[GNC] how to migrate data to new computer

Michael or Penny Novack stepbystepfarm at comcast.net
Mon Dec 9 15:40:50 EST 2019


On 12/9/2019 1:20 AM, Colin Law wrote:
> The easiest way to get the right file may be to open gnucash on the old
> machine and use File > Save As to save it to a USB stick or similar. Then
> you can copy it to a suitable folder on the new machine and use File Open
> in gnucash to open it.
>

That might be a good way to proceed if the only data you were moving to 
the different/new computer was your gnucash books. But in a situation 
like this, migrating to a  new computer, you are USUALLY wanting to move 
over all your user data (all your documents, for example). Not doing 
this one at a time.

The questions about OS is most relevant when will be different from the 
old machine. If you are migrating between machines using the same OS and 
you choose the same name for your log in (your user account) as on the 
old machine, data migration is easy. You can just copy over your entire 
user directory (aka "file folder"). But if a different OS what things go 
where might not be the same.

HOWEVER, even if the same, you would not simply be able to click on the 
object (the file) because on the new machine you will not (yet) have 
created associations between object types (as identified by file 
extensions) and the application you want to use when you select that 
object. That you in general have to do this whenever beginning with a 
new machine might be less than obvious to users of a MS OS (any  version 
of Windows) because MS is likely to have provided default associations 
to THEIR proprietary applications. Thus .docx might be associated to MS 
Word "out of the box" or .html to Edge  << that we need to set/reset 
associations is obvious to those of us who use say LibreOffice or 
FireFox etc.  instead of MS products >>


Michael D Novack







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