How to check an old laptop for photos you don't have yet

Before you recycle, sell or wipe an old computer, make sure none of your photos and videos are left behind, without copying the whole thing and ending up with duplicates everywhere.

Most of us have one: an old laptop in a drawer that "probably" has nothing important on it. But years of camera downloads, phone imports and email attachments add up, and some of those photos may be the only copy you have. Here's how to find them, and how to rescue only the ones that aren't already in your main collection.

Step 1: Know where photos hide on a Windows computer

Photos rarely all sit in one tidy folder. On an old Windows computer, look in:

• Pictures (sometimes called My Pictures): where most cameras and phones put imports.
• Desktop and Downloads: photos saved from emails, websites and messages.
• Documents: scans, and photos saved inside other folders.
• Videos (or My Videos): phone and camera videos.
• OneDrive: if it was turned on, photos may be in the OneDrive folder, and some may only be "online".
• Folders made by old programs: camera software, iTunes or phone-sync tools, Picasa and similar often created their own folders, with names like the camera brand or "DCIM".
• Other drives: a D: drive, a memory card left in the slot, or a USB stick.

All of these live under your user folder, usually C:\Users\YourName, except for other drives. So instead of hunting folder by folder, the easiest thing is to check that whole user folder, or the whole C: drive.

Step 2: Decide how to reach the old computer's files

• If the old laptop still works and runs Windows 10 or 11: plug the drive with your main collection into it (or copy what you need to compare onto a USB drive) and do the check right there.
• If it works but is too old or too slow: copy its C:\Users\YourName folder onto an external drive, and check that copy on your current computer.
• If it doesn't start any more: the photos are usually still on its hard drive. A computer shop can take the drive out and connect it to your current computer, or you can use an inexpensive USB "drive enclosure" or adapter.

Step 3: Find out which photos you don't have

The tempting shortcut is to copy everything into your main collection "just in case". The trouble is that most of those photos are already there, so you end up with two or three copies of everything, a collection that's harder to browse, and more storage used (and, if you use Google Photos, your free 15 GB filling up).

Comparing by file name doesn't work either: cameras and phones reuse names like IMG_0001.jpg, and copies get renamed along the way. And many copies aren't exact: resized for email, edited, or saved again by another program.

Photo Wizard, our Windows program, compares the photos themselves:

• Choose your main collection as the Source Location: a folder, a backup drive, or a Google Takeout download of your Google Photos.
• Choose the old computer's user folder (or the whole drive, like C:/) as the Target Folder. Keep Skip Windows, Program Files and app-data folders in the target ticked, so it doesn't list thousands of icons and program images.
• Click Identify. Photo Wizard skips exact copies, sets aside look-alikes (resized or re-saved copies) for you to check, and shows only the photos and videos you don't have yet.
• Copy them into one folder with a click, then add them to your collection.

Scanning and comparing are free, with no time limit, and you can copy 25 photos or videos free to try it. Photo Wizard only ever copies: it never moves, changes or deletes anything on the old computer.

See Photo Wizard

Step 4: Before you wipe the old computer

• Check the rescued photos open properly in their new home (or have finished uploading to Google Photos).
• Look at what was set aside as look-alikes. Sometimes the old computer has the better copy: the full-size original, where your collection only has a smaller version.
• Don't forget other kinds of files you might want: documents, music, saved emails, browser bookmarks.
• Only then reset or recycle the computer. Windows has a "Reset this PC" option that removes your files.

Several old devices?

Do them one at a time, against the same main collection. With Photo Wizard, keep its upload folder (it sits inside your Source Location) until you've done them all: it counts as part of your collection, so photos you rescued from the first device won't show up as "missing" again on the next one.