When you get a new computer, you will need to transfer files between computers. If there is a small number of files to be transferred, USB flash drives can be a good choice to help you with data transfer. If there is a large number of files to be moved, you may use an Ethernet cable to transfer data. Compared with USB flash drives, an Ethernet cable has following advantages:

• More suitable for transferring plenty of files. There’s no capacity limit if you transfer data with an Ethernet cable.
• Faster transfer speed. The physical connection between two computers via an Ethernet cable makes data transfer quicker.
• Avoid repetitive work of plugging and removing USB flash drives. Moreover, you won’t be worried about the connection problem and spend extra time repairing pen drive not detected on the computer.

Then, how to transfer data from PC to PC using an Ethernet cable in Windows 10/8/7? Please read on.

Procedure on how to transfer files from PC to PC via an Ethernet cable

Before you start, you should prepare a LAN cable (CAT5 will work fine). Learn how to share files between two computers using LAN cable in detail below:

1. Connect both computers to a LAN cable.

2. Turn on the sharing options on both computers. Search for Control Panel and open it. Go to Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change Advanced sharing settings. Change the following options for both computers and click “Save changes”.

• “Turn on network discovery”
• “Turn on file and printer sharing”
• “Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in the Public folders”
• “Turn off password protected sharing”

3. Share a folder on the source computer.

3.1. Select the folder you want to share and right click on it. Choose “Share with” and then select “Specific people”.

3.2. In the File Sharing window, select “Everyone” from the drop-down menu, click on the “Add” button next to it and then click on the “Share” button.

3.3. When you see “Your folder is shared”, click “Done”.

4. Access the shared folder on the destination computer.

4.1. Press Win + E to open File Explorer and click Network on the left-hand panel.

4.2. Find the source computer and double click it. Enter the source computer’s password if prompted.

4.3. You will see the folder you just shared. Copy the shared folder to anywhere else based on your needs.

As you see, you can only share one folder once. It will be time-consuming if you have dozens of files from different folders to transfer. Is there an easier way to transfer files between computers on same network?

Advanced way to transfer files between computers on same network

As long as the two computers are on the same wireless or wired network, you can transfer files from PC to PC even without an Ethernet cable. AOMEI Backupper Standard, the best free PC to PC file sync software, can help you complete the task easily. Following are its main features:

Fastest way to transfer files between computers on same network:

1. Launch AOMEI Backupper on the source computer. Click “Sync” and select “Basic Sync“.

2. Name the task so that you can distinguish it from other sync tasks. Click “Add Folder” to select the folder(s) which you want to transfer.

3. Click the bar under “Add Folder” and in the pop-up window, choose “Share/NAS“.

4. In the Select Share/NAS Device window, click “Add Share or NAS Devices”. Then, type the IP address of the source computer and click “OK”. Type username and password if it prompts.

5. After the IP address has been added, all network-shared folders on the computer will be listed. Choose one folder to store the folder(s) you plan to transfer and click “OK”.

6. Click on “Start Sync” button to perform the operation.

7. After the sync process is finished, access the shared folder(s) on the destination computer as mentioned above.

The post How to Transfer Files from PC to PC Using an Ethernet Cable? : Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

Here creating Windows 10 repair boot USB drive means to create a bootable recovery drive using USB drive. If you have already made such a drive before system crashes, you’ll be able to fix issues, reset your computer when your computer is unable to boot. The bootable recovery drive also offers you an opportunity to reinstall Windows 10 if you are unable to repair your system.  

When you are without USB drive but with CD/DVD, you can create Windows 10 system repair disc using CD/DVD, which can also help you to fix issues when you can’t boot your computer.

How to create Windows 10 bootable recovery disk?

All in all, it is a wise choice to create Windows 10 repair USB drive in case of Windows 10 running into problems. Here are the detailed steps:

Step 1. Connect a USB drive to your working computer and make sure it can be detected.

PS: If you have any data that you don’t want to lose, backup files at first as this operation will delete all data on the USB drive.

Step 2. In the search box, type “recovery drive” and choose “Create a recovery drive”.

Step 3. In the small pop-up window, check the option “Back up system files to the recovery drive” and click “Next”.

Step 4. Select a USB flash drive and click “Next’.

Step 5. Click “Create” to start the operation.

How to repair Windows 10 using repair boot USB drive?

If you need to repair system using bootable recovery drive when your operating system fails to boot, you can insert the repair USB drive to your computer and enter BIOS to make your computer boot from the bootable disk firstly. Then, when the recovery screen appears, go to “Advanced options” > “Troubleshoot” > “Startup Repair”.

If Startup Repair can’t solve the problem, you can go to “Command Prompt” under “Advanced options” to repair Windows 10. In the command prompt window, if you need to repair damaged system files, type “sfc /scannow /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows” and hit “Enter” key. If you need to rebuild BCD settings, you can run the following commands:

• bootrec /fixmbr
• bootrec /fixboot
• bootrec /rebuildbcd

Windows 10 repair boot USB drive, is that enough?

As described above, the bootable Windows 10 repair drive helps fix boot issues. It even can help you to restore or reinstall the Windows system. But the system recovery disk may fail to boot other computers except the one that created it. In some cases, you even can’t create a recovery USB disk for Windows 10.

In such a case, you could consider using free backup software to do so. 3rd party software like AOMEI Backupper Standard is recommended.

◉ It can create bootable media to boot different versions of Windows, including Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP.
◉ It allows you to backup the system with different schedules, including Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event Triggers (paid) and USB plug in (paid).
◉ Apart from creating a system image, you are able to create image backups for a whole disk, a specific partition, or selected files/folders.

