I want to do a repair install but.....

Ok, I have a bit of a problem. I want to do a repair install but I have an unorthodox configuration. I have my Windows installation split up between 2 drives. One drive is a 30GB Boot SSD that has the Windows folder as well as most of my programs (the small ones). Then I have a 1TB HDD that I use to store the large programs. I have also transplanted the User Folder to this larger drive and symlinked it back to the C drive. It runs seemlessly, but this particular install is getting a little long in the tooth. I need to do a repair install to clean up a few things. However, Windows will not allow this if the install is split between two drives? Is there a work around?

What is the error you are getting.

This is yet another reason why we recommend installing programs to the Win7 partition only. When they write Registry keys they integrate themselves into the OS, so should be kept together.

User folders, fine: User Folders - Change Default Location

But not programs. Can you install them all to Win7 partition to proceed?

I took the liberty of retrying and here is the error that comes up after the compatibility check

To upgrade Windows, the Users, Program Files, and Windows directories need to be on the same partition. Upgrading when these directories are not on the same partition is not supported. Moving these directories so that they are on the same partition is also not supported. You can choose to install a new copy of Windows 7 Ultimate instead, but this is different from an upgrade, and does not keep your files, settings, and programs. You’ll need to reinstall any programs using the original installation discs or files. To save your files before installing Windows, back them up to an external location such as a CD, DVD, or external hard drive. To install a new copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, click the Back button in the upper left-hand corner, and select “Custom (advanced)”.

I will try to use Acronis to restore my C drive to a new partition on my 1TB HDD. Then I will try to merge the two partitions as much as possible. I don't need to move EVERY program to the C drive do I?

Curious: If it runs seamlessly with the separated programs then how is it getting "long in the tooth" requiring Repair Install?

A clean reinstall with Programs correctly on the OS partition with User folders on the other HD would solve all of this at once.

I'm not sure how you would go about copying your OS partition to the data drive to then merge programs and Users back in, all in order to run a Repair Install without the error, which seems to warn against trying to do this.

Perhaps the Repair Install will be more amenable if all is on the same physical HD, or if you can find a way to merge the programs back in when they are currently pointed to the other drive.

But if you achieve this please let us know how it is done.

well, some of the issues I'm having are the occasional overnight blue screen (I live the computer on overnight, as is my custom, and when I come back in the morning, I find that it restarted unexpectedly overnight), I can't get it to show me the drive management console (it gets stuck on loading the virtual disk service) and then, of course, I have some driver issues (I have about 50 "Unknown Devices" listed in my network devices category in the Device manager. I have screwed with the network settings to try to achieve load balancing between two connections, with mixed success. That could likely be part of it. Also it might be because of Connectify or VMware.) There are just a lot of minor problems that can sometimes be a little annoying, but not so much that I want to spend the time to track all of them down individually.

When I say that it runs seamlessly, what I mean is that it never complains to me that it cant find something in the user folder. For all intents and purposes, the computer might as well be convinced that the user folder is on the C drive where it should be.

I would really hate to have to do a clean install because that would require me to somehow get back to where I am now with my configuration. It took some figuring out on how to get my setup with the two drives to work and I really don't want to screw with it.

Can you post the specs of the PC you/we are working on.
Filling out System Specs
Dont Know What Hardware You Have..??
VistaForums SysInfo Tool - Vista Forums

It sounds like you have messed up your networking, likely by compound tweaking which Win7 won't tolerate. As beta testers found applying the tweaks which improved performance in XP and early Vista, tweaking with Win7 is unnecessary and will always come back to bite you.

Having Management console refuse to load with 50 unknown devices in Device Manager is a disaster. You'd have to open Device Mgr to try to parse the devices using this method: Hardware Identification

A much better idea is to wipe the HD to clean reinstall with User folders on separate HD then leave the OS alone after getting and setting up a purrfect install: re-install windows 7