Will Windows Easy Transfer merge my data?

[CZroe]

When I upgraded my notebook to an SSD, I made an image of my old drive and set it up on the SSD. I usd it that way for several months and accrued many things I don't want to lose. When I had to send the notebook in for warranty service I reinstalled the old HDD and then continued using it for several months, accruing even more things I don't want to lose. It's time to back up both and start fresh.

I planned to use Windows 7's Windows Easy Transfer to make a backup of one and merge with the other and then backup both, but WET seems that it's mostly intended for use with a new computer and may be only for setting up a new user (may not merge at all).

So, will WET merge my files from both users with the same GUID or will one just kind of go over the other?

 

[Mushkins]

When I upgraded my notebook to an SSD, I made an image of my old drive and set it up on the SSD. I usd it that way for several months and accrued many things I don't want to lose. When I had to send the notebook in for warranty service I reinstalled the old HDD and then continued using it for several months, accruing even more things I don't want to lose. It's time to back up both and start fresh.

I planned to use Windows 7's Windows Easy Transfer to make a backup of one and merge with the other and then backup both, but WET seems that it's mostly intended for use with a new computer and may be only for setting up a new user (may not merge at all).

So, will WET merge my files from both users with the same GUID or will one just kind of go over the other?

I would not trust WET to do what you want it to do, especially if both profiles are "clones" of each other. It's a very rudimentary tool that I have no confidence will handle this complex exception with any sort of positive outcome, it just wasn't designed for this. My gut says if the profile IDs match it'll do one of three things: only see/list one of them to transfer to the new PC, let you select both but overwrite one with the other and not tell you, or say it worked but actually fail completely and move nothing.

TBH easy transfer is *only* really useful when migrating one user to a new PC when the old PC didn't have any issues. Anything beyond that you're better off doing manually. If the notebook is the only PC you have, i'd recommend spending $20 on a portable hard drive enclosure to put the HDD in and just dragging the files you want over to the main windows install. WET is more about preserving user settings than migrating data, but im assuming you already have your user settings configured on the SSD, and you might not *want* the ones from the old HDD to begin with.