Strategy for Moving to a New System

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BobH
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Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by BobH »

As I think I've mentioned, I have a new laptop. I have been struggling to get things from the old system to the new one. A simple backup from the old machine and restore to the new one won't work for various reasons having to do with preserving things on the new laptop. I need a strategy for getting 'things' from the old laptop to the new one. Sharing directories works for a lot things, but I'm struggling to figure out how to replicate my Thunderbird and Firefox settings and history moved over.

Can anyone suggest a strategy for this?

:cheers: :chocciebar: :thankyou:
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JoeP
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by JoeP »

Joe

jolas
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by jolas »

Transwiz may help.

Free version is available for personal use.

You may need to install window programs first that you use before restoring backup profile from the old computer.

PJ_in_FL
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by PJ_in_FL »

Do NOT forget the personalized files that are hidden in the C:\Users\{username}\AppData folders!

I lost about 6 months of changes and additions to my PERSONAL.XLSB macros when I didn't remember to grab an updated copy when my work laptop was refreshed. There are customizations for all the Office program Ribbons and Quick Access Toolbars hidden there, too.
PJ in (usually sunny) FL

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StuartR
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by StuartR »

I also forgot to grab PERSONAL.XLSB when I had to reinstall my laptop to resolve a problem, fortunately I had an image backup so I recovered it a few days later.
StuartR


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BobH
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by BobH »

WARNING: This might be a duplicate post.

Can someone explain what an 'ini' file does and help me interpret one?

I will include the contents of the Firefox profiles.ini file below. I believe it is used to point to a specific folder or group of data to use when opening Firefox. That group of data contains bookmarks, saved names and passwords and other information used by Firefox. I'm having great difficulty moving the profile from my old laptop to the new one despite a lengthy exchange on the Mozillazine forums and reading about a half dozen articles produced by searching the web. My problems seem to be that I cannot get the old data placed correctly on the new machine so that Firefox will find and use it. It's my belief (I'd say understanding but I don't understand it at all) that the profile.ini file is the key to pointing to the right place; however, nothing in the profiles.ini file is recognizable to me as relating to a specific profile data group or folder.

Here are the contents of profiles.ini:

[Install308046B0AF4A39CB]
Default=Profiles/tth1xnsy.Default User 9Jun
Locked=1

[Profile0]
Name=Default User 9Jun
IsRelative=1
Path=Profiles/tth1xnsy.Default User 9Jun

[General]
StartWithLastProfile=1
Version=2
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JoeP
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by JoeP »

An ini file traditionally contains information used when a program is loaded and initialized. The contents of an ini file are defined by the program using it. Unless the settings are explained in a user guide or help file, you may be able to infer some things. You might be able to figure things out by experimenting with settings but that can be dangerous too.
Joe

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BobH
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by BobH »

Thanks, Joe!

Do you have any idea what this refers to: Default=Profiles/tth1xnsy.Default User 9Jun

It looks like a pathname (Profiles) and a file name (tth1xnsy.Default).

I can't find such a file nor do I have any idea what the User 9 Jun refers to.
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HansV
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by HansV »

It means that the default profile is named "Default User 9Jun". tth1xnsy is an addition to make the name unique.
The folder path of this profile is

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\tth1xnsy.Default User 9Jun
Best wishes,
Hans

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BobH
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by BobH »

Thank you, Hans!!

That's one more layer of the onion peeled.

Turns out that there is no such file of that name in that path unless it is hidden beyond what is revealed when one chooses to show hidden files.
Last edited by BobH on 09 Jun 2021, 22:41, edited 1 time in total.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by ChrisGreaves »

PJ_in_FL wrote:
08 Jun 2021, 14:45
Do NOT forget the personalized files that are hidden in the C:\Users\{username}
This has caught me, too. I got smart about a year ago and included this line in my nightly backup batch file:-

Code: Select all

robocopy c:\users\%username%\appdata\roaming T:\users\%username% /r:0 /w:0 /s
Now that my AppData is copied to the data drive T:, I will always have a backup copy (a) on my data drive and (b) on my nightly backup drive.
My nightly backup job backs up only my data drive, not my system drive, but by default i get a copy of AppData anyway!
Cheers
chris
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BobH
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Re: Strategy for Moving to a New System

Post by BobH »

In doing this migration, I ran into problems with my Firefox Profile move. After struggling with it for weeks, I finally learned that there is a Firefox Sync function. You have to have a Firefox account to use it and you have to sign in first. Lest I give faulty instructions, I'll leave it to anyone reading this and needing the function to search for the instructions online.

Cheers
Bob's yer Uncle
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Intel Core i5, 3570K, 3.40 GHz, 16 GB RAM, ECS Z77 H2-A3 Mobo, Windows 10 >HPE 64-bit, MS Office 2016