Win 7 Backup, Any Help with Win 10.....

I have a win7 computer and keep it backed up and I know eventually I will need to get a Win10 machine one of these days.

My question, will any part of or any files in my win7 backup run on a Win10 computer such as data files ?

 

Win10 uses NTFS, and your PC remains at the same endian, so I can't think of any reason within the operating system that they would not be readable under Win10.

 

Whoa. I can think of several reasons your windows 7 backups won't import into a new windows 10 machine.

It depends on how you're backing up your windows 7 machine. Describe your backup methodology (including how you're testing your current backups) and philosophy and "us computer experts" in here may be able to give you a more definitive answer.

Most people just wait and see. And then it's too late. It appears you still have time.

My backup methodology and philosophy has worked flawlessly now for 27 years. I lost all my data back in 1993 because my backups didn't work. Since then, I keep it simple and keep the probabilities of it working pretty high. 99.999999......%. I don't know exactly how many 9's afterwards, but it's more the "59" in computer terms (not readability and strength in ham terms.)

 

Windows 10 comes with Windows 7 Backup and Restore installed. You can restore W7 **data** files to W10 provided that they are compatible with whatever W10 program uses them. DO NOT attempt to restore a W7 disk image to W10 boot (C) drive!!

 

I used WIndows 7 backup program.

At one time I used Acronis mirror but that didn't seem to work when I had a hard disk failure.

I just want save data, programs I can reinstall on a win10 machine or, I'll just get a used win7 machine if need be.

 

Back in 1993, I was using a Windows Backup program on XP and it didn't work. It compressed the data and stored it on sequential floppy disks as a continuous stream with special (non-standard) "end of file" markers between each file in order to utilize the backup media in the most efficient manner possible. So I'm going to say using Windows 7 backup program is going to be unreliable--because of my experience of Microsoft backup software failing me.

If you can transfer *uncompressed* data files from some media (external USB hard drive or such using right-click copy/paste) from your Win7 machine to your Win10 machine, I'm going to say you won't have any problem. This is what @KA8NCR was saying and that's accurate.

As for programs, that's another "iffy" proposition. Microsoft wants you to move from "legacy" programs to their latest "apps" from their "apps" store, so that's going to be another "iffy" proposition. They do this to encourage people to throw away perfectly good software and buy new software--which may or may not come with privacy issues.

The only way to know for sure is go ahead and get a Win10 box now and test it while you still have a reliable Win7 box. Being proactive is the only way to be sure. It won't be a crisis as long as you have a good Win7 box. You'll have time to work through the issues as long as your Win7 box is still good. As you know, some backup methods (Acronix mirror) don't work.

Otherwise, if you ask me, you're just flipping a coin and hoping it lands on the side you call.

You can take this advice or leave it. It's your call.

I'm sticking with Win7 until the end. When Win7 is no longer loadable on any of my hardware, then I'll lose some data because my only other option will be Linux. I imagine it'll be a little like when I cut my cable TV about 4 years ago. At first, I felt like I was missing something. Then I soon realized I didn't need it any more and it was just wasting my time anyway. Some time in the future, I'll live without Windows and not miss it at all. I'm pretty sure of this.

 

Simple "data" files should be OK, as Win 10 NTFS CAN read FAT (FAT 16 FAT 32, or Extended FAT) files, but not the other way around. (I.e. FAT of any flavor can't read NTFS format.) SOME "old" programs may also be usable in Win 10, but (being in Windows) they will have to be re-installed on the new machine, but "old, olde" 16 bit programs won't (directly work with Win 10 (64 bit,) but their data should still be readable in a Win 10 version. As an example, I still use PaintShop Pro 5.01 (PsP5) on a Win 10 64 bit machine (it still suits MY purposes) even though it was originally released for Win 95! (That's partly because it is a 32 bit program.) But 16 bit pix (i.e. data) I made using the 16 bit version of Paint Shop (for Win 3.1) are still good even in Win 10. Now, here are in 10 programs that can read your old files, but not vice versa; for instance, Office 365 can read ALL Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. files ever made, but older versions of Office (pre-2017) won't (natively) read the files created by Office 365 (by default,) because NS changed the file format starting with Office (or the component programs) starting with the 2017 version. (YMMV, of course.) Just keep copies of the Win 7 data files, just in case there are problems.

 

Anything in these folders will work fine.



Anything that required you to run Setup/Install will need Setup on the new computer so that registry entries are correct.

 

There may have been errors introduced when you used multiple disks for the backup; using a CD or DVD may have solved the problem. However, the Windows 7 backup program is intended to "restore" to another Win 7 machine, NOT to Win 8(8.1) or Win 10. Full disk images will NEVER work between different versions of Windows. Backups of DATA FILES, however may well be successful, particularly if created by Windows (or other 32 bit programs) programs initially. Many back up programs will have an option to save data only, and not the full programs. As stated above, the actual programs themselves will have to be reinstalled to run properly in a different version of Windows.
The IMPORTANT thing is to back up your data frequently! If you wait until a computer crashes, it is (almost always) TOO late (or too co$tly, or both.) Test and assure your data is safely transferred to a new machine before the old computer crashes, and a backup in desperately needed.

 

In 1993, writable CDs were still very expensive. In 1993, the 100MB Zip drives were coming out and I bought one because they were relatively cheap. Zip drives were reliable but only lasted a couple of years because the cost of writable CD drives came way down. I went through a writable CD drive about every year back then. That's about how long they lasted. Today, I used USB drives and a linux file server. MUCH more reliable today.