When your system is not bootable, you can boot your computer from the bootable USB drive and restore system if you have a system image file created by AOMEI Backupper at hand.

How to create a bootable USB drive for Windows 10/8/7?

Before creating bootable media:

• Insert a USB drive to a working computer running Windows and ensure that it can be detected.
• If you don’t want to lose data on the USB drive, you can make a backup before operation.
• Download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch it.

Step 1. In the main interface, click “Create Bootable Media” under “Tools” tab.

Step 2. Select the type of bootable media that you are creating. WinPE is recommended.

Note: Linux based bootable media enable you to access basic functions of AOMEI Backupper and Windows PE based bootable media allow you to access all functions of it.

Step 3. Select a bootable media among three options (Here USB Boot Device is chosen) and click “Next” to execute the operation.

When the process completes, click on “Finish” button.

After creating bootable USB drive, it is time to know how to boot from USB drive: Insert the bootable USB drive to the computer that needs to restore system > Press certain key while starting computer to enter BIOS to boot computer from the USB drive > Access the main interface of AOMEI Backupper to restore system.

The post Repair Windows 10: Create Repair Boot USB Drive-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

As computers become slower and technology improved, it’s quite normal to replace your old computer with a newer fast one. What can you do if you want to use the old systems settings, applications, and data on your new computer?

Instead of wasting time installing Windows, applications and files that you have accumulated on the old system, you can choose to clone the old drive to your new system. This way, your newer faster computer contains all of your personal data and programs so you can continue to use it without setting preferences from scratch.  

Problem with transferring operating system from one computer to another computer

Speaking of transferring operating system from one computer to another, many users may feel disappointed. That’s because you may encounter device drivers compatility issues and license problem. Now, let’ have a closer look at it.

Device drivers incompatibility: After cloning to another computer, your computer may not boot with errors like “hardware abstraction layer” or “hal.dll”, even blue screen. Every computer has its own specific drivers fit for the motherboard and chipset. Among these drivers, the storage controller drivers help motherboard to comunicate with hard disk. In a short word, the new computer does not know how to handle the hardware if it has incompatibility drivers, the result is boot failure.

Reactivation issues: This can be a headache if your computer is a OEM copy, because it’s tied to the first computer with installed operating system. If your license is Retail or Volume, reactivation is much simple, because they can be used on any computer, but only on one computer. When connected to the internet, Windows will automatically activate your computer. If not, you can manually type your licence key to reactivate your system.

Software to clone one computer to another computer

If you want to transfer one computer to another one, there are two available ways you can use – Disk Clone or System Clone, Backup and Restore. 

First, If you clone the disk, the cloning process will also include all of the hardware information of the original drive. If the new computer has the same hardware or at a minimum the same CPU, then you will be able to boot the new system from the cloned drive without any extra steps.

• You can clone the hard drive in the old computer, and then install the cloned drive into your new computer. 
• If you’d prefer to only keep Windows OS and your programs you can use the ‘System Clone’ function to only clone your OS and applications to your new computer.

Second, if your new computer does not have the same hardware as old one, you may encounter cloned hard drive won’t boot issue. In this case, you can use “Universal Restore” feature of a professional backup and restore software to ensure secure boot.

Here, I highly recommend you the specialist hard drive cloning & backup and restore software – AOMEI Backupper Professional Edition – allows you to easily clone a computer to another computer whether using the same hardware or not. 

Other things you need to prepare for cloning old computer 

In addition to a specialist software, you still need to check or prepare other things. Continue to see below and learn more.

For laptop, check if has removable back panel and the number of its drive bay. Getting access to hard drive is the first element of replacing hard drive. If not, the follow-up work will not continue. Also, if your laptop only have one drive bay, you need to prepare a USB-to-SATA adapter, dock or encloser for connection.

Check the used space of both hard drives. In general, hard drive clone may fail owing to smaller target disk. But specialist disk clone software can clone larger hard drive to smaller drive as long as the used space on old drive is smaller than or equal to target drive.

Confirm the partition style of both hard drives. If different, GPT to MBR, for example, you need to convert MBR to GPT with disk management, or make the target disk blank.

Keep a copy of system backup or disk backup. If you have done a in-depth research online, you may know there are examples of cloned hard drive won’t boot. To prevent this situation, you need to create a system or disk backup ahead of time.

Method 1: Clone computer to another computer with the same haware

Step 1. Connect the new hard drive to your computer and make sure it can be detected.

Step 2. Open AOMEI Backupper Professional, click the “Disk Clone” option under the Clone tab. To clone only system, select “System Clone” to continue. 

Step 3. Select the source disk on the old computer and click “Next” .

Step 4. Select the destination disk that you connected before and click “Next” to continue.

Step 5. Read the warning message carefully and click “OK” if you are happy to proceed. To protect your data, I recommend you backup your files to an external HDD before continuing. 

Step 6. In the “Operations Summary” window, you can preview the cloning process. If you are happy, click “Start Clone” to begin. 

Method 2: Transfer operating system from one computer to another with different hardware

To transfer the operating system to a new computer with different hardware, you should do the following first:

• Create a disk image or a system image using AOMEI Backupper Professional Edition. The backup image must be saved somewhere the new computer can access flexibly. AOMEI Backupper supports backing up to NAS, HDD, SSD, and other storage devices.
• Start up the new computer via a bootable CD or USB created by AOMEI Backupper. If you have multiple computers, you can use PXE Boot Tool, because it allows you to boot multiple client computers within the LAN simultaneously.

Then, use the disk image or system image created before to transfer operating system. These steps apply to move Windows 10 to new computer as well as other opreating system, such as, Windows 8, Windows 7. 

