MCTS 70-680 Rapid Review: Installing, Upgrading, and Migrating to Windows 7

Objective 1.3: Migrate user profiles

This objective requires you to demonstrate that you know which tools to use to migrate user profile data from one computer to another from a previous version of Windows to Windows 7, and the situations in which you would perform a side-by-side versus wipe-and-load migration.

Exam need to know

• Side-by-side vs. wipe and load

  For example: How to determine when it is appropriate to use a side-by-side or wipe-and-load migration.

• Migrating from one machine to another

  For example: How to migrate from Windows 7 on one computer to Windows 7 on another.

• Migrating from previous versions of Windows

  For example: How to migrate profile data from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Side-by-side vs. wipe and load

You need to know the difference between these two migration types, and what factors dictate that you use one migration type over another.

True or False? A side-by-side migration is appropriate if your organization’s computers had 512 MB of RAM and 10 GB hard disk drives and could not be upgraded.

Answer: True. When replacing a user’s computer and the original computer has profile data locally stored, you need to perform a side-by-side migration. A side-by-side migration involves shifting user profile data from one computer to another computer. Side-by-side migrations can use removable storage or a network location to host exported profile data. You use side-by-side migrations in desktop replacement scenarios. Desktop replacement scenarios are common when an organization is transitioning to Windows 7 and its current hardware does not support the operating system.

True or False? A wipe-and-load migration is appropriate in your organization if you currently have desktop computers that have the 64-bit version of Windows XP installed, 100 GB of free space on the hard disk drives, and 8 GB of RAM.

Answer: True. A wipe-and-load migration involves removing the current operating system and replacing it with Windows 7. Wipe-and-load migrations can use removable storage, a network location, or a locally fixed disk if a hard-link migration store is used with USMT. Wipe-and-load migrations are suitable when your organization’s computers can run Windows 7 current hardware. Wipe-and-load migrations require that you have a location to store profile data, either on an external drive, a network share, or using a hard-link migration. You might choose to perform a wipe-and-load migration rather than an upgrade when Windows Vista is the original operating system if you want to migrate from an x86 version of Windows Vista to an x64 version of Windows 7.

Migrating from one machine to another

You need to know how to perform a side-by-side migration and can choose the appropriate tool to perform this migration given a specific set of conditions.

True or False? You can use Windows Easy Transfer to migrate data from computers running Windows XP (x64) to Windows 7 (x64).

Answer: True. Windows Easy Transfer is a tool included with Windows 7. You can download Windows Easy Transfer for computers running the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. You use Windows Easy Transfer on the source computer in a side-by-side migration to collect all migrated data. You use Windows Easy Transfer on the destination computer to restore that data. You can use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer local user accounts, documents, music, pictures, email, bookmarks, and digital certificates from the source computer to the destination computer. When using Windows Easy Transfer for side-by-side migration, you can leverage the following methods of transferring profile data:

• Easy Transfer Cable. A special cable that has USB connectors. Connect one end to the source computer, and the other end to the destination. Both computers are powered on during migration.

• Network. You run Windows Easy Transfer on both computers connected to the same LAN. Profile data is transferred across the network from one computer to the other.

• External Hard Disk or USB Flash Drive. You can also specify an internal hard disk drive or a network location with this method. Migration data is stored in the specified location, and you import it using Windows Easy Transfer on the destination computer. This is the only Windows Easy Transfer method that you can use to perform a wipe-and-load migration.

You can’t use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer files from a 64-bit version of Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows.

True or False? You can use the hard-link migration store when migrating profile data from one machine to another.

Answer: False. When using USMT to transfer data from one computer to another, you create a migration store that stores the migrated data. You can use a network share or a locally attached storage device when using USMT. You can’t use the hard-link migration store when migrating from one computer to another. The hard-link migration store stores data on a fixed hard drive in wipe-and-load migrations.

True or False? When using USMT in side-by-side migrations, you run the ScanState tool on the destination computer.

Answer: False. USMT consists of two tools: ScanState and LoadState. ScanState is run on the source computer, and LoadState is run on the destination computer. USMT allows you to automate the process of migrating user profile data from one computer to another. USMT uses migration rules, stored in XML format, to specify which of the following are migrated:

• User accounts

• User files

• Operating-system settings

• Application settings

You can use USMT with WDS and System Center Configuration Manager 2012 to fully automate the process of migrating user profiles.

