Windows 7: Want to copy a system hard drive to one partition on another drive.

I have 3 hard drives and boot options of windows 7 64bit or Vista 32bit.


Drive 1.
E: 74gb
Windows 7 64bit bootable.




Drive 2.
D: 186gb
Only used for documents.


Drive 3.
232gb Partitioned into C: 64.45gb and K: 168.43gb
C: Vista 32 bit bootable.
K: is just for documents.


I want to copy my E: drive (windows 7) to my C: partition (wiping out Vista) and keep my K: partition intact.
If successful I will boot from C: then format my E: drive.

Can I do this using windows 7 backup?

You can use the "create a system image" feature in Backup and Restore to make an image of your drive 1, but first you would need to shrink the size of the drive , because it is larger than the partition with Vista on it and to restore the image the partition has to be equal or greater than the Windows 7 installation. Before attempting to move Windows 7 to your Vista partition, I would back up all your data on the K partition as a precaution. If you do that, then you wouldn't have to resize the Windows 7 partition. Then after restoring the image to your Drive 3, you can always recreate the K partition and move your data back to. Either way, back up that data on the K drive first, before doing anything. It is always better to be safe than sorry.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Note: If you haven't created a system repair disk, then you can do so after the image file has been created. Windows will ask if you want to do so. The system repair disk can be used to boot up your system so you can restore the image you just created to Drive 3.

System Image Recovery

Ok Littlejay thanks for the quick reply.

You are welcome! Good luck.

I haven't used windows backup before (I've used acronis).
When I choose "create a system image" it only seems to want to backup my C: partition to my K: partition saying "the drive selected is on the same physical disk that is being backed up.
How can I tell it to backup my E: system drive?

This might be more complicated than I first thought.

When I try to "create a system image" it sees C:, D: and E: as system drives.
Also my boot folder is on D:

I only want to make an image of E: and copy it to C:

I think D:still has remnants of an old windows install (which I could delete) and C: has vista on it (which I could format).
I have no need for vista any more and I only use D: for documents.

What files does windows use to determine that a drive is a sysytem drive?

Here's a screen grab of my computer management/storage.

I see your boot manager is located on Disk 1 in Drive D, because it is marked as active and system. Apparently when you installed both Vista and 7 you had disk 1 hooked up to your computer and the installer put the boot manager there. Unfortunately, that really complicates things, because right now, I don't believe either 7 or Vista will boot on its own, without Drive 1. I also noticed that E partition is a Logical Drive and I don't believe it will take system files, unless it is converted to Primary like your other partitions. I don't know how comfortable you feel with making the changes needed to move the Windows 7 partition to where Vista is now located. If it was me, I would re-install Windows 7. If you unhook both disks 0 and 1 from your computer, then the Windows 7 installer will put the boot manager on HDD 2. When you boot up your Windows 7 installation disk beforehand, you can install 7 to your current C (Vista) partition and it will automatically install the boot manager on the same drive. Also, if you install to the Vista partition it shouldn't affect anything on the K partition. Just do not have the installer reformat the disk, when it asks if you want to do that. Also, since the partition already exists, Windows will not create the 100 Mb system partition, which you don't need, unless you use Bitlocker. Bitlocker is only available on Windows 7 Pro or higher and not Home Premium. Once Windows is reinstalled then you can hook the other two HDD's back up to the system. Also, will want to use Diskpart to make your D partition on disk 1 inactive, instead of active. I will see if I can find a tutorial to help you out. I would still back up K partition as a precaution, before installing Windows on the Vista partition.

Partition - Mark as Inactive

Note: If you need help reinstalling Windows 7, check out the tutorial section of the forum. If you still have questions, please feel free to ask.

EDIT... misread.
Why not just Acronis then? its a bit easier to setup as a partiton image vs disk image.

I think Windows Backup only does Disk Image, which will (just as with Acronis) prevent saving the image to the same physical disk, even if on a secondary partiton.
That can only be done with a partition image.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Littlejay
I have a few mbr/boot editing programs on a usb bootable version of hirens.
I also just used visual bcd to repair the boot options as they got a bit screwed up.
When I enabled windows backup it removed the acronis F11 startup option and wouldn't boot.

Could I not copy the E: drive into the C: partition then use a mbr/bcd/boot editing program to repair the total mess that would ensue?
It might be able to still use the boot manager on drive D:?
I don't fancy installing windows 7 again as I've only recently did that and spent ages adding loads of other programs.

Wishmaster
I tried this first using acronis but the only option I have is to use the clone disk option which would wipe partitions C: and K: and make them into one partition.

BTW. The reason I am doing this is I have had lots of blue screen crashes only on the first cold start each day.
(It pretty much always works on the second restart).
I've tested my ram and looked at other possible causes, but I want to move the OS to rule out the E: drive as the fault.