Step 1. Boot the new computer via AOMEI bootable media or the PXE Boot Tool. In the main window of AOMEI Backupper, click on the “Restore” tab.

Step 2. Click “Select Image File” to locate the disk image backup or system image backup you created earlier. Note: the drive letter may have changed under AOMEI PE environment.

Step 3. Click the disk backup image in the list and hit “Next” to continue. 

Step 4. Tick “Restore the entire disk” and then click “Next” to continue. 

Step 5. Select the destination location to restore the image backup and then click “Next”.

Step 6. In the operation summary screen, check the “Universal Restore” option and then click “Start Restore“.

The post 2 Ways: Clone Old Computer to New PC (Bootable)-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

Recovery USB (a USB version of system repair disc in Windows) contains several tools that can be used to troubleshoot the unbootable computer or restore your computer to factory settings.

In Windows, the recovery USB created by buillt-in tool cannot be used on different version of computer. That’s to say, you cannot use a Windows 8 32-bit recovery drive to repair Windows 10 32-bit. Also, you cannot use a Windows 8 32-bit recovery drive to troubleshoot Windows 8 64-bit.

In addition, you still can use an installation disk as a repair disk. But the one comes along with your computer is a CD/DVD disc. Thus, if you want to reinstall windows 10 without CD/DVD, you need to download installation media tool from Microsoft and create Windows 10 recovery USB yourself. 

Well then, how to use recovery drive in Windows 10 to get computer back? You could use recovery drive or installation disc to boot computer and then restore it using Windows 10 recovery tools. Also, if your computer has a serious error or you want to keep all your personal files and programs, you could try free backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard to make up for these shortcomings. Four methods are below, please check them and start your restoration.

Method 1: Recover Windows 10 from a recovery drive

Here you will create a recovery drive in Windows 10 with built-in tool – Recovery Drive, and then learn how to use recovery drive in Windows 10 to completely reinstall Winodws 10. Please prepare a USB drive with 16GB at least, otherwise this operation may fail because of insufficient disk space and throw you an error message, saying, “we can’t create the recovery drive”. Learn more below.

Step 1. Connect the USB drive to your computer, and make sure it can be detected. Then, type Create a recovery drive in the search box and select it from the top result. 

Step 2. Check the  back up system files to the recovery drive option and hit Next. If not, you will not see Reset this PC and Recover from a drive in the system recovery environment.

Step 3. Select USB flash drive and hit Next.

Step 4. Click Create to start Windows 10 recovery usb creation.

Step 5. Boot from Windows 10 repair disk. In the initial page, select keyboard layout and other prepference. 

Step 6. Select Troubleshoot and Recover from a drive. 

Step 7. Select Just remove my files or Clean the drive fully.

Step 8. Click Recover to recover from a drive.  It will take a while to finish and your PC will restart. After that, you just need to set up your Windows 10 with the on-screen instructions.

Method 2: Reinstall Windows 10 without losing data

Here you will use the built-in recovery drive to recover Windows 10 with “System Restore” in the Advanced options, and It will keep all your files at the point you make a system restore point. 

Step 1. Create Windows 10 recovery USB with steps mentioned in Method 1, and then boot from it. 

Step 2. Then, access the Troubleshoot page and select Advanced options > System Restore in order.

Step 3. In the Restore system files and settings, click Next.

Step 4. Select a restore point and click Next.

Step 5. Confirm the info and click Finish to recover Windows 10.

Method 3: Reinstall Windows 10 but keep files

Here you will use “System Restore” option as well, but the recovery drive is an installation disc or USB. This can be a great choice if you don’t create Windows 10 recovery USB drive with the built-in recovery drive, it will keep your files as well.

Step 1. Download Windows 10 Media Creation tool from Microsoft and run it with administrator priority. Click Accept to agree the license terms.

Step 2. In the “What do you want to do?” page, select Create installation media for another PC and click Next.

Step 3. Select language, edition and architecture (32-bit or 64-bit) for Windows 10. Then, select USB flash drive (at least 8GB required) as the bootable media and click Next to create Windows 10 reinstall USB.

Step 4. Connect the installation disk to your computer and boot from it. Then, select language and other preference.

Step 5. Click Repair your computer at the lower left corner. Immediately afterwards, Select Troubleshoot and Advanced options.

Step 6. Select System Restore and follow on-screen instructions to start Windows 10 reinstall.

Method 4: Restore Windows 10 image from USB drive 

The built-in Windows 10 recovery tools do help to some extent, but they may remove all your files or the previously installed programs. Is there any safe way to restore Windows 10 from USB drive without deleting files and programs? Fortunately, you could use free backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard to make up for this. With it, you can make a Windows 10 boot disk to start unbootable computer and create Windows 10 system image for disaster recovery.  

To create a backup image, you need to click the download button to install AOMEI Backupper Standard, then select Backup >System Backup > destination path to save system, and finally click Start Backup to move on. If your computer currently is running smoothly without any obstacle, it’s suggested to schedule backup system, so the newly changed files and installed apps will be included in this image.

To create boot disk Windows 10, click Tools > Create Bootable Media, then select bootable disc type > PE boot mode > bootable media (here is USB Boot Device) and click Next to start the process. When the proces is complete, click Finish to exit. Then, you can see the Windows 10 system repair USB on your drive. 

Step 1. Connect bootable media and USB drive with system image backup to your computer. And then restart your computer, press F2 or other specific key you see on the initial screen, change boot order to the Windows 10 repair disk, at last save changes and boot your computer. 

Step 2. Wait for the loading to complete, and then you will see the interface of AOMEI Backupper Standard. At this time, click Restore > Select Image File to find and select your system image to be restored. 

