Dell Migrate User's Guide

Migrate and erase data from old PC

1. On your new Dell PC, in the search box next to the start icon on the taskbar, enter SupportAssist. Click SupportAssist from the list of results.

   If SupportAssist is not installed on your PC, download and install SupportAssist. For more information about installing SupportAssist, see the latest version of SupportAssist for Home PCs User's Guide on the SupportAssist for Home PCs documentation page.

2. Perform one of the following steps:
   • Click Yes on the Would you like to start using Dell Migrate banner.
   • Click Go now in the Dell Migrate can help you copy your files and settings to your new PC, and securely erase data from your old one section.

   

   The Dell Migrate page is displayed.
3. Optionally, to read the service contract, click Terms and conditions.
4. Click Let's get started.

   If you are unable to launch Dell Migrate, see Troubleshooting issues with launching Migrate through SupportAssist.

   

5. If you are on a network that is not classified as a trusted network on your new PC, perform one of the following steps:
   • Click Trust network if you recognize and trust the network to proceed with the migration.
   • Click Cancel if you do not trust the network. Reconnect to a network that you trust and restart the process.

   

   Migrate tries to connect your new PC to your old PC. Also, instructions to download and install Dell Data Assistant are displayed.

   

6. On your old PC, download and install Dell Data Assistant from the Dell Data Assistant page.

   

7. Run Dell Data Assistant.

   

   Dell Data Assistant runs the required prechecks on your old PC and notifies if any of the prechecks are not met. For more information about the prechecks that are run by Migrate, see Device discovery and prechecks.
8. If your old PC is not connected to a trusted network, perform one of the following steps:
   • Click Trust Network if you recognize and trust the network to proceed with the migration.
   • Click Cancel if you do not trust the network. Reconnect to a network that you trust, and restart the process.

   

   The Dell Migrate page is displayed.
9. Click Let's get started to connect both the old and the new PCs. For more information about the migration process, see Start Migrate.

   

   Dell Migrate tries to connect your old PC to your new PC.

   

   After Migrate identifies your new PC on the network, a verification code is displayed on your old PC.

   

10. Enter the verification code on your new PC.
    After both the old and the new PCs are paired, a message is displayed on your old PC indicating that the PCs are successfully linked. You must ensure that both the old and the new PCs remain connected to the same network throughout the migration process. Any issue in the connection stops the migration process. For more information about the issues that are related to connecting the PCs, see Code verification.

    

11. If the Windows user account on both the old and the new PCs do not match, a message is displayed to confirm if you want to use different user accounts for the migration process. Perform one of the following steps:
    • Click Continue to continue the migration.
    • Click Cancel to cancel the migration. Log off and log in to the Windows user account that has the same name as that of the user account on the old PC.
    If the user accounts are the same, skip this step. For more information about how to migrate multiple user accounts using Migrate, see Migrate multiple accounts.

    

    On the old PC, Migrate searches for the files and settings to be migrated from the old PC to the new PC.

    

    

12. If you want to skip the migration process and only want to erase the old PC, click Erase This PC on the old PC.
13. Perform one of the following steps:
    • Click Move everything for me to move all the files and settings from the old PC to the new PC. The supported user files and settings are identified and preselected by Dell Migrate.
    • Click Let me choose what to move to select the files and settings that you want to move, instead of moving everything from the old PC to the new PC.

    

    After the old PC has scanned all the files and settings to migrate, a message is displayed stating that the PC is ready to start the migration.

    

14. If you select Let me choose what to move, on the new PC, perform one of the following steps:
    • Select the files and settings to be migrated from the old PC to the new PC.
    • If you have multiple drives on either your old or new PC, click Change in the Files and settings will be saved to section to map the drives between the old and the new PC, and perform the steps in the Mapping the drives section.

    

15. Click Migrate now.
    The migration progress is displayed on the new PC, while on the old PC, We're migrating your data now message is displayed. The time Migrate takes to complete a migration depends on the network speed and the amount of data that are selected for migration.

    

    

    After the migration is complete, a summary of files and settings that were migrated from the old PC to the new PC is displayed.
16. Perform one of the following steps:
    • Click Finish to complete the migration.
    • Click here to view the details of the migration.
    NOTE:If any selected files or settings are not migrated, retry the migration progress by performing the steps in Troubleshooting when migration is completed with warnings.

    

    The migration of files and settings from the old PC to the new PC is completed.

    

    For instructions to migrate data from multiple PCs, see the How to migrate data from multiple PCs to your Dell PC video.

17. On the old PC running the Windows operating system 8.1 or later, click Erase This PC to begin erasing the user files and settings the old PC.
    Migrate also helps you remove files and settings from your old PC after the migration process is complete while retaining the Windows installation. Perform erase on the old PC only after connecting your old and new PC to each other. The verification code must also be entered on both the old and the new PCs.

    

18. Migrate runs the required prechecks on the old PC for erase. For more information about the prechecks that are performed for erase, see Prechecks for erase.

    

19. If your old PC does not have the latest version of SupportAssist OS Recovery installed, click Windows Reset.
    Related video:How to erase and reset your old PC using Windows reset
20. After the We're ready to reset this PC message is displayed, click Launch Windows reset and perform one of the following steps. For more information, see Windows PC Reset. Windows is reset based on the option you select.
    • Click Keep my files to delete applications and settings but retain your personal files.
    • Click Remove everything to delete applications, settings, and personal files.
      NOTE: To remove all your personal files, select Remove everything. You can also set a reminder for Migrate to remind you to erase files and settings from your old PC at your convenience.

      For more information about Windows Reset procedure, see Windows 10 and Windows 8.1.

    

    For instructions to erase and reset a PC with multiple user accounts, see the How to erase and reset your old PC that has multiple user accounts video.

21. If your old PC has the latest version of SupportAssist OS Recovery installed, click Reboot to begin Dell Reset, and perform the instructions that are displayed on the page. For instructions to reset your PC using Dell reset, see Reset SupportAssist OS Recovery.

    Related video:How to erase and reset your old PC using Dell reset

    

    For instructions to erase and reset a PC with multiple user accounts, see the How to erase and reset your old PC that has multiple user accounts video.

    For information about errors that you may encounter during migration and data erase, and the possible workaround, see Error codes.