Personal Hardware Modernization
& Migration
Effortlessly upgrade to the latest technology. We handle the complete setup of new devices and securely migrate all your photos, files, and personal settings without data loss.
Every piece of your digital life, transferred intact
Modernising your hardware should never mean losing a single photo or login. We plan the move, copy everything twice, rebuild your accounts, and then wipe the old device so you are never left exposed.
We sit down with the old device and list every account, every app, every folder and every device that talks to it. Then we build a written plan so nothing is discovered halfway through the move.
Photos, videos, documents, music, email archives and browser profiles moved across the fast way, then checked file by file. Nothing gets re-compressed, and nothing leaves the house.
Every email, banking, streaming and shopping login rebuilt on the new device, with two-factor codes re-tested before we hand it over. Old sessions on the previous device revoked.
Every old device is signed out of every account, wiped to a certified standard, and checked a second time. You get a written certificate that the hardware is safe to trade in, recycle or hand down.
What changes after a proper migration
Most home upgrades are done in a hurry, on a Friday evening, with a vague hope that everything copied. The difference shows up weeks later, when a folder or a login is missing and nobody can remember where it went.
Old laptop boxed, new one half set up, files missing
You bought the new device, plugged it in, and copied the obvious folders across. Six months later you realise the photo album from 2019 is still on the old drive, and the old drive is already at the recycling centre.
- ✕Photo album from 2019 still on the old drive, or already gone
- ✕Half the logins forgotten, banking app prompts for old 2FA code
- ✕Old device traded in or recycled without being wiped properly
- ✕Nobody wrote down what was moved, or what was left behind
Old device sealed, new one ready, every file accounted for
New device set up and signed in the same day. Every photo, document, email and login verified on the new hardware before we touch the old one. Old device wiped and certified before it leaves the room.
- ✓Every folder, photo and document verified on the new device
- ✓Every email, banking and streaming login signed in and tested
- ✓Old device wiped, checked, and certified for recycling or trade-in
- ✓Written migration record handed over at the end of the visit
The numbers every migration ships with
Every visit ends with a signed document: file counts, verified login list, migration time window and wipe certificate. These are typical figures from a whole-home hardware upgrade.
Every folder compared against the source, with a count of files and total bytes, before we call the migration complete.
New device ready to use before we leave. For most personal upgrades, the whole visit fits comfortably inside one working day.
Three-pass overwrite on every old drive, plus encrypted erase on solid-state drives, followed by a written certificate.
If a login will not cooperate or a file looks out of place in the first month, we come back and sort it at no extra cost.
Every device has a different job
A work laptop carries years of documents. A personal phone carries every photo you have ever taken. A family tablet carries the kids' books and logins. A proper migration treats each of them differently, not as one big copy job.
Every category migrated, every category verified
We group the migration into clear categories, and you watch each one close out in real time. Nothing is marked complete until we have compared file counts and total bytes at both ends. If a folder is not on the new device, it is not on the completed list.
Old folders rebuilt, not just copied
Years of folders have a shape. We rebuild that shape on the new device, with the same names in the same order, so you can find things without having to relearn where anything lives. Downloads, desktop shortcuts and custom folders all come back the way they were.
Your photos are the last thing we touch
Before we copy a single file, photos and videos are copied first, and a second copy goes to a separate drive. Only when they are confirmed safe do we start work on anything else.
Nothing moved until it is safe twice
Before any migration begins, your old device is copied in full to a portable drive and to your NAS. If anything goes wrong during the move, the original is untouched and ready to be copied again.
The whole household upgraded together
Laptop, phone, tablet, e-reader, smart watch, even the family desktop in the spare room. Every device in the house gets the same treatment: assessment, migration, verification, and a certified wipe of whatever it replaces. One visit, one record, one engineer who knows the whole setup.
30 days of post-migration cover
If a login refuses to cooperate, a printer stops talking to the new laptop, or you notice a folder looks empty, we come back and sort it inside thirty days at no extra cost.
Every device, every brand, no judgement
Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, Linux, even a Chromebook. New flagship or sensible mid-range. We work with what you own, what you just bought, and what you are about to retire.
Laptops & desktops
Windows, macOS and Linux machines. Documents, email clients, browser profiles, printers and network drives all rebuilt the way they were, on the new hardware.
Phones & tablets
iPhone, iPad, Android phone and tablet. Photos, messages, WhatsApp history, contacts and two-factor codes moved without ever routing through a third-party app.
E-readers & watches
Kindle, Kobo, Apple Watch, Garmin and fitness trackers. Libraries, watch faces, health data and paired-phone links rebuilt on the new device, with old pairings cleanly removed.
Storage & backups
External drives, NAS boxes, SD cards and cloud accounts. Everything read, everything verified, and a fresh backup written to two separate locations before we start wiping old hardware.
Pick the depth that fits the upgrade
The tiers below are examples to give you an idea. Within each one, the device count, data volume, account count and retirement scope are adapted to your upgrade and the age of the hardware being replaced.
Single device swap
One device upgraded properly. Ideal for a new laptop or phone where everything just needs to end up on the new hardware, verified, on the same day.
- Devices1 device old → new
- DataUp to 500 GB
- AccountsUp to 20 logins
- RetirementOld device wiped & certified
Whole-household upgrade
Laptop, phone, tablet and watch all upgraded in one visit. Every account rebuilt, every photo verified, every replaced device wiped and certified.
- DevicesUp to 5 devices old → new
- DataUp to 2 TB total
- AccountsUp to 60 logins
- RetirementAll old devices wiped & certified
Multi-device archive move
Whole property upgraded, including desktop towers, media drives and NAS storage. Large photo libraries and video archives moved across with byte-level verification.