Step 3. Tick Restore this system backup and click Next.

Step 4. Select the destination path to save Windows 10 image and click Next.

Step 5. Then, click Start Restore to reinstall Windows 10 from a system image. When the progress reaches 100%, click Finish to exit.

The post 4 Effective Ways to Restore Windows 10 from Recovery USB-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

When your Windows Server computer is very old or experiencing some hardware problems, you may want to upgrade to a new server. There is no need to reinstall the Windows Server system and transfer the data as Windows Server 2016 can be migrated to other dissimilar hardware along with the data.

Since it is new hardware, you have to consider a lot of things like drive problems. Fortunately, Windows Server Backup has Bare Metal Recovery which allows you to restore the Windows Server 2016 backup image to new hardware.

So, you first need to create a bare metal backupand then restore the backup to the new hardware. Apart from updating the server hardware, you can also use this method to quickly recover from the following problems: hardware failure, system crash, computer theft and human error, etc.

Windows Server 2016 Restore to New Different Hardware – Windows Server Backup

Windows Server Backup is not pre-installed on Windows Server 2012/2016/2019, so you need to install it from Server Manager first. After installation, go to Windows Backup Server and follow the wizard to create a full backup. When choosing the data backed up, you need to select ‘Bare metal recovery’.

Warning: If the Windows Server Backup service is missing during installation, please follow the link guide provided to restore it.

Detailed guide for migrating Windows Server 2016 to new hardware

Step 1. After the backup is complete, boot the new server computer witha Windows Server 2016 installation disc. Select ‘Repair your computer’ in the lower left corner instead of Install now.

Step 2. Select Troubleshoot> Advanced Options> System Image Recovery.

Step 3. On the Computer Re-Imaging Screen, select the available system image to restore.

The reset process will usually take a few hours. In the next, you can boot the new machine and Windows Server 2016 system, the installed settings and programs are the same as the old machine.

Windows Server 2016 Bare Metal Recovery could not be completed

However, there are some cases where Windows Server 2016/2019 migration will fail from this method:

1. System recovery fails due to EFI / BIOS. Windows Server cannot restore a system image to a computer with different firmware.

2. Windows Server won’t start if you want to restore to hard drive with different partition style.

So, you have to make sure that the new hardware computer must have the same firmware and hard drive initialized with the same partition style. Most recent server computers, not all, support UEFI and are compatible with the legacy boot mode of the BIOS. You can boot into BIOS to change it and convert hard drive partition style to MBR or GPT.

If you find this too annoying, you can use advanced software to easily move Windows Server 2016 to new hardware. AOMEI Backupper’s Universal Restore feature allows you to restore Windows Server 2016 to computer with dissimilar hardware.

Advanced way to restore Windows Server 2016 to dissimilar hardware

AOMEI Backupper Serveris reliable backup and restore software that allows you to migrate Windows Server 2016/2019 to new computer with different hardware in this case. With its Universal Restore feature, you can restore system image to dissimilar hardware regardless of firmware and partition style.

Additionally, the software earns a reputation for its powerful features and easy-to-use user interface. All you need is just 3 steps: create a full backup image -> create a bootable disk (USB or CD) -> restore the image to a new server machine and things will be done. Why don’t you download its free trial version and give it a try?

Preparation – backup before recovery:

Backup is the basis of recovery. Therefore, you need to create a backup for Windows Server 2016 first. You can backup system or disk backup. Then, create a bootable USB drive or CD. Install and run AOMEI Backupper Server edition.

Step by step guide: recovering Windows Server 2016 to dissimilar hardware

Step 1. Use AOMEI Backupper Bootable Disk or PXE Boot Tool to boot the target Windows Server computer.

Step 2. When the full interface of AOMEI Backupper loads, click Restore, then click Select Image File to select the previously prepared backup image.

Step 3. Click Share or NAS to add the network location for backup.

Step 4. Click Add Network Location, type the name, path, username, password and click OK to connect the path, then select the image in the network share or NAS path.

Step 5. Select to restore the entire backup or a partition and click Next.

Step 6. Select the destination disk on the new hardware to restore the system image, then click Next.

Step 7. Make sure the Universal Restore option is selected. Then click Start Recovery to begin migrating Windows Server 2016/2019 to the new hardware.

Besides restoring Windows Server 2016 to dissimilar hardware, you can also use the functions like Disk Clone, System Clone and File Sync of AOMEI Backupper to transfer and protect your data.

The post Effortlessly Restore Windows Server 2016 to Different Hardware-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

Updating computer hardware is exciting, but there may be problems if you want to keep the Windows installation. It won’t take long to complete a new installation, but you will need to reinstall all installed programs, transfer data and configure system settings, not to mention that some programs need to be activated.

Therefore, like most people, you probably want to upgrade hardware without reinstalling Windows 10/8/7. To upgrade secondary parts, simply uninstall the corresponding old drivers and install the new ones after replacement.

To replace important hardware such as motherboard and CPU, Windows 8/7 or old Windows XP system will fail to boot. Since Windows has included most of the common drivers, Windows 10 will boot correctly without any additional effort after replacing the hardware.

To upgrade the motherboard and CPU without reinstalling Windows, there is a little trick to prepare the system for the hardware upgrade. Once you get it right, you can boot your Windows system after changing the motherboard.

Will Windows 10/8/7 be activated after replacing the motherboard?

Different types of Windows licenses

There are three types of Windows license key, OEM, Retail, and Volume. If the license is retail or volume, Windows will automatically activate when you connect to the Internet. However, the OEM key is stuck on the original hardware.