USMT 4.0 ships with the following sample scripts:

• MigApp.XML. Contains sample rules to migrate application settings.

• MigDocs.XML. Used with the MigXMLHelper.GenerateDocPatterns helper function. User documents can be automatically located without the necessity of authoring complex migration .XML files.

• MigUser.XML. Sample rules that gather everything in a user’s profile and scan local fixed drives for files with commonly extensions. The properties of this sample script are covered in more detail later in the chapter.

True or False? You must have local administrator privileges on the source computer to run the ScanState tool.

Answer: True. You must run the ScanState tool on the source computer using local administrator privileges. If you boot the source computer using the WinPE environment, you have local administrator access to the source computer.

A migration report provides you with information about what USMT will migrate prior to performing the actual migration. For example, to create a migration report, named genMig.xml, in the c:\Migration folder, run the following command:

Scanstate.exe /genmigxml:"C:\Migration\genMig.xml"

By default, the ScanState tool will create a compressed migration store. To use ScanState with the migdocs.xml and migapp.xml files to create a migration store on the file server \\Migration\\mystore using a detailed log file named scan.log, use the following command:

Scanstate.exe \\migration\mystore /i:migdocs.xml /i:migapp.xml /v:13
/l:scan.log

To use a hard-link migration store named c:\HD-LNK, use this command:

Scanstate.exe /hardlink /nocompress c:\HD-LINK /i:migdocs.xml /i:migapp.xml
/v:13 /l:scan.log

If you are using a network share or if you are concerned about the security of the migration store, you can encrypt the migration store data using the /encrypt / key:”mykey” switch with the ScanState tool. When using the encryption option, you must use the /decrypt /key:”mykey” options with the LoadState tool.

True or False? You should install all applications that you exported data from on the source computer on the destination computer prior to running the LoadState tool.

Answer: True. You use LoadState to restore data exported using the ScanState tool. You run the LoadState with local administrator permissions on the destination computer. For example, to restore all data from the \\migration\mystore network store when you used the migapp.xml and miguser.xml configuration files, execute the following command:

loadstate \\migration\mystore /i:migapp.xml /i:miguser.xml

True or False? You can boot into the WinPE environment and use ScanState to capture profile data without booting into the original operating system.

Answer: True. Offline migration allows you to use the ScanState component of USMT when booted from the WinPE environment to gather settings and files from a Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 installation. You can also use offline migration to gather files and settings from the Windows.old directory created during an upgrade from a previous version of Windows if you are booted into Windows 7. You must use ScanState with the /offline option to extract data when not booted in to the source operating system.

Migrating from previous versions of Windows

You need to know what steps to take when migrating from Windows XP or Windows Vista to Windows 7.

True or False? You can use a hard-link migration store with Windows Easy Transfer.

Answer: False. You should consider the following strategies when migrating data from previous versions of Windows to Windows 7:

• If you need to perform a side-by-side migration of a small number of computers, you should consider Windows Easy Transfer when both computers are connected to the same LAN.

• You should use Windows Easy Transfer and an external hard disk drive or network location if you need to perform a wipe-and-load migration of a small number of computers. You can’t use hard-link migration stores with Windows Easy Transfer.

• You should use USMT when performing side-by-side or wipe-and-load migrations of large numbers of computers because you can automate the migration process.

• You should use hard-link migration store in wipe-and-load scenarios when you want to minimize the amount of storage used to host migrated data.

• You should use ScanState to encrypt migrated data when stored on accessible network locations.

Can you answer these questions?

You can find the answers to these questions at the end of the chapter.

1. What three methods can you use to migrate profile data using Windows Easy Transfer?

2. You need to migrate local user profile data from two computers running Windows Vista to two new computers running Windows 7. You don’t have local administrator access on the computers running Windows Vista. What steps can you take to accomplish this task?

3. You have 50 computers that have Windows Vista Enterprise (x86) installed, on which you want to deploy Windows 7 Enterprise (x64). You do not want to use removable storage or a network folder to store migration data. What migration store option should you choose?

4. You have five computers running Windows XP Professional (x64) that you want to replace with Netbook computers running Windows 7 Professional (x86). Which tools can you use to migrate profile data with a minimum of effort?