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This topic outlines the general process that you should follow to migrate files and settings. You should complete the following steps:

Plan for the migration

Collect files and settings from the source computer

Prepare the destination computer and then restore the files and settings

Plan for the migration

  1. Determine what to migrate. This includes what users, applications settings, operating system settings, files, folders, and registry keys to include.
  2. Determine where to store data. Depending on the size of your store, you can store the data remotely, locally, or directly on the destination computer.
  3. Modify the migration .xml files and create custom .xml files if needed. If you want to modify the migration behavior (for example, migrate the My Documents folder but do not migrate My Documents\My Music folder), then you should modify the rules in the appropriate migration .xml files and/or create any custom .xml files.
    • If the destination computer is running Windows XP, you can modify MigUser.xml, MigApp.xml, and MigSys.xml.
    • If the destination computer is running Windows Vista, you can modify MigUser.xml and MigApp.xml. To exclude certain operating system settings from the migration, you will need to create and modify a Config.xml file because MigSys.xml is not applicable in this scenario.
      You can use MigXML.xsd to help you write and validate the .xml files. For more information about modifying these files, see Using USMT and XML Elements Reference.
  4. Create a Config.xml file if you want to exclude any components from the migration. To create this file, specify the /genconfig option along with the other .xml files. For example, this command creates a Config.xml file using MigUser.xml and MigApp.xml:
    scanstate /genconfig:config.xml /i:miguser.xml /i:migapp.xml /v:13 /l:scanstate.log
  5. Review the migration state of the components listed in the Config.xml, and specify "migrate=no" for any that you do not want to migrate.

Collect files and settings from the source computer

  1. Back up the source computer.
  2. Close all applications. If some applications are running during ScanState or LoadState, USMT may not migrate some data. For example, if Outlook is open, USMT may not migrate .pst files.

Note

USMT will fail if it cannot migrate a file or setting unless you specify /c. When you specify /c, USMT will ignore the errors, and log an error each time it encounters a file that is in use that it did not migrate.

  1. Run ScanState on the source computer to collect files and settings using the ScanState command-lineoptions. You should specify all of the (possibly modified) .xml files that you want ScanState to use. For example:
    • This command creates a store for a destination computer running Windows Vista.
      scanstate \\fileserver\migration\mystore /config:config.xml /i:miguser.xml /i:migapp.xml /v:13 /l:scan.log
    • This command creates a store for a destination computer running Windows XP.
      scanstate \\fileserver\migration\mystore /config:config.xml /i:miguser.xml /i:migapp.xml /i:migsys.xml /targetxp /v:13 /l:scan.log

Note

If the source computer is running Windows Vista, you need to run in "Administrator" mode. To run in "Administrator" mode, right-click Command Prompt, and click Run As Administrator. If the source computer is running Windows XP, you need to run ScanState from an account with administrative credentials. For more information about the how ScanState processes and stores the data, see USMT Internal Workflow.

Prepare the destination computer and then restore the files and settings

  1. Install the operating system on the destination computer.
  2. Install all applications that were on the source computer. Though it is not always essential, it is good practice to install all applications on the destination computer before restoring the user state. This ensures that migrated settings are preserved. Specifically, if the following applications are installed on the source computer, they must be installed on the destination computer before running LoadState: Lotus SmartSuite, RealPlayer Basic, and Quicken 2004 Home and Business.

Note

The application version that is installed on the destination computer should be the same version as the one present on the source computer. USMT does not support migrating an older version of an application to a newer version — except with Microsoft Office, which USMT can migrate from an older version to a newer version.

  1. Close all applications. If some applications are running during ScanState or LoadState, USMT may not migrate some data. For example, if Outlook is open, USMT may not migrate .pst files.

Note

USMT will fail if it cannot migrate a file or setting unless you specify /c. When you specify /c, USMT will ignore the errors, and log an error each time it encounters a file that is in use that it did not migrate.

  1. Run LoadState on the destination computer using the LoadState command-line options. Specify the same set of .xml files that you specified on the ScanState command line. However, you do not have to specify Config.xml unless you want to exclude some of the files and settings that you migrated to the store. For example, you might want to migrate the My Documents folder to the store, but not to the destination computer. To do this, simply modify the Config.xml and specify the updated file with LoadState. Then, LoadState will only migrate the files and settings that you want to migrate. For more information about the how LoadState processes and migrates the data, see USMT Internal Workflow.
    For example, this command migrates the files and settings to a destination computer running Windows Vista:
    loadstate \\fileserver\migration\mystore /config:config.xml /i:miguser.xml /i:migapp.xml /v:13 /l:load.log

Note

If the destination computer is running Windows Vista, you need to run in "Administrator" mode. To run in "Administrator" mode, right-click Command Prompt, and click Run As Administrator.

This command migrates the files and settings to a destination computer running Windows Vista:  
**loadstate \\\\fileserver\\migration\\mystore /config:config.xml /i:miguser.xml /i:migapp.xml /i:migsys.xml /v:13 /l:load.log**
  1. Log off after you run LoadState. Some settings (for example, fonts, wallpaper, and screensaver settings) will not take effect until the next time the user logs on.