Moving Excel FROM XP to Windows 10 - How To Auto Update Source Documents

[NeedsHelpPlease]

I am a non-techie so spelling things out really helps.

Problem:
Transferring Excel files from XP to Windows 10 results in broken links between workbooks. (From: "c:\documents and setting" To "c:\users")
> The Excel files are too large and there are too many links for "Find & Replace" within each document.
> There are too many files for "Edit Links > Change Source > Browse for new source" A manual change would take forever.
> The software ExcelPipe (Change OLE/DDE links) may work but it is very expensive for an individual.


Question:
Given the above, does anyone else know how to solve the problem above? (Step by step ideally)

Help would be greatly appreciated.

NHP

 

[Macropod]

If you transfer the files in such a way that the relative path between them remains the same, there should be no need to update any links.

 

[NeedsHelpPlease]

If you transfer the files in such a way that the relative path between them remains the same, there should be no need to update any links.

Thanks Macropod, Do you have a suggestion on how to do this? This is what I have tried:
a) Same User Name.
b) Same folder names.
c) Copy folders as is and drop them in.

In this case everything is the same except Windows 10 "Users" versus "Documents and Settings". What can I do differently to keep those links?

Any other suggestions?

 

[Macropod]

You shouldn't need to do anything. As I said, what matters is the relative path, not the absolute path. If the source file was in:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Documents\Attachments\Temp\
and the destination file was in:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Documents\
the relative path between them was:
Attachments\Temp\

If the files are now in:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Attachments\Temp
and:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\
the relative path is unchanged. It's still:
Attachments\Temp

 

[NeedsHelpPlease]

You shouldn't need to do anything. As I said, what matters is the relative path, not the absolute path. If the source file was in:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Documents\Attachments\Temp\
and the destination file was in:
C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\Documents\
the relative path between them was:
Attachments\Temp\

If the files are now in:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\Attachments\Temp
and:
C:\Users\UserName\Documents\
the relative path is unchanged. It's still:
Attachments\Temp

I wish this was the case for myself. I have certainly not changed any folders and the links have broken. The only solution that seems to work... slowly... is an expensive after market software that updates the OLE/DDE links to the new path. If I do not do this, the Edit Links > Source path reads the old "Documents and Setting" path and the file won't update. Do you have any thoughts as to why this may be?

Any ideas?

 

[Macropod]

I wish this was the case for myself. I have certainly not changed any folders and the links have broken. The only solution that seems to work... slowly... is an expensive after market software that updates the OLE/DDE links to the new path. If I do not do this, the Edit Links > Source path reads the old "Documents and Setting" path and the file won't update. Do you have any thoughts as to why this may be?

Any ideas?

You should be able to edit the links quite easily by opening any of the affected workbooks, choosing 'Don't Update' or 'Cancel', depending on which dialogue box appears when prompted to update the links, then using Find/Replace to edit the offending parts of the link paths in bulk. If there are many files to update, the process could be automated with VBA.