[David2213]

So my Mom's motherboard died in her old HP tower running Windows Vista. She bought a new Sony Viao laptop with windows 7. What is the easiest way to transfer the files from the old comp to the new comp? Can I pull the hard drive out and put it in an enclosure? If so, what do i do afterthat to get the files across?

Thanks for your help.

- David

[shifuimam]

Yes you can, but you might have problems accessing files in the Users directory. Try setting the security settings so that "Everyone" has all access. If that doesn't work, you might try pulling the drive, putting it in an enclosure, and booting off it (via USB) from the laptop. Windows will probably bitch about how your hardware has changed significantly, but if you can get it to boot, you can change the permissions on your mom's user profile folder and therefore be able to access the files from another installation of Windows.

[mduell]

Sure, automated file and settings transfer has been built in to Windows for years. In 7 it's called Windows Easy Transfer.