What is the best way to transfer data to a new laptop?
I have a laptop running Windows 8.1 (fully backed up) and I want to transfer the contents to a new laptop pre-loaded with Windows 10. I have 6 external hard drives so space is not a problem. What is the best way to proceed?


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To continue using your programs on your new computer you may need to first uninstall them from the old computer. There may be some programs where the licence cannot be transferred. It is also possible that you may have difficulty installing and running older programs on Windows 10 system.
Ian
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If you have a large volume of data (either lots of files or large file sizes) to transfer, I'd recommend not using the standard Windows Explorer copy. Use something more robust with logging, so you'll have verification that everything you set to copy to the new drive matches the old.
Personally, I like Robocopy, which is free with every version of Windows. You write a simple command line detailing what you want copies, what options and parameters, etc. There is also a free GUI interface available from Microsoft if you prefer that.
If you don't like Robocopy, there are many other such tools. The point is to use something better than the standard Windows Copy command, so you'll have a proper sync, which can be repeated, and for which you'll have log verification of what was done and if any errors occurred.
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