Vista Home Premium to Win 7 Pro In Place Upgrade

Bare Foot Kid said:

After you have used Windows disk management to shrink the right of the C: partition and create a second partition and stored all the data you need to that new partition.

Here's what to do, boot the Windows 7 installer and use that to delete the C: partition and use the installer to create a single 100GB partition and the SysResv will be automatically issued.

I shrink the right of Drive C within Vista correct? So first I shrink (by 300GB), then create a 300GB drive with the new unallocated and put my data on it.

Then in the Win 7 installer I delete the C partition, create a 100GB partition. Win 7 automatically makes the SysResv partition.

I get that part now. But I am still a bit unsure about the final part:

Finally, I use/boot into Free Partition Management (or similar) to merge the remaining unallocated 500GB or so to drive D (with my data on it). And that is it?

Bare Foot Kid said:

Yes use Vista disk management to do the shrink / create.

Forget about Partition Wizard for now, if you want the " D: " partition to be larger shrink / create the size you want it to be now, before you move the data.

Ideally I would like it to be 830GB (for everything aside from Win 7 and the SysRev partitions, 100GB and 100MB respectively). However I only have 236GB free right now. I am assuming with such little space left it would be impossible for me to shrink drive C to 100GB?

If you want to make your own system partition, mark it Active before installing the o/s from the dvd.

SIW2 said:

If you want to make your own system partition, mark it Active before installing the o/s from the dvd.

gregrocker said:

If you create one before install as suggested by BarefootKid then I would mark it Active to make sure installer writes SysReserved to it.

I remember your lessons well, Si

You deserve credit for developing many of the methods we use here every day which have helped thousands of people.

I have another quick question.

I will keep my data and programs partition as one (Partition D). In the event that I reinstall Windows, I understand that most programs will not work due to the registry ect. being wiped. To properly reinstall such programs, I just manually deleted all of the programs folders and files right? Then I'd install them.

About the partitions I decided I will do the following. If I am still not understanding something let me know:

1) I have a 1TB drive with a single partition (Vista, data, ect.). I have 300GB or so of unused space. Within Vista I will create a new partition (drive/partition D). I will place my data on this partition.

2) I will install Windows 7. I will format and install it over my former partition/drive C during the Windows 7 installer. When Windows 7 is installing, I will shrink the partition down to 60GB.

3) This will leave me with roughly 570GB or so of unallocated space, correct?

4) I will create a 3rd partition (drive/partition F?) with this unallocated space.

5) I will extend my data partition/drive D over partition F. I will now have all of my data and 830GB of total usable space.

6) Windows 7 will create a System Reserve partition (100MB) automatically during installation, correct?

I'll be creating the partitions and installing Win 7 in 5 or possibly less hours. Wish me luck.

According to the test Barefoot ran, the installer decided to create the System Reserved even with a partition remaining on the HD. There must have been some major change made as SysReserved isn't normally created on a pre-partitioned HD.

Then having SIW2 who developed many of our techniques used here check in to remind us to create and mark the SysReserved Active first is sobering. I remember when he would catch me forgetting to give that step two years ago so it is drilled into me.

Go ahead with your plan as the worst that can happen is you won't have SysReserved which many don't want anyway. If you get SysReserved then we have reconfirmed the change.

There is no reason to save the Programs partition as programs must be reinstalled as you know. It will just be wasted effort as there is nothing you can do with them.

Bare Foot Kