Twice over the years, I have used Laplink's PCMover software to move to a new computer. This is a rather expensive program and you can use it only once (except for further transfer from the same old computer to the same new one), but it did it well. It does take several hours, or did at the last time I used it. I'm planning to use my new copy next week,when I get up the nerve and purchase their new cable. I used a network setup to do it last time, but I cannot persuade my new computer to join a home network. Alas! ....Betty On 10/5/2015 12:48 PM, Rick Van Dusen via wrote: > Until my recent upgrade, I used a third-party program for this. My > current Lenovo backup does, I believe, make an image. Beyond that, I > don't know what's currently available. > > But here's what I'm talking about: > > There are basically two ways to copy the contents of a drive: > > 1. File-by-file. The result is that you have a copy of each file. This > will save your files (good for saving/backing up your work), but a > restore to a blank drive will not necessarily put the files back where > they were. > > 2. Drive image or bit-by-bit. Every bit of data on the drive will be > copied in a stream. A restore will put it all back "where it found it". > This is necessary for files (and non-file data) which the operating > system (or lower level function) uses to start the computer. The > hardware will look for this data in a certain exact place on the > computer, so it must be there and not somewhere else, or it won't work. > > When you put your Windows (or Mac or Linux) DVD in its drive and boot > from it, that disk will begin its work by putting these bits onto the > harddrive, so that it will be capable of booting the system thereafter. > > If you have an image of the drive, you can boot from a CD/DVD (my > software has a bootable disc; the Lenovo makes the backup discs > bootable) and simply restore the whole drive at once. If you have a > file-by-file backup, you MUST reinstall the OS before copying files > back, which takes longer and might lose some of your preferences. (You > might also end up having to reinstall all your software.) But a > file-by-file backup will probably save all your *data* successfully. > > Rick Van Dusen > > > > > On 10/5/2015 5:25 AM, Russell Dorr via wrote: >> Okay, I'll admit I don't know what a drive image type backup is. But the ideas seem very cogent. Can you use the Win8.1 and Win10 backup programs and a 1 TB extension drive? Would that do? > The TMG archive is found here: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/index/TMG/ > Instructions on how to subscribe to TMG: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/Software/TMG.html > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to TMG-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message >