IT Professionals

Windows XP's File And Settings Transfer Wizard

Posted by on Jan 24, 2007 | 32 Comments

Windows XP makes it very simple to move from an old computer to a new one. Many people are often reluctant to get a new computer because they do not want to lose their existing files and settings. Fortunately, Windows XP includes a nifty utility that you can use to make the process of changing to a new computer less painful.

Your first step is to save the files and settings on your existing computer using the Files and Settings Transfer wizard.

  1. Insert the Windows XP CD.
  2. Open Windows Explorer and open the Support\Tools directory on the Windows XP CD.
  3. Double click Fastwiz.exe. This launches the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Select Old computer and click Next.
  6. Select the method you want to use to transfer your files and settings. Click Next.
  7. Select the items you want to transfer. Click Next.
  8. If necessary, insert the required media and click Ok.
  9. Click Finish.

Your next step will be to transfer your selected files and settings onto the new computer.

  1. Log onto your new Windows XP computer.
  2. Click Start, point to All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and select Files and Settings Transfer Wizard. Click Next.
  3. Select New computer. Click Next.
  4. Click I don’t need the Wizard Disk. I have already collected my files and settings from my old computer. Click Next.
  5. Select the transfer method you used to collect your files and settings. Click Next.
  6. Click Finish.
  7. Click Yes to log off the computer.

Once you log back onto the computer, your files and settings from your old computer are transferred to the new one.

[tags]diana huggins, microsoft, xp, file and settings transfer wizard[/tags]

  • John

    I’m glad that Files&Settings transfer worked for you. My experience wasn’t so positive.

    I recently had to rebuild an XP machine. I backed up the data to a *new,* known-good USB 2.0-attached hard drive using F&ST *and* Acronis True Image 9. I *tested* the arechive with Acronis before proceeding, and it said that everything was good to go. I then rebuilt the box. When it came time to bring my files back to the new install, F&ST just complained that it couldn’t read the file, and that I needed to use a new disk… Huh?? For that matter, Acronis failed also, in that it said that the archive was corrupted.. after testing it and saying it was OK.. Huh?? Their tech support resorted to MS-style finger pointing; anything to deflect the blame from their product, and none of the comments or suggestions were relevant, or effective. Soooo, consequently, I don’t trust either tool. And Acronis gets no more of my money until they actually sell something that works, and their tech support folks buy a clue.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/microface Steven LEach

    I don’t know about you but In the last 3 – 5 years I have never received a Windows XP CD. So this method would never work, especially on a DELL computer in which case the “CD” is really a recovery utility and is useless as Windows XP CD. The method I have found that works far better, is simply partition your drive into 2. C and D, all system related stuff goes on C
    all applications and data files goes on D. There are even registry entry scripts that I have built up that redirect MyDocuments, and PageFile to the D drive. Now copying over the data and apps is a piece of cake.
    The other alternative that requires a little guts is to “clone” the original drive onto the new computers drive, and then fix up any driver issues with internet access driver finders, or use the Lockergnome find of DriverMEchanic I think it was called.

  • Lynn Beeler

    By any chance is there a transfer wizard for transfering settings from a Windows XP PC to one with one of the Vista OSs on a PC?

  • Dave Nickason

    Those migrating from XP to Vista might want to consider the vastly improved wizard that’s included with Vista. Just pop the Vista disk into the XP box to run the new version.

  • Evan

    One product that works well migrating programs, profiles, data and settings is “Aloha Bob’s PC Relocator.” I’ve used it, in several versions over the years when moving stuff to a new PC. Yes, you’d have to buy it, which you don’t with the transfer wizard, of course. But it just works.

  • Dean

    I’ve tried using the Files & Settings Transfer wizard to no avail. The new computer doesn’t recognize the file I just created using the same OS on the old computer. Both are WinXP SP2. I get this error “The location you specified does not contain stored information.” I’ve looked and the file is indeed in the folder I’ve selected; 22MB in size. I really don’t understand why F&S would not recognize it’s own file format? It’s not just on this PC but others in the past as well. It seems to be a hit or miss when it comes to using this feature of WinXP.

  • Kevin

    I had the same problem as Dean-April 16, 2007. My work around was to point to the drive, not the file. It looks like F&ST makes a pointer in the root. Not sure though. Bottom line, when I figured that out, the restore worked great.

