Windows 7 seeing Vista start items?

azflyman · 09 Dec 2009

Okay, first i know near nothing about Windows 7 other than good reports; please excuse my ignorance

The reason I did what I did is everything is working in Vista Ultimate x64 but not necessarily exceptionally stable. It would be hard for me to lose what I have and very time consuming to reinstall everything and debug all of it. Worst case scenario is a complete reinstall.

What I have done is a clean install of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 on a Kingston 64GB SSD drive. I have a 1TB SATA drive in the same box that has Vista Ultimate x64 and all my programs, games, pictures, data, etc. on it which I would like to be able to access from Windows 7. I do not want anything on the SSD drive other than the Windows 7 OS and drivers for my hardware. So I have 2 main questions about this:

1. Can I some how access my start menu or the programs on my 1TB HD from Windows 7 WITHOUT having to reinstall everything?

2. If I have to reinstall everything how do I insure it all goes onto the HD and not my SSD but I am able to access it through the Windows 7 boot SSD (I think I know but would like expert opinion)?

I have never used an SSD before and it is rather odd to have the machine boot up with no HD noise. Btw, the clean install of Windows 7 Uitimate boots in less than 20 seconds from the SSD even entering the password.

Please kind sage's in the Windows world help me out on this. Thanks in advance for all your help.

Jonathan_King · 09 Dec 2009

Welcome! You are going to have a tough time doing what you want. See, when you install programs, not only do they write files to your hard drive, but they also create registry entries. Windows can only use one registry, namely, the registry on the current boot drive. Unless the programs you use are "Portable", they will not work on another drive.
As for the Start menu shortcuts, they will be useless to you, but if you want, here is how to access them:
Go to [old hd]\Users\[Username]. The Start menu folder is marked as OS, so it is hidden. Here is how to unhide it. However, you will run into a nasty Access denied error if you try to open it. The solution: Take ownership of the folder. There you go!
Hope this helps.

azflyman · 09 Dec 2009

So that answers the question of can I get that into my 7 start menu. The answer is no, I will have to reinstall all the programs.

The second question was if I do reinstall everything I want the SSD to be kept as clean as possible, i.e. no program or data files, how do I make sure all other programs go onto the 1TB HD rather than my SSD?

Thanks for the response and all the help.

Jonathan_King · 09 Dec 2009

If the program gives you an option on where to install, use it. If not, you're out of luck.

azflyman · 09 Dec 2009

Well that sucks! I want the program where I want it, there has to be some other way to do this or some software that will allow me to install the program and have the registry look for it on the other drive. Is there a way to lock the SSD to allow only modification of the data but no new data/folders/programs (registry entries but no new folders or programs)?

Jonathan_King · 09 Dec 2009

Not that I know of. Google might help you. Good luck!

azflyman · 09 Dec 2009

Mr. Google is how I found this forum.

I know there is a way to do it, to make a strictly boot drive, I will have to figure out how. It has been possible since the DOS days, and is fairly easy in any of the UNIX flavors (unix, irix, linux, solaris, HP-UX). An OS as advanced as this must have some provision, I just need to figure it out.

Jonathan_King · 09 Dec 2009

If you figure it out, could you let us know? I am interested myself.

Barman58 · 09 Dec 2009

This may be possible - but it will not be an easy thing to accomplish.
As well as the Program Files folder, you would need to re-direct the user\...\appdata folder tree and the windows\programdata folder tree and possibly some other areas.

the only technique that I can think that will enable this is the use of junction points but this will not be simple as the folders you need to re-direct will be always in-use.

The 80 GB SSD should be sufficient to contain the operating system and the program files and should also give enhanced performance

One thing you may want to consider is moving the paging file to it's own small partition, (3 x installed RAM), on the data drive. Even here the likely better speed of the SSD may well outweigh the normal advantages of a paging file located on a separate drive

If you are a gamer you should find that the installers for these will allow you to specify the file location for the program and it's data

azflyman · 09 Dec 2009

I have half a TB of stuff, not all program files of course, but I am betting close to 100GB or programs and adds. I edit video and alot of very graphics heavy stuff, this is not a glorified word processor.

I dont mind hosing the 1TB drive and I think I have a new spare 500GB drive here somewhere. Maybe I wil try with that before formatting the 1TB drive and killing everything on it. I just want to this work without having to invest in more drives, especialy SSD drives as they are still a bit pricey.

I dont know what a "paging file" is exactly or where it is located. Like I said, i don't claim to be all that when it comes to installing or modifing Windows.

Thanks