New Laptop? Need help transferring files to your new computer?

It’s exciting to upgrade your old laptop to a shiny new fast mode But you’ll want to make sure you have all your important (and sensitive) files, images, videos transferred securely from your old laptop to your new one. And that can be a huge pain moving everything manually.
If you’re confident in your IT skills you can do a DIY transfer and below are some of the options available to you:

1. Direct cable transfer
2. External hard drive
3. Cloud storage
4. Migrator application
5. Cloning software

Direct transfer

This is the most straight forward option to directly transfer files across from old to the new laptop. All you need is a cable and the 2 laptops side by side. Simply plug them in and from your folder (or finder) window drag and drop all the files you want to move across. But, this can be time-consuming as you have to locate each file or folder you want to copy and click and drag(or copy and paste) – and repeat! This is the best option if you have heaps of time and patience.

External hard drive

This is a great option as it backs up your data on the hard drive before transferring it across. So if anything happens to the new laptop you’ve got access to your data (safely stored on your hard drive). You need to plug your external hard drive into your old computer and then, drag and drop or copy and paste all the files that you want onto the hard drive. Then once you’ve copied all your files onto the hard drive safely disconnect the hard drive(so no data get corrupted) by right-clicking and click disconnect or eject.

Cloud storage

For this option, you’ll need to sign-up with a provider like OneDrive (Microsoft) or iCloud (Apple). Data is cheap these days so you can get heaps of storage from as low as $3 a monthly. So once you have decided on a plan as above you select all the files you want to back-up copy and they are uploaded securely to the cloud. Then on your new laptop, you log in to your provider and download everything onto your laptop.

Migrate your data

There are many migrator apps in the market that will help you move your files and data across for example a well-respected one is PC Mover by Laplink. Microsoft partnered with Laplink because it’s the only software that will automatically transfer, restore, and upgrade all selected files, folders, settings, user profiles or even applications.

Clone your hard drive

By cloning your hard drive you create an exact replica of your old hard drive for your new laptop. Macrium has the best reputation and there are free and paid versions to choose from. This is a big job so make sure if you decide to DIY clone your old hard drive, make sure read this complete cloning guide to walk you through the entire process. There you have it 5 ways to DIY transfer your data from your old laptop to your new one. But if that all sounds like too much hard work and you just want a professional to do everything in a flash with no issues. Contact Geek Fix today!