Transfer data manually from Windows 10 to Windows 11

Published on 27th July 2025 by Simon Fearby

This article will help if you are asking:

• How can I get files off a dead laptop?
• How to recover data from a laptop that won't turn on?
• Laptop won’t boot – how to retrieve my files?
• Windows 10 won’t start – can I still recover my data?
• Windows 10 is retiring and I need to move my files to a new computer
• My hard drive died, can I get my files back?
• Can I remove my old laptop's hard drive and access it from another computer?
• How do I use a USB adapter to recover files from my old drive?
• How to clone a failing hard drive?
• Dead laptop motherboard – how to recover SSD data?
• How to transfer files from a non-booting PC to a new one?

The Bad News

• You cannot simply remove the old bootable hard drive from your old computer and plug it into the new computer like you would with furniture in a house.
• Windows does not have a build in backup and restore program than makes this process simple.
• You cannot drag and drop applications from an old computer to a new one
• Third party backup/restore software is expensive and limited.

Do not proceed with your own backup if;

• Your hard drive is mechanically damaged (mechanical scratching from a spinning hard drive.).
• Your data is valuable (e.g. contains bitcoin, decades of photos or has very important documents).
• The system is infected with ransomware or viruses (Interacting with this system may infect others or be deleted)



In this case seek professional data recovery experts (e.g Payam Data Recovery, CPL Data Recovery (formerly Technetics), Kroll Ontrack (Ontrack Australia)).

Do NOT wipe, reformat, or defragment the infected drive. The more untouched it is, the better the chances of recovery.

This guide assumes that the old and new drive do not have BitLocker installed and all data in unencrypted. BitLocker is a Windows encryption method that encrypts all of your files, but this is outside of the scope of this blog.

Do you have backups?

Before you proceed; Do you have backups. Chances are you do not have backups and all of you data. Imagine for a moment that all of that data is lost forever.

The reason I ask is if a hard drive is dying the process of copying large amounts of data may kill it for good.

In Perfect World

In a perfect world, we would all have backups of our data (automate backup solutions) and we can be up and going in under 30 minutes when disaster strikes. Ideally you should have off-site backups? Back in 2016 I blogged What is your backup plan

TLDR: Golden rules of backup:

• Backup to Three different locations.
• Two of the media need to be different.
• One of the locations needs to be offsite.

The best solution for an set and forget backup and restore program is https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup/

fyi: BackBlaze Review coming soon

Fixing a Dead Windows?

Quite often people need to copy data because a computer of laptop has a dead Windows Installation

Obviously, fixing a broken Windows is a better option than removing a drive and backing up date to a new computer.

Quick Windows Troubleshooting Options

Windows is Dead, now what?

Windows can sometimes go bad. Back in the Windows 95/98/Me (even Windows XP) days I would reinstall Windows every 6 months. Windows 10/11 is a lot more robust than older Windows but sometimes you need to cut your losses on a dead Windows or computer and setup a new one.

Tools exist that can allow access to and repair of a drive.

But at some point you may have to give up trying to fix a dead laptop or PC as the hardware may be broken.

Removing the Hard Drive

For the purpose of this post we will assume that the hardware is dead and you are unable to boot Windows to copy data.

The easiest way forward is to remove the hard drive from the old laptop or desktop and plug it into a new pc. Data can be copied from there or file recovery tools can scan the hard drive.

Storage Adapters

Drives come in varied sized and shapes (3.5" SATA , 2.5 SATA, M2 (2280, 2260, 2242, 2230) /

If You have a M.2 Drive a Simplecom SE504v2 NVMe / SATA Dual Protocol M.2 SSD USB-C Enclosure may be what you need? Buy one in Australia here

M.2 SSD Drive Sizes

M.2 SSD to USB Caddy

Plug in the M.2 SSD to your computer's USB Port.

2.5" or 3.5" SATA to USB Adapter

If You have a 2.5 or 3.5" SATA Drive a Simplecom SD326 USB 3.0 to SATA Hard Drive Docking Station for 3.5" and 2.5" HDD SSD may be what you need? Buy one in Australia here

Once you use one of the appropriate adapter you can connect the drive from your old PC to the new PC and copy data

• Agent Ransack is a free file search tool for finding files on your PC or network drives. You can use it to search an old drive for a file or part of a file (To help find old folders and files).
• FreeFileSync allows you to bulk copy files from one drive to another (and not even compare and resume copying after system crashes)
• WinDirStat scans a selected drive or folder on Windows, calculates the sizes of all files and directories, and then displays them in three coordinated views—a size‑ordered directory tree, a file‑type legend, and a color‑coded treemap—for quickly spotting space hogs and cleaning them up.