  • http://www.solvedit.com.au Michael Barr

    Hi all

    I’ve been round the loop and found that the following works!
    Only use the File & settings transfer wizard from a cd and use the same cd in both the new and old pcs. This means that the wizard that you use is identical on both pcs and the transfer is then successful. It doesn’t matter if the cd is an old copy of Windows XP or a newer version.

    I’ve also just picked up a counter-intuitive point from the MS website which says that if you are going to use the network to transfer files you must run the wizard on the new pc first!

    Regards
    Michael Barr
    http://www.solvedit.com.au/content/view/75/42/

  • Greg Meyer

    This program has many flaws it is very flakey i have had to try 2-3 times on a each pc and it gets very annoying when doing 100+ pcs!

  • http://www.bjgiles.com Brian Giles

    We have had similar problems to these, with equally mixed results.
    Our current problems are 2:
    1. Doing a transfer from a machine running WIN 98 SE to a new one with Vista (business).
    2. Taking a FAST file set created as a backup (and verified at the time) on an XP pro system which has failed, and transfering it to a new system with Vista business.
    The second problem is the main one, as the FAST folder, on a CD, is the only data available from the old system.
    If there is a tool or method for getting the USMT2 file into a form readable by the Vista Easy transfer tool, this would solve both problems: as we can run the XP FAST routine on the win 98 system, as an intermediate step!

  • http://www.bjgiles.com Brian Giles

    We have used the FAST tool on several systems, with similarly results, even after verifying that the USMC2 file is OK. It does seem that the data must be retained in its original folder when being transferred, and that it is best to write that folder directly to a location readable by the ‘new’ system: either a shared folder/network drive, or a removable drive.
    We have currently two problems waiting for a solution:
    1. An older system running Windows 98 SE, about to be replaced with a new Vista business system, and
    2. A failed system which was running XP Pro. The drive is not readable, but a FAST folder was created on an external drive as a back-up.
    We are looking for a means to get the FAST file(s) into a form which can be processed by the Vista Easy Transfer on the replacement systems.
    Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

  • Andrew Willoughby

    Hello, i just had the same problem as many of you. I used FASt to backup my settings and files to a usb drive. Formated, reinstalled win xp and the like. I came to restore my FAST and it was like “FAST cannot find data in this location. so i pointed to all the folders and finally, you have to point to the folder that includes the FAST folder. my advice: use FAST to backup to the root of a usb drive, makes it alot easier. lol

  • MaryAnn Nasrallah

    I needed to recover my computer and transferred the settings and files using FAST. I didn’t have any DVD’s to store the data, so I used USB drives to transfer the data temporarily to my other computer. When I needed to transfer the files and settings back I received the following message, “The location that you specified does not contain stored information._”. I’ve tried pointing to the drive and then the folder but nothing resolved my problem. HELP!!!

  • martyna

    Hi,

    I had the same problem. I found the tool so it may be handy for you. Here is the link: http://www.fastconv.org/

    Enjoy

    PS Do not trust bill.

  • Martyna

    Hi,

    having the same problem I googled the solution up. Here is the link to the tool which helps extracta the data from .dat files FAST: http://www.fastconv.org/

    Good luck – it helped me.

  • John

    How can I transfer more than one user at a time with transfer file and settings wizard. I have some PC’s with 20 users?

  • Daniel

    after transfer from xp computer to a vista one, via windows easy transfer, via in house network, went well, just can not find my transfered data on vista computer. I looked on the two new signin openings, old files from xP are not there.

    Thanks for any good words. Daniel

  • Jay Kaluza

    I tried different thing and it worked. I didn’t use the CD; I RDP’d to the “old” machine, I put the user in an admin group, relogged, mapped network share, then I ran the program (Files and Settings Transfer), pointed to the network location.

    On the “new” PC i logged on as Admin, pointed to the network share (previously mapped) and …it worked great. Just point to the root of the directory where the USMC2 is saved. Meaning, one level up from the content of the folder. That’s it.

  • Phantomsteve

    “There is just one small issue using this type of a password and that is trying to remember it. I know I would most likely have to write it down, which would compromise the purpose of using this type of password. So is there a better way to come up with a password that is secure and that we can remember? A simple, easy to remember password that most Web sites would accept without a problem?”