You need to activate Windows by phone. It may take a few minutes to send the numbers back and forth.

How to know if Windows 10/8/7 is OEM or Retail?

Right-click PC (This PC in Windows 10) and select Properties. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and check Product ID. If you see OEM in the second group, it is an OEM license key. Otherwise, it’s retail or volume.

If your computer comes pre-installed with Windows 10/8/7, it’s usually the OEM key. If you purchased your license from Microsoft, it is a sales key. Volume keys are bought by large companies or organizations.

A proper way to change the motherboard without reinstalling Windows

Before replacing the motherboard or CPU, you need to make some changes to the registry. Incorrectly editing the registry can cause serious problems, so it’s best to create a full system image backup first.

You can follow the steps below to edit the registry:

1. Press the “Windows” + “R” keys to open the Run dialog box, type “regedit” and then press Enter.

2. Within Registry Editor, navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ msahci

3. In the right pane, double-click “Start” and change the value from anything to “0”.

4. Also, change the DWORD value data of the following key to 0:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ services \ pciide

6. Save your changes and exit Registry Editor.

7. Turn off the computer and replace the hardware. Then you should be able to boot into Windows successfully.

This method will also work when you want to move the hard drive to a new computer without reinstalling Windows.

An easy way that always works

If the above method doesn’t work or you find it too risky, you can perform a universal reset after updating your motherboard and CPU. Universal Restore is a feature of backup AOMEI Backupper which allows you to restore Windows system to another computer with different hardware.

It does not require you to change any settings. You just need to create a backup of the original system and restore it after CUP and motherboard replacement. It works like windows recover bare metal backup. AOMEI Universal Restore is more convenient without restrictions.

To perform a system backup for universal recovery:

1. Download and run AOMEI Backupper Professional.

2. Click System Backup on the Backup tab. Automatically select the items you need as a backup source.

3. Click “Step2” to specify a folder or drive as the backup destination. It’s possible backup to external hard drive or the original hard drive.

4. Click Start Backup to start the system backup.

5. When finished, click Utilities and select Create bootable media and follow the wizard to create a bootable USB drive or CD / DVD.

After that, you can upgrade the motherboard and CPU.

Perform Universal Restore

1. Press DEL or F2 repeatedly at computer startup to change the boot order and set the created boot disk as the first boot option.

2. Then it will load the main interface of AOMEI Backupper. Click Restore and select the backup you created earlier.

3. Before starting the restore, make sure the “Universal Restore” option is selected.

Both methods can help you upgrade your motherboard and CPU without reinstalling Windows. Which way do you prefer? Or do you have any other experience with changing your computer hardware without a clean install, leave a comment below.

The post Upgrade Motherboard and CPU without Reinstalling Windows 10, 8, 7-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

Excel is one of the most popular Microsoft Office applications used worldwide by businesses and individuals. It can help users maintain, calculate and analyze all kinds of data in an easy way. However, it can also throw errors at you at the most unexpected times, for example, the disk is full error.

When you are trying to save a document, you receive the “Disk is Full.” message followed by “Document not saved.”. It’s really a painful situation especially if you have worked heavily on that document. But don’t be too panic, in the following part, you will know why the disk is full error happens to Excel 2010/2013/2016 and also the solutions to fix the problem. Here we go.

Causes to Excel the Disk is Full Document Not Saved

Generally, the disk is full error in Excel will occur under two situations:

• There is no enough space on the disk to save the document.
• The process that Excel uses to save a file is interrupted.

When you are working in a workbook, Microsoft Excel saves the file with a temporary file name and places this file in the same folder as the original file. When you click the save option, your original file is removed and the temporary file is renamed with the original file name.

Therefore, the free disk space must be greater than twice the file size being saved. If not, the disk is full error can occur.

On the other hand, if any obstruction occurs in this process, it will also lead to Excel the disk is full document not saved issue. For example, you may try to save the file to external hard drive or a network drive but the connection has been dropped. Then your file may not be saved properly or you can find one or more temporary files in the folder.

How to Fix Excel 2010/2013/2016 the Diks is Full Error?

From the above part, you know what will cause Microsoft Excel the disk is full error. Now let’s start to see the solutions to fix the problem.

Solution 1. Check the free space

Go to have a check and make sure your disk isn’t actually full. Open This PC/My Computer to check the bar of the disk. If the bar is red, then the disk is too full to save any file. You can move some files to another hard drive or just delete some old files.

Solution 2. Copy files to another hard drive

Since Excel the disk is full document not saved error can happen due to the low disk space, you can simply save the files to another disk. If want to save the file on a floppy disk, you can first save the file to the hard disk and then copy it onto the floppy disk.

Solution 3. Save the file with a different name

You can go to File option > choose Save As and rename the workbook.

Solution 4. Check the connection

As mentioned above, the Excel the disk is full error will appear when disk accidentally get detached from the system. You need to restore the connection or correct the problem.

Solution 5. Monitor your saves

The disk is full error may also occur when you have saved a document an extreme amount of times. If file sharing is enabled, the limit to save a file each time you open a workbook is 60 times. You can close and reopen the workbook every 20 saves to avoid the issue.

Solution 6. Turn off File Sharing

If you don’t need file sharing, you can simply turn it off. It will remove the limit of saves you can make.

Bonus Tip: Easy Way to Backup Computer

You will never know what kind of problem will happen to your computer. It’s lucky if there are solutions to fix the issue like the disk is full error we are talking above. However, sometimes the problem just can’t be fixed and need to perform a system restore or even a clean restore, which will cause data loss.

