Our Experience Moving ATX to a new Windows 10 Computer

[Abby Normal]

We spent about 10 hours setting up our new windows 10 server this weekend. Copying data to/from external SSDs took longer than expected.

We replaced our Win7 server with a Win10 server and here's what we learned.

Stop the ATX server services on the old computer before copying data.

Copy EVERYTHING in both:

C:\ProgramData\CCH Small Firm Services

C:\ProgramData\Wolters Kluwer

Copy the data to the new computer BEFORE you install ATX. ATX will find the data and your settings and view it as a reinstall so it goes smoothly.

We had no problems with 2016-2018, but we had to run the ATX database repair batch files (.bat) to repair 2014 & 2015. 2013 didn't work at first, then mysteriously started working. We didn't go back any further.

You can find the batch files here: (There's a separate one for each year)

https://support.cch.com/kb/solution.aspx/000041746

YOU MUST RUN THESE BATCH FILES BY RIGHT-CLICKING AND CHOOSING 'Run as Administrator'. We ran them not as administrator first and it did not work. Then I went back and read the web page and read the instructions again, more thoroughly.

Good luck!

 

[Abby Normal]

The other thing we learned was that we don't need QuickBooks installed on the server. We can access the data files from any computer that has QuickBooks installed.

The less running on the server, the better.

[Lee B]

Just curious, weren't you saying earlier this year that your firm was still buying new computers with Windows 8.1 as the OS ?

[Abby Normal]

Yes, but we were finding it harder and harder to assemble win 8 computers so we ended up with 2 win 10 computers including the server. If we need ATX support, we can get it on one of the win 10 computers. Also, this will give us some experience with 10.  But we did move 4 or 5 computers from 7 to 8.