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New Member
posted Jun 6, 2019 6:29:44 AM

How do I grab previous years of data off an old hard drive and put it on my new pc so turbo tax can see it when I do my 2017 taxes?

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1 Best answer
Level 15
Jun 6, 2019 6:29:46 AM

You only need the most recent year. Copy the *.tax2016 file(s) from the old hard drive to the new computer. Put it in My Documents\TurboTax.

When you first start your 2017 tax return, if the 2017 TurboTax program doesn't find the 2016 file automatically, click the Browse button to locate it and transfer the information from it.

2 Replies
Level 15
Jun 6, 2019 6:29:46 AM

You only need the most recent year. Copy the *.tax2016 file(s) from the old hard drive to the new computer. Put it in My Documents\TurboTax.

When you first start your 2017 tax return, if the 2017 TurboTax program doesn't find the 2016 file automatically, click the Browse button to locate it and transfer the information from it.

Level 15
Jun 6, 2019 6:29:51 AM

Your tax files end in .tax or .tax2014, .tax2015, .tax2016 etc.  They should be in your Documents in a Turbo Tax folder.  You should also have the pdf files of each year.  Or search your computer for all files ending in .tax.  Also if you haven't done it,  I would open each year in the program and save it as a PDF file, go to File-Save to PDF so you don't need the program installed.

What I would do is just copy the whole Turbo Tax folder that is under your Documents.  That should be where the .tax files and pdf files are stored.  Copy that folder to a flash drive or best yet is to burn it to a CD or DVD and then you will have a backup of them.   Then on the new computer copy the folder (or files) from the flash drive to your Documents folder.