    You could use numbers/symbols in place of letters.

    For example, if you chose atlas1 as your password:
    a+!A5 (t -> +; l -> !; s -> 5)

    Some useful substitutions:
    a: @ or ^
    b: 8 or 9
    e: 3
    g: 6
    h: 4
    i: ! or 1
    l: ! or | or 1 or 7
    o: 0
    s: $ or 5
    t: +
    v: ^
    z: 2

    If I had Steve1 as my password, I could substitute this with:

    5+3^e1

    • http://twitter.com/anarchei Anarchei

      I was going to suggest substitutions as well.

  • Anonymous

    For all i care passwords length is irrelevant to some degree. I would prefer it if the website defends against brute force password guessing attacks rather then forcing me to use a complex password – the “try 3 times the wrong password and your IP address will get banned for a week” kind of approach. This is kind of very easy to implement and more secure then leaving it to users to come up with secure&complex passwords.

    For online banking websites where high security is a must i would like them to go one step further and use a security token key in addition to a password – passwords can be captured by keylogger software and are not safe for something like this, so a physical key-token generator (like RSA SecurID or eToken, etc) that generates a new key every 30 seconds is a must!

  • http://twitter.com/anarchei Anarchei

    I know some banks already do this. At least my bank, Suncorp, offer it as an option for people who do their banking online.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/David-WN/503715363 David WN

    I’ll let your math buddy go with his 6-character passwords. I’ll stick with the method “whut brung me”. *heh* Takes some time to type my passwords in, unless I use LastPass (and I do, with another of my “overkill” passwords to enable it), but they’re easily remembered.

    Here’s one variation: choose the second or third verse of a song or poem that you’ve memorized. Take the first letter of each word in the verse. Change a few of the letters to symbols according to a method that makes sense to you. Practice typing the password while reciting the verse mentally. Got it? Now, stick a fork in it.

    64-character passwords designed this way are pretty darned secure and easy-peasy to remember. Overkill? Well, sure. Way overkill. For now.

  • http://www.bindermichi.de bindermichi

    A thing I’ve learned over the years is, that a password on a properly secured system is usually 32 characters long.

    Why?

    Because the original password is converted in a 32 character hash value that is stored in a database.

    Result: every password has 32 characters

  • Histrion

    There’s a DIY-hardware solution to remembering your “random” 6-char passwords, something I saw on LifeHacker not long ago: create a cryptkey-card and keep it in your wallet.

    The idea is that the card, which can be printed on a 3×5 notecard or whatever will fit in your wallet, should have indexed rows & columns. For every website that you need a password for, come up with a character pair (for instance, lockergnome could be LG). Find the intersection of row L, column G, and starting with that character, use six characters from the card.

    If this still doesn’t feel sufficiently secure, have some sort of mental mod that you apply to the characters as you use them (for instance, apply rot1 to the first letter or number, rot2 to the second, etc.)

    The only complication with this approach is that some websites insist on periodic password changes.

  • http://twitter.com/jbluther Jared B. Luther

    Come up with a 4 digit number (ex. 1234). Then mix those numbers with the first 3 letters of the site you use that password. (ex. Twitter would be 1t2w3i4 , Google 1g2o3o4 , Facebook 1f2a3c4, etc.) Easy to remember (just remember the number) and its always different so when Sony loses your 1p2s3n4 password, it doesn’t work anywhere else.

  • Anonymous

    Neither of my banks (both leading banks in the UK) support anything except numbers and letters in their passwords. On the one hand, I think this is terrible because I want a more secure password, but on the other hand, I assume there must be some restriction because of the encryption they use which must be better or they wouldn’t use it.

  • http://twitter.com/AlexFoleyTV Alex Foley

    Regardless of the strength of the password, it’s all down to the security of the information on the site you’re using (with exception to local passwords, obviously) I mean, the pentagon has been hacked, Nasa has faced hackers multiple times, Sony, very recently as we’ve all heard, in the end, it’s highly unlikely that this is going to happen to you, however, there’s always that chance, the Internets biggest advantage of being customisable by anyone, is also it’s biggest downfall.

    Be careful.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks everyone for your comments and feedback. It is appreciated.

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