Therefore, to ensure data safety, regularly backing up the computer is a good habit. To help you make it easier, AOMEI Backupper Standard is here to help. It can help backup your system, the whole hard drive, individual partition or selected files. Also lets you set scheduled backup task to help you perform a backup daily/weekly/daily.

Example: backup selected files with AOMEI Backupper

Step 1. Download, install and launch AOMEI Backupper Standard. Click Backup and then choose File Backup.

Step 2. Click Add File or Add Folder according to your needs. Choose the files or folders you want to backup.

Step 3. Select the backup destination path. It supports backup to local disk, external hard drive, NAS network location, etc.

Step 4. Click Start Backup to execute the task.

Notes:

1. You can click Schedule to set custom scheduled backup task.

2. When you want to perform a restore: go to Home > find the backup task > click more option and click Restore to make it.

Conclusion

That’s all for how to fix the disk is full error in Excel 2010/2013/2016. Hope one of these solutions can help you get out of the trouble. By the way, to ensure the data safety, please remember to make a backup for your computer with AOMEI Backupper Standard. Thus, you can always find a way to find the lost files.

The post How to Fix The Disk is Full Error in Excel 2010/2013/2016-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

“I have a Dell laptop using Windows 10, and recently purchase a new desktop computer. I want to keep the original OS, programs, personal data, etc the same as laptop. Is it possible to transfer OS from laptop to desktop without reinstalling? It’s time-consuming.”

To some extent, the answer is Yes. But the premise is to be sure the license is transferable. Among all the license key, only the retail (full package product) license can be transferred to another computer and it can be used on a computer each time. If your computer use OEM or volume license, you cannot transfer OS to from one computer to another computer.

How do I move OS from laptop to desktop without reinstalling?

Besides clean install, there are two common ways to transfer operating system from one computer to another. One is using disk cloning software to clone system of the laptop and install the cloned hard drive in the desktop, while another way is to use backup and restore software to backup system in laptop and restore to desktop.

Both ways can help you transfer laptop OS to desktop and ensure secure boot. But which one is better? If you want to clone Windows 10 to another PC, you can use “System Clone” feature. By comparison, Windows 10 has a better compatibility than previous version, such as, Windows 7, 8, 8.1, etc. If you are using Previous Windows, especially the desktop has different hardware, you can consider combining “System Backup” with “System Restore” feature.

To achieve this goal, you need an all-in-one backup & restore software like AOMEI Backupper Professional, which integrates with backup & restore as well as clone feature, such as, system backup, disk backup, file backup, disk clone, system clone etc. For hardware incompatible issue, you could use “Universal Restore” feature, it will install all the necessary drivers required to start Windows. 

Method 1: Transfer laptop OS to desktop using system backup and restore  

In Windows 7, 8, 8.1, you’d better use “Backup and Restore” feature to transfer OS. With it, you don’t need to concern the drivers or anything, because it will automatically install the required boot drivers during the restoring process, and neglect the incompatible drivers from the backup.

To restore system from laptop to desktop, there are something you need to do:

• First off, you need a copy of AOMEI Backupper. Go to its website, download and install it on the laptop.

• Second, you need to create a system backup or disk backup of your laptop and save it to a removable storage device. Because it’s the premise of restoring image to disk or computer.
• Third, create a bootable rescue CD/DVD or USB disk, which is to boot your desktop to perform the restore. If you can manage to install AOMEI Backupper on your desktop, you can skip the bootable media.

To transfer laptop OS with AOMEI Backupper:

1. Connect the removable storage device where the backup was saved to your desktop.

2. Boot your desktop from the bootable media. 

Power off your computer, restart it and press the specific key (eg: F2, ESC, etc) in the initial screen, go to Boot and change CD/CD to the first boot options via “+”, then press “F10” or “Enter” to exit this window. After that, it will lead you to the intuitive interface of AOMEI Backupper.

3. Under “Restore” tab, click “Select Image File” to select the backup of your laptop.

4. Click “Restore this system backup” and click “Next” to continue.

5. Select a location on desktop hard drive and then click “Next”.  The first partition or the first available area is the recommended location.

Note: If there are any important data, you need to backup files or folders first.

6. “Universal Restore” is checked by default if your desktop has different hardware. If it’s not checked, you can tick this feature manually. Then, click “Start Restore”.

Notes:

• If your disk on desktop is SSD, you could consider using “SSD Alignment”. It will improve your computer’s performance.
• “Backup and Restore” feature is also applied to Windows 10. Why do I recommend you using “Clone” feature? It’s much easier.

Method 2: Clone one computer to another using system clone

Although Windows 10 has good compatibility, you are still risk of incompatible drivers or hardware when cloning Windows to dissimilar hardware. Thus, it’s suggested to clone one computer to another with  same hardware or at least similar. You could use clone system with “System Clone” or  clone entire disk with “Disk Clone” , then use it on the desktop computer. 

To clone Windows 10 to another PC, use the following method:

1. Connect an external hard drive to your laptop as storage device.

2.  Launch AOMEI Backupper, click “Clone” and “System Clone” subsequently. To clone entire disk, click “Disk Clone” as instead.

3. Select the external drive as destination path. By default, AOMEI will select the system partition and boot related partition, so you don’t need to select it manually.

4. Tick “SSD Alignment”, “Edit Partition”, “Sector by Sector Clone” based on your needs. Then, click “Start Clone” if there is no problem.

•  “SSD Alignment”. If you want to make full use of your SSD, you need to check this feature. It can accelerate the reading and writing speed of your SSDs.
• “Sector by Sector Clone”. This feature is used to clone all sectors of your hard drive whether used or not, especially usefully when you clone disk to larger disk.
• “Edit Partitions”. Many users report that the cloned hard drive show wrong size, that’s because the extra space is marked as “Unallocated”. This feature is to help you add unused space to all partitions, or you can manually adjust the size of your partition.