- Devices8+ devices plus towers & NAS
- Data10 TB+ archive
- AccountsUnlimited logins
- RetirementFull estate wipe programme
Examples only · Every upgrade is different · No vendor lock-in
From the first inventory to a certified wipe
A short, tidy process. We list what you have, plan the move, copy everything twice, and only then start setting up the new device. You get a written record of everything, and the old hardware never leaves the house until it is certified clean.
Inventory & plan
We sit down with the old device and list every account, app, folder and connected device. You get a written plan and a rough time window before we touch anything.
Backup & verify
Before we move a single file, the entire old device is copied to two separate locations. Both copies are verified against the original, so nothing can be lost if something goes wrong.
Migrate & rebuild
Data, folders, accounts and apps moved to the new device. Every login signed in and tested, every folder compared against the source, every printer and drive reconnected.
Retire old hardware
Old device signed out of every account, wiped to a certified standard, checked a second time, and a written certificate handed over. Then it is ready to trade in, recycle or hand down.
The old laptop was already at the tip when they noticed
This is the situation we see most often. A rushed upgrade, a partially copied drive, and a photo album nobody notices is missing until it is far too late to recover.
Everything copied, except the folder nobody checked.
The household bought a new laptop, copied the Documents and Pictures folders across, and dropped the old machine at the recycling centre the same weekend. Six months later, looking for the 2019 holiday photos, they realised those files had only ever been on the old drive. The new machine was never a copy of the old one. It was a guess.
- The old drive was already destroyed. By the time the gap was noticed, the recycling centre had processed the machine and there was no way to get the folder back.
- Two accounts were left signed in. On the old laptop, an email client and a banking app were still logged in when the machine left the house.
- One photo folder had a second copy hiding. Three subfolders had been saved to the desktop instead of the Pictures folder, and nobody had looked.
- Two-factor codes were never re-linked. A whole set of logins still sent codes to an old phone number that was no longer in use.
- No written record. Nobody had written down what was copied, what was left behind, or what the old password was for anything.
The fix, done properly, would have taken four hours. A written inventory first, two full backups before any copying started, and a certified wipe of the old device before it went anywhere. Same hardware, completely different outcome.
Backup before you move
Two verified copies of the old device before any migration begins. That way nothing is at risk even if a step goes wrong.
Inventory first, then act
A written list of every folder, account and app is the only way to know afterwards that the migration was complete.
Wipe before it leaves
The old device is the highest-risk piece of the whole process. It must be signed out, wiped and checked before it goes anywhere.
Verify every login
A migrated device is not finished until every account has been signed in and every two-factor code has been tested.
Fifteen years of photos, moved without a single missing file, and I could see each folder land as it happened. Zero anxiety.
Family laptop upgrade · 320 GBThey signed in to every account on the new phone with me, one by one, and made sure each one worked before we left the room.
Phone upgrade · iPhone → iPhoneThe old tower got wiped twice and I got a certificate. I did not have to think about it again before it went to the tip.
Desktop replacement · certified wipeBefore we book the migration
The things people usually ask us before the first inventory.
What happens if something goes wrong during the migration?
Nothing goes wrong, because the old device is untouched until the very end. Before we move a single file, we take two full copies of everything, verify both against the original, and only then start setting up the new device. If at any point we are not satisfied with the result, we can stop, reset, and start again from a clean copy. The original device stays as it was until you are happy with the new one.
Do I need to buy the new device before the visit, or can you help with that too?
Both work. Many clients buy their new device first and have it delivered to the house. Others ask us for a shortlist before they buy, so the new hardware matches what they actually do. Either way, the visit itself works the same, and we are happy to advise on specs and configurations during the planning stage, at no extra cost.
Will you keep a copy of my files?
No. The two backups taken during migration are yours, and they stay on your own drives or your own NAS. We never keep a copy of your data on our own systems, and we never route anything through a third-party cloud service. If you want us to delete the temporary migration backups at the end of the visit, we do that, and you get a written confirmation.
What if I still want to keep the old device, for a spare or for the kids?
That is fine. We still wipe it to a certified standard, sign it out of every account, and hand it back to you clean. If you want it set up for a specific person in the house, we can set it up as a hand-me-down after the wipe, so it is ready to use rather than sitting in a drawer half configured.
Can you move everything without breaking my work logins or VPN?
Yes. Work logins, VPN profiles, email clients, remote desktop shortcuts, printer drivers and network drives are all part of the inventory, and all rebuilt on the new device. If your work uses single sign-on or a corporate VPN, we test the connection before we finish the visit so the first working morning is not a surprise.
What about my photos and videos, will they lose quality in the move?
No. Files are copied as raw data, not re-encoded or re-compressed. Every photo, every video, every document arrives on the new device bit-for-bit identical to the original, and we verify that by comparing file sizes and checksums at both ends. The one exception is if you specifically want a format conversion, which we can do separately after the migration.
How long does a typical migration take?
A single-device swap is usually a half day. A whole-household upgrade is a full day. A large archive move with desktop towers and NAS storage is typically two to three days, scheduled around your availability. We always confirm the scope and the time window before booking, and we never leave a visit half-finished. If something needs a return trip, that is booked before we leave the property.
Ready to upgrade without losing a single photo?
From the first inventory to the certified wipe, Davidsons IT Agency handles the whole upgrade: new device set up, every file moved and verified, every login rebuilt, and old hardware retired cleanly.
Book a Hardware Migration Visit