I installed Vista a couple of days ago (64 bit version). I’m intending it to become by primary development machine and file server at home . So I kicked off the Windows Easy Transfer wizard to copy all my files and accounts from my old Windows XP box. I decided to do it over the network, which is, unfortunately, a 10Mbps wireless connection. I left it going for 10 hours and the progress bar looked roughly 10% completed. Doing the maths, that totals four days of file transfers. Good job I’ve got my laptop around to muck about on in the mean time.
Advice:
1) Pay careful attention to what the transfer wizard is proposing to copy across. Year old virtual machines running some beta of Longhorn are probably not essential any more.
2) Don’t use a dog slow connection. The tool offers many transfer mechanisms including CD/DVD, removable harddrive, easy transfer cable (i.e. crossover USB cable).
I’m keen to know if I can interrupt the transfer, knock a few files off the list and then resume, without having to redo the files its already copied over. I’m also worried that stopping the transfer mid flow (in order to opt for a lower tech solution like Robocopy) might leave a jagged and inconsistent set of files on the new box.
So maybe I’ll wait four days…
Josh's Space 