After cloning, you need to install the cloned hard drive in desktop and change boot order in BIOS. Then, start computer from the cloned disk and see if it boots successfully.

The post Transfer OS from Laptop to Desktop without Reinstalling-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We’ll restart for you. Stop code: CRITICAL PROCESS DIED

The Causes to Critical Process Died

According to the Microsoft website, the CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED bug check has a value of 0x000000EF. This indicates that a critical system process died. And this Windows 10 blue screen Critial Process Died error probably happen due to the system state corrupted or system damaged.

How to Fix Stop Code Critial Process Died in Windows 10?

There are some solutions for you to fix Windows CRITCIAL PROCESS DIED issue, let’s find out:

1. Remove recent added hardware

If you recently added a hardware like HDD, SSD or other devices to your computer, you could remove it to check if the CRITICAL PROCESS DIED error exist; Or ensure the hardware is compatible with the Windows.

2. Uninstall/Update newly installed drivers or system services

Before the Windows blue screen CRITICAL PROCESS DIED, if you installed drivers or system services, please update them or just uninstall it to check whether the problem solved or not.

3. Update BIOS or firmware to latest version

Check the manufacturer to see if an update for BIOS or firmware is available.

4. Check hard disk for errors

1. If you have Windows installation media, boot your computer from the media, and choose Troubleshoot > Advanced > Command Prompt.
2. Run the following command:

chkdsk C: /f /r /x (this command will find errors and recover readable infomation automatically)

5. Run antivirus software

Because the virus can affect the system files and make it unbootable.

6. Repair System Files

Run System File Checker (SFC) to repair the corrupted sytem files that cause the CRITICAL PROCESS DIED in Windows 10.

The system file checker command is: sfc /scannow

7. Perform System Restore

If you create a restore point before, you could restore Windows 10 from boot. And the Windows 10 installation media is required.

1. Boot from your Windows 10 computer from the bootable media, choose Repair your computer.

2. And then select Troubleshoot > Advanced > System Restore.

3. It will bring up the system restore wizard, select the restore point and click Next.

4. And follow the Windows 10 system restore finished, and you will fix the CRITICAL PROCESS DIED error eventually.

Note: If the restore point created a long time ago, you will lose many data you created since then.

Better Way to Get Rid of Windows 10 CRITICAL PROCESS DIED

To prevent the stop code CRITICAL PROCESS DIED while boot up and restore almost all data, it’s highly recommended to backup your system files regularly, like daily, weekly, monthly, etc. AOMEI Backupper Standard is a free backup software for you to backup Windows system, entire hard disk, partition(s) easily in Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

Here are the steps to backup Windows 10 system automatically to prevent CRITICAL PROCESS DIED stop code:

Step 1. Launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, choose Backup > System Backup subsequently.

Step 2. Rename the Task Name and choose a destination to save the Windows 10 system image backup.

Step 3. Click Schedule > select Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event triggers, or USB plug in in General tab, and Incremental Backup in Advanced tab.

Step 4. (Optional) Tap Scheme to delete old backup images automatically while the backups over the number you retain to free up space.

Step 5. Press Start Backup >> to backup Windows 10 OS automatically.

Tips:

• Event triggers and USB plug in in Schedule, and the Scheme are premium features, please upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional or other editions to enjoy.
• Options is capable of comment, split, compress, encrypt(paid) the system image backup, use volume shadow copy (VSS), enable email or SMS notification, etc.

Wait for about 30 minutes, and it will be finished. And it’s time to add AOMEI Backupper recovery environment to boot options: Tools > Recovery Environment.

If you encounter the CRITICAL PROCESS DIED in Windows 10 computer, you just need to boot into BIOS, and enter into AOMEI Backupper, find the latest backup version before the stop code CRITICAL PROCESS DIED occurred to restore Windows 10 easily.

The post Fix Critical Process Died in Windows 10 Error-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.

It’s no surprise that many users want to upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit. The benefits of using a 64-bit operating system are most apparent in performance when you have a large amount of random access memory (RAM) installed on your computer, typically 4 GB of RAM, up to 16 TB. However, the maximum RAM limit for Windows 7 32-bit is 4GB. Here is an example from Microsoft.

“I’m running windows 7 32 bit but I want to upgrade to 64 bit. And I want to keep all my data and software safe. Can I upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit without losing data? Will this cost me anything or is my product key still valid for windows 7 64 bit?”

However, in all version or edition of Windows (XP/Vista/7/8/10, Home/Pro/Ultimate/Enterprise), there is no “Upgrade” option that can directly upgrade to 64 bit. Therefore, you could consider using clean install to install 64 bit operating system and then restore files you will use in the near future, so that you can upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit without losing data. The premise is that the current computer is compatible with 64-bit operating system. The entire process is below.

Step 1: Check the current hardware’s compatibility

Check system type of your computer

To make sure you can successfully clean install Windows 7 64 bit, the first thing is to check the system type of your computer. If the system type is x64-based PC, you can upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit. If the system is x84-based PC, you cannot upgrade your Windows.

To check system type:

1. Open the Start menu.

2. Search for System Information and press Enter.

3. Look for System Type. If the system type is x64-based PC, you can upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to Windows 7 64 bit. If the system is x84-based PC, you cannot upgrade your Windows.

Note: The system stype can also be displayed as follow. You just need to check if your computer supports 64 bit processor. If it is, you can perform Windows 7 32 bit upgrade to 64 bit.
• 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
• 32-bit operating system, x64-based processor
• 32-bit operating system, x86-based processor

Verify CPU and driver compatibility

To further determine that you can upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit without format, you need to verify CPU compatibility and driver compatibility.

