One of the most requested services I receive from clients is to transfer documents from their old PC to their new one. While this is probably one of the easiest tasks for me it's a pretty confusing task for the average PC user. In this article I'm going to show you how to transfer your old documents from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7.

Requirements:
1 External hard drive large enough to hold your documents, pictures, desktop and music.
1 USB cable for your external hard drive.

When I transfer a clients documents from their old PC there are a few folders I know I need to backup. These folders would be "My Documents" or Documents, Favorites and Desktop. The music, pictures and video folders are inside the "My Documents" or Documents folder. On a typical Windows XP PC these folders will be listed in the following directory:

C:Documents and Settings"user-name-here"My Documents
C:Documents and Settings"user-name-here"Favorites
C:Documents and Settings"user-name-here"Desktop

Let's go ahead and begin the copytransfer process:

1. Select all three folders
2. Right click the selected group of folders and click copy
3. Open your external usb drive and right click, then select paste. This will copy those 3 folders to the external drive.
4. Once your data has been copied to the external USB drive unhook it from your current computer.
5. On your new Windows 7 pc connect the USB external drive.
6. Open "Computer"
7. Find your external drive and open it.
8. Select all three folders, right click, click copy.
9. Click the windows globe on the bottom left.
10. Click computer.
11. Double click C.
12. Double click Users.
13. Double click your username (the person you are logged in as).
14. In this click "organize" on the top left, then click paste.
15. Select Yes to overwrite the existing folders and say yes to moving Pictures, Music and Videos to their new folders.

It's really is simple as that. These steps will also work for moving documents to Windows Vista.