How to move photos off a computer you are replacing
· 4 min read · EasyTechdesk
Camera-roll pictures and desktop pictures are not the same pile.
Find the originals
Pictures on the desktop, in Downloads, and in the user Pictures folder are three locations. A shortcut named Photos may point at a cloud that was never finished. Open a picture from last month and note the folder path.
Phone photos that were imported live in a dated folder. Copy the whole year, not a highlight reel, unless you have already decided what to leave behind.
Copy, then check
Copy to a drive you own or to the new computer. When the copy ends, open five files from different months, including a video. A progress bar at 100 percent is not the same as a file that plays.
If the count of files on the destination is far below the source, stop and book a transfer. Silent skips happen when a path is too long or a file is locked by a sync app.
After the copy
Do not format the old computer the same afternoon. Keep it until you have looked for the school folder, the tax PDFs, and the scan of a passport if you stored one there.
A backup visit labels the drive and lists the folders moved. That note is what you will want in a year when you cannot remember which disk is which.
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