To check CPU compatibility, you can download Coreinfo from Microsoft, then see if the processor include Physical Address Extension (PAE), No-eXecute (NX), Streaming SIMD Extensions 2 (SSE2), CMPXCHG16b (CX16). To make it, type coreinfo in the command line window and press Enter, then hit Ctrl + F and type PAE, NX, SSE2, CX16 one by one.

To check driver (eg: graphics and sound cards) compatibility, you can go to device manufacturer support website and see if you can find 64-bit versions of the drivers.

After checking these compatibility, you may already know if your computer is compatible with Windows 7 64-bit system. If it is, please continue to see below and learn how to upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit without losing data.

Step 2: Backup your computer to protect data and system

Before upgrading Windows 7 32-bit, you still need to make a system image backup for your computer. A trust and reliable backup and restore software makes thing simple, here I strongly recommend you using AOMEI Backupper Standard to backup system and then restore system backup when needed. Also, it allows you to restore files from backup in the event of disaster.

And you still can use it to schedule backup system after upgrading, the process is automatic. You just need to set backup settings for it, such as, daily/weekly/monthly plus full/incremental/differential backup. It can be the last resort to save your computer when it’s unbootable. To unlock all the useful features, please upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional.

In the first of place, click the download button below to install AOMEI Backupper Standard on your computer. Also, you need to prepare an external hard drive or USB drive to store backup image, which greatly reduces the data loss due to computer failure, suchas, system crash, disk failure.

1. launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, then you will see its deep-blue interface. Click Backup > System Backup subsequently to start the system backup process.

2. AOMEI Backupper will automatically choose the operating system and boot-realted partition(s) required to start Windows. Here, you only need to select a destination path for your backup. Then, click Start Backup.

Notes:
• For destination path, you can backup to external hard drive, USB drive, cloud drive, NAS, etc. In a simple word, as long as the device can be detected by your computer, you can use it as the destination path.
• It’s suggested to create a bootable media, either USB or CD/DVD, so you can restore your computer when it’s unbootable.

Step 3: Upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit free (Clean Install)

To ensure Windows 7 32 bit can be upgraded to 64 bit, you need an installation media for assistance. Therefore, please create an installation media for Windows first, and then clean install 64-bit operating system with given steps.

Create Windows 7 installation media

To create Windows 7 installation media, you need to prepare the following three things first.
① Windows 7 64 bit ISO image files. If you do not have it, you can download it from Microsoft Store.
② A flash drive with 5GB at least. It’s used to save your ISO image files. And you can take it everywhere, because it’s very portable.
③ Windows 7 USB DVD download tool. This tool is used to burn ISO image file to your USB flash drive.

Then, let’s get started to burn ISO image files to USB flash drive with this tool.

1. Open Windows 7 USB DVD download tool, click Browse to find your ISO image files, then click Next.

2. Choose USB as your media type.

3. Insert USB flash drive and select it, then click Begin copying. And this tool will format your USB flash drive first, then create bootable USB device. Thus, you need to backup USB first if there is something important.

Upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit step by step

1. Plug in your USB flash drive and set boot priority to this drive in BIOS, then restart your computer and press any key to boot from it.

2. Wait for Windows 7 installation files to load, then you will see the main interface. Set up the language and other preference, and click Install Now in the next window.

3. Accept the license terms and click Next.

4. Select Windows 7 installation type: Custom.

5. Click Drive Options and delete system partition & other operating system related partition. After that, select the unallocated space to install 64-bit Windows 7 and wait for the final result.

If the system partition is big enough to install Windows 7 64 bit, you do not need to delete system partition and other operating system related partition. You can use the existing system partition to clean install your Windows.

The previous Windows is stored on Windows.old folder on the current system partition, it gives you a chance to restore Windows from it and go back to previous status.

Step 4: Activate Windows 7 64 bit to reuse product key

It’s said, if the product key was already activated in Windows 7 32-bit, you need to activate the 64 bit versions of Windows 7 by phone. Below are the steps for it.

1. Type slui.exe in the search box and hit Enter.

2. Click Show me other ways to activate now in the Windows activation interface.

3. Click Use the automated phone system.

4. Select the nearest location and click Next.

5. Get the confirmation ID by the given phone number, and then enter the installation ID and confirmation ID. After that, click Next to start the activation process.

Step 5: Restore files from system backup image with AOMEI Backupper

If you can successfully boot from the fresh version 64-bit Windows 7, then you can get your data back by restoring files from backup. Please don’t restore the entire system image backup, otherwise your computer will download your computer to 32 bit.

Here you can use “Explore Image” in AOMEI Backupper Standard to selective restore files. It allows you to explore the backup image to one or more virtual partitions in the Windows file explorer, then you can copy any files on the system image backup and paste it into the 64-bit computer. Detailed steps are below.

Launch AOMEI Backupper Standard, then click Tools and Explore Image.

2. Select the system backup image you created before and click Next.

3. Select a backup point in the following list and click Next.

4. Select drive letter for virtual partitions and click Next. Then, it will create 3 virtual partitions containing everything in the system backup in My Computer with assigned drive letter. Just open these partitions to select files you want copy and paste.

Note: That’s the entire process to upgrade Windows 7 32 bit. These steps are also applicable to upgrade Windows 10 32 bit to 64 bit and upgrade Windows 8 32 bit to 64 bit.

The post Upgrade Windows 7 32 bit to 64 bit without Losing Data-Micro PC Service appeared first on Micro PC Service LLC.