I’m going to switch from Windows 11 to Linux soon but first I wish to backup every every data and config files I can in my current Windows installation, even those that wouldn’t natively work in Linux. I know the \Users folder is important to back up, but I don’t know what other directories I am missing.
IT guy here.
The best thing to do is first to verify that bitlocker is turned off, then remove the drive from the computer, replace it with a new drive, and install Linux on that.
Then take the old drive, get a USB enclousure, install the drive and plug it in to your Likux machine, you should now be able to access the Windows files
I have two physical drives so I can dual boot. I’ve already disabled Bitlocker so I can directly copy the Windows files and folders to the Linux drive. The backup is temporarily kept in an external drive for redundancy in case I screw up the transfer process.
Am I covered in a setup like this?
As a general rule when it comes reinstalling a computer while preserving data, I will always recommend removing all drives but the boot drive during install.
Especially since Linux and Windows identifies hard drives in a very different manner.
This is done to prevent any mistake and make it easier to understand what drive contains what data.
Users is enough. You won’t be able to restore anything else on Linux.
I wouldn’t even backup users, just your documents or any folders the user has created.
\Username\Appdata\Roaming includes the Firefox profile and Thunderbird E-Mails, which you can restore on Linux AFAIK.
Not sure if your Steam folder can be copied over, as well.You can, but you really don’t want to except for troubleshooting purposes.
There’s lots like this you technically can do, but man can it get ugly fast.
Mind I say this as having been an app packager since the 90’s - nobody sees and wrestles with the ugly underbelly of Windows DLL Hell and other weirdness like app packagers.
You can’t pay me to do those kinds of data restores or copying today, except for troubleshooting.
Also, if you can afford it, get a fresh hard drive for Linux. Save your old one. Windows being Windows, you never know where an insanely important file might be hiding.
Ideally I would have arranged a spare drive. Sadly it won’t be possible right now given the SSD shortage.
I had the same problem. Eventually settled on an old-fashioned rotary drive, copied my entire Windows partition over to it before I made the jump. And I’m very glad I did, there was some stuff in ProgramData I missed.
Just whatever documents you created as a user.
Nothing is of value in another Windows install, let alone on Linux.
These are all the docs you should already be backing up anyway.
