Migration types and options for Windows 7


User State Migration

The majority of Microsoft installed clients are Windows XP. Thus, if you're considering adding Windows 7, you probably have many Windows XP clients. Unfortunately, there isn't a direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7.

If you can do a direct upgrade, you won't need to worry about migration An upgrade will retain all of the installed applications and all of the user's data An upgrade is still considered a risky operation, and it's possible that things can go wrong, so you should always have a backup of the user's data in case the worst happens.

If you've looked at the upgrade paths from earlier versions of Windows to Windows 7, you may have been a little surprised. There are very few upgrade choices. Some of the possible upgrade paths to versions likely to be used in the Enterprise are:

If you're migrating other existing Windows clients, you probably won't be able to do an upgrade. This doesn't have to be as painful as it sounds. The User State Migration Toolkit has undergone significant changes and improvements and will make your job a lot easier. USMT can be used in three types of migrations. Each one assumes that you have files and settings from a Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 installation that you want to restore to a new installation of Windows 7.

In-place migration

An in-place migration uses the same hardware for the old and new installations of Windows. Hard drive partitions are not modified, and files and settings from the previous installation are automatically retained in the Windows.old folder.

Wipe-and-load migration

A wipe-and-load migration uses the same hardware. However, partitions on the hard drive holding the original OS need to be modified, which will prevent the Windows.old folder from being created during the new installation. Instead, you must use USMT before the installation to save the files and settings to a migration store from the previous installation. This migration store can then be restored to the new installation of Windows 7.

Side-by-side migration

A side-by-side migration uses two computers. You can use USMT to save the files and settings to a migration store from the original computer before it's decommissioned. You can then use USMT to restore the migration store to Windows 7 on the new computer.

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This article was sent to us by: Kevin N. Young at 09132010

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