the repair disc. Same hang up.

The computer fan still ran, all the power was up, I removed the capture card, that wasn't it.

But, I am still able to access the C drive, as an external drive. The secondary drive still does not work.

So that's what happened. The computer does work with an IDE drive plugged into the dvdr drive. But not with the Sata drives. So I got the HP and gave my XPS to the person fixing it. I can get access to the computer though. My backup computer that I also have running is only an IDE, or else I'd put the XPS drive in there to see if it'd boot up.