# Transferring My WoW to a New Computer **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 26, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950 "2010-11-26T04:20:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/1 "2010-11-26T04:20:31Z")
I’m buying a new computer soon. How will I go about transferring my World of Warcraft game software to my new computer (I downloaded the game from their website rather than buying a disc retail)? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/2 "2010-11-26T05:23:42Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > I’m buying a new computer soon. How will I go about transferring my World of Warcraft game software to my new computer (I downloaded the game from their website rather than buying a disc retail)? Since you have an existing account, you should be able to download the software to your new computer for free. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/3 "2010-11-26T05:48:11Z")
Did this a couple of days ago. I just backed up the program files\world of warcraft directory, formatted and reinstalled Windows and then copied the WoW directory back to the same place. I was sceptical but it worked; according to the WoW forums, Blizzard themselves suggest doing just this. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/4 "2010-11-26T08:17:43Z")
What **Cazzle** said, I just transfer the whole folder using an external HDD. I’ve even done it “in pieces”, when I didn’t have a big enough HDD available; took a few trips but it still was faster than downloading, patching, downloading, patching… ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/5 "2010-11-26T10:20:04Z")
If you are buying cataclysm in a couple of weeks it might be worth waiting. I’m pretty sure the disc will have all of the expansion packs up to date (the WOTLK one did, but presumably they will eventually reach a point where the full install is too large to do that :-p) ---
**Author:** ![enigmatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@enigmatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enigmatic)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/6 "2010-11-26T10:21:41Z")
To avoid confusion, it should have the _data_ for all the packs. You still need to buy the other expansion packs to play using them. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/transferring-my-wow-to-a-new-computer/561950/7 "2010-11-26T10:23:09Z")
**enigmatic** , this time the expansion can be preordered on download. Cata is already in my computer; it may be the case for **HeyHomie** as well. And given how many patchettes and restarts we’ve been seeing, I’m thinking anybody getting it on a disk is going to spend quite some time waiting for the pretty bar to change color anyway (as it happened last time). And in WoW, each pack includes the ones before: anybody buying Cata now gets vanilla WoW, BC and WotLK as well, anybody buying WotLK gets vanilla and BC. The business model doesn’t include the possibility of buying a higher pack minus a previous expansion.