Manual Migration of User State

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

In a manual migration, an onsite technician personally attends each computer, typically performing these tasks:

  • Ensures that the user’s computer is ready for migration (for example, checks to see whether all important files are in the folders that are being migrated).

  • Collects the user state by running either USMT (the Scanstate.exe command-line tool) or the Files and Settings Transfer wizard.

  • Deploys Windows XP either by providing a new computer running Windows XP or by doing a wipe-and-load deployment of Windows XP. (Remote Installation Services [RIS] provides a convenient way to deploy a common Windows XP image.)

  • Restores the user state by again running either USMT (the Loadstate.exe command-line tool) or Files and Settings Transfer wizard. The same tool that is used to collect user state must be used to restore it.

  • Is available to help with any issues while the user checks to make sure that everything has been migrated properly.

Because technical labor costs in manually collecting state data can be very high, it is often beneficial to combine manual collection with the use of automated scripts.

Table 6.4 summarizes advantages and disadvantages of manually migrating user state. Because of the noted disadvantages, a strictly manual approach is not recommended.

Table 6.4   Advantages and Disadvantages of Manual User State Migration

Advantages Disadvantages
  • A technician is available to deal with unexpected problems.

  • Users are reassured by having a person to ask questions of during the migration.
  • Expensive because of high technical labor costs.

  • Slow because a technician must visit each computer individually.

  • Higher chance of human error than with automated methods.

  • Does not scale to distributed or remote office scenarios.