Example of Agent Ransack finding a file.

Example of FreeFileSync Comparing a Drive to a folder (before copying).

WinDirStats can show what files are taking up space in a folder. This is handy for finding files a lot of large files to exclude from being backed up.

What User Data to Copy?

These are common folder parts that you may want to copy from the old drive (e.g. D:\ is the connected old drive).

This is not a definitive list of folders that you may want to copy but it is a good idea to look here. This may need to be repeated for every user on the old drive

Copying Game Data (Installed Games)

It may be worth backing up past downloaded games that have been downloaded to save re downloading them after you get the new system running.

Guides how to restore these games on the new drive (Saving you the effort of re downloading games)

How to Copy Data?

1. Remove the old drive form the old PC, place it in the adapter and plug it into the new PC
2. Take note of the new drive letter that appears (e.g D:\).
3. Open Free File Sync
4. In the Left Hand side select the old drive (e.g D:\).
5. In the right hand side select where you want to copy to (e.g C:\OldPC\C\)
6. Click Compare (Ignore any errors about file access or Access Denied errors (Click Ignore All))
7. Before you click Syncronize, Click the Right Arrow next to the green gear and choose Mirror.
8. Click Mirror

Before you Copy

If you get a You don’t have permission to access this folder error when trying to copy files from the old drive, you’ll need to take ownership of the files first.

On the new computer, open the drive in File Explorer, press Ctrl + A to select all folders, then right-click → Properties → Security tab → Advanced → Change Owner to your current user account (Set Principal, add Your Username. Tick All). Tick Replace owner on sub containers and objects (or Only apple these permissions to objects and/or containers within this container)., then click OK then OK. After that, return to the Security tab, click Edit, add your user account if needed, and grant Full Control. This will let you copy all personal files without permission errors.

Replacing permissions will take some time to complete

After than you can use FreeFileSync to copy files from the old drive to a folder on your new pc.

Now you should be able to sync all files from the old drive to a folder on the new drive (e.g C:\Old PC. Do not replace existing system files or data.

Start FreeFileSync Synchronization?

Ignore All file copy errors (As they may be files in use or system files.)

Do not be concerned if Free File Sync will take a while to copy files. Hard drives connected by USB can be a little bit slow, but the good thing is if there's an error, (power outage, crash etc) you can reopen FreeFileSync and compare the source and destination again and resume where you left off.

If you do not want to copy everything and while you have the drive connected, you may want to write down the things that you really need like my old Thunderbird email or other programs or settings to ensure you copy everything.

You can just pick and choose the folders you want, like Pictures, My Documents, Downloads, but you definitely want to consider copying everything just in case.

Email Apps

Backing up email can be a bit tricky, whether it's Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird, you may want to Google to find the best and latest recommended way to back up the email.

Here is a quick table listing the top 5 email clients and how to backup and restore email

Post Copy Summary

When FreeFileSunc is done do copying, look at the errors list and make sure it is just system files that could not copy (not your data files).

It's a good idea to backup everything on your old drive and keep it just in case, because you don't want to be reconnecting the older drive and the adapter to go and find things. Backup everything in one go, copy it across to the new PC, and then you can merge it within your Windows install and still retain copies of everything to look through later.

It is also a good idea to back everything up on the old hard drive while you have it connected to a new machine via an adapter, just in case the old drive dies.

Copying data from an old computer or laptop to a new machine is quite painful and time intensive. But do take your time, look everywhere for files, back everything up, and it will give you a good chance to consolidate a lot of your data and understand potentially how much you have.

Sadly you cannot just drag your Program Files folder and place it on your new machine (It's going to break). You can't just copy your entire user profile to the new machine (It is also going to break). But you can have a look at the data that you have and decide whether to merge it with your new system. For example, merging your Documents, Videos, Pictures, Favorites, Downloads folders.

But where possible, keep the new system nice and clean and only copy across what you need.

Common Issues

Here is a list of possible issues that you may come across and troubleshooting steps.

Copying data from an old computer to a new one can take a while, but it is valuable knowledge to know how you can do this. Good luck!

When you are done copying to say e.g C:\OldPC\C\ you can copy or move files to thier final place (Documents, Downloads, Pictures etc).

v1.2