Background
I have a My Passport 1 TB and I was running Windows Vista as the O/S and I completed a complete backup on all the files on the computer. There were 5 different users (family PC).
Then on our existing computer, I did a clean install of Windows 8.1, re-installed Windows Office, McAfee Antis Virus, Apple itunes and numerous other programs. This effectively deletes all files and data under the Vista O/S and the computer’s hard drive is re-formatted and the new O/S (8.1) is installed.
While I did also back up all the files by using Windows File Transfer (on 5 DVDs) I learned later, that it didn’t work, and that Windows doesn’t permit using Windows East Transfer to go from Vista to 8.1 (so stupid on all accounts - me and MS!!). I thought this was a no brainer, but good thing I was also using My Passport as a backup.
This is my first time using MY Passport to recover data.
Now, my questions:
- Any special steps to take, other than pluging in the WD My Passport and following the prompts?
- I assume then that My Passport will install the WD software & drivers?
- Will it then start saving data? or will it ask me for next steps…since I want to actually retrieve the stored data on the extenal drive?
- The account user profiles on Vista are different than on Windows 8.1. For example: Vista we just used first names etc. However in Windows 8.1 the account user profiles are listed as email address. Any special work around required to transfer files into each new account user profile?
- Will My Passport recognize the different names and prevent a transfer?
- What is the best transfer method? Create a folder to dump the files into, OR transfer files into original locatons? Can I transfer into “original locations” after moving from Vista to 8.1 with user profiles that have different names?
- After the transfer will My Passport retain the data on the external drive? or is everytime lost in a one time transfer?
Sorry for the long winded post and thank you for your time on this.
Cheers!
