Migration Store Types

When planning a migration using USMT, you need to decide where you are going to store migrated data that is generated by ScanState on the source computer and required by LoadState on the destination computer. USMT supports three types of migration stores:

• Uncompressed Uncompressed migration stores use a hierarchy of folders that mirror the user profile data being migrated. You can navigate an uncompressed migration store using Windows Explorer. This creates a duplicate of the backed-up files in another location.
• Compressed A compressed migration store is a single image file that contains all data being migrated. The image file can be encrypted and password-protected. It is not possible to navigate to this file using Windows Explorer.
• Hard-link Hard-link migration stores are used in wipe-and-load scenarios only. The hard-link migration store is stored on the local computer while the old operating system is removed and the new operating system is installed. Use the /hardlink option with ScanState to create a hard-link migration store. Hard linking does not create a duplicate of the migrated data and hence uses less space than the uncompressed or compressed stores when those are used on the volume being migrated. Hard- link migrations require only 250 MB of free space on the volume being migrated, regardless of the amount of profile data being migrated.

ScanState with the /p option allows you to estimate the size of the migration store prior to performing a migration. All migrations require a minimum of 250 MB of free space on the volume being migrated.