Exporting Your Files to Windows 8

We have already talked about all of the available options in migrating some files and all other stuff from an older Windows machine to a new one and learned how one option differs  from the other so it is now time to go through the steps involved in the migration process.

As described in the previous tutorial, moving your personal files, libraries, settings and other stuff from your old computer to the new one required that you first identify the overall size of the data  and plan a day when you have enough time to do the process. Moving files takes hours and if you are moving big amounts of it, the process might take even a day or two to complete so it is important that you do it on a “not-so-busy” day like weekends where you won’t be needing to leave from home or use your computer in doing some tasks. It is also important that you plug your machine to a secure power source to make sure that the process won’t be interrupted when your computer’s battery power reaches the lowest level or when it eventually gets empty.

Once you have made all of these preparations, the next thing that you need to do is select the migration option that you want to use. In this tutorial, I’ll be showing the steps involved in doing the migration process using the third option which makes use of an external hard drive or a USB flash drive so be sure to prepare the needed storage device and follow all the steps below.

Step 1: Find Your Documents

The very first thing that you need to do before you can even access and select the documents that you want to migrate from your old computer to the new one is of course to open the Windows Easy Transfer tool. You can do this by either using the search feature of the Start Menu or by going to the location of the tool itself. Once the tool opens, just click on “Next” then on the Window that follows, simply select the third option which says “An external hard disk or USB flash drive”. Another Window will then appear and from this section,simply choose the option that says “This is my old computer”.

Step 2: Choose which files to transfer

The next step that you need to go through is choosing the files, settings and any other stuff that you want to migrate to your new computer. The Windows Easy Transfer tool is quite good in guessing all the files and other stuff that you might want to include in the group of files to be transferred but it is not perfect. It might also skip other stuff that you want to copy to your new computer or include ones that you might not even want to be migrated to your new machine.

Step 3: Using the Advanced Selection Option

As mentioned in the previous step, there is another option that will really help you sort out and select specific files and folders if in case the general selection Window doesn’t include the files that you’re looking to transfer to your new computer. You can open the Window for this option by clicking on the “Advanced” button on the general selection screen. The advanced selection Window looks like the screenshot below.

After selecting the files and folders that you want to migrate to your new computer, simply click “Save”.

Step 4: Choose a Storage Device

After saving the files that you want to transfer to your new Windows machine, simply click “Next”. You will then see an option that will allow you to create a password for all of the files you selected. After that, just click “Save” then plug in the storage device where you want to store the files into. Once it gets recognized by your computer, simply select it among the list of devices available or plugged in to your computer then click again on another “Save” button. Windows Easy Transfer will now save all the files to the storage device you selected. The length of the saving process depends on the device you used and the overall size of the data which needs to be moved.

Step 5: Open the Tool in Windows 8

It is now time to get to the side where the files would be migrated to. If your new computer is running in Windows 8 you would also need to open the Windows Easy Transfer Tool in it. You might have no clue on how to do this since the Start Button and the Start Menu does not exist in this Windows version but accessing it is very simple. Just press the Windows key and once the Start Screen appears, simply type “easy”and you should see the Search box appear together with the search results at the left portion of the screen. The link that leads to the Windows Easy Transfer tool is located under the “Apps” category of the search results. To open the tool, simply click or tap on the link that says Windows Easy Transfer and the tool’s Window will then open.

Step 6: Connect the Storage Device and Follow the Wizard

Now that you already opened the tool. It is time to connect the storage device where all the files which you need to transfer is saved in. You also need to select “This is my new PC” then hit “Yes” on the Window that follows and you’ll now be able to choose the storage device. Once the device gets selected, simply click on “Open” and finally hit the “Transfer” button to initiate the process.

That’s it! You now learned the steps involved in using the Windows Easy Transfer Tool. Now that you’ve already transferred all your files to your brand new PC, it is time to sort things out and set everything to how it appeared back when you were using your Windows 7 machine. If you’re looking to learn more about the new features in Windows 8, just stay tuned with us here in windowstechies.loc!