instal win7 - MigWiz Utility on Win7 Install Disc good to use or.....

[rivrbyte]

Hello,
Is the MigWiz Utility on Win7 Install Disc good to use for backing up onto the new O.S. (with probably lots more than I want to put back on...I'm just thinking of clutter that I don't need)

Having to install a fresh O.S. when it's just new and less crap on it, the better, Do you know if this utility will also transfer needless registry, cab, dll files, etc.?

OR the best way is the traditional way of backing stuff up like Documents, Photos, Music files ,etc, to the external HDD prior to installing Win7, by just Plopping in the OEM Win7 64 PRO and have them reformat the HDD partitions and install a clean version that way?

Any other suggestions I will need to install win7 onto my computer that now has XP Home on it? Thank you, Thank you very much!

 

[Tawnos]

Migwiz is fine, and will not transfer the useless stuff. However, it will do stuff like migrate your DRM store, which is nice

 

[bigdogchris]

You have two choices.

1. Easy Transfer (Migration Wizard). It will copy your user files you select and transfer them over.
2. USMT (User State Migration Tool). It basically will copy your entire profile over for you. If you are moving to a new OS it should convert the appdata to the new directories.

I still do it manually though no matter how easy Microsoft tries to make it. All of my user folders are pointed to folders on a storage Raid 1 array I have. That way if I decide to wipe my OS I can do it without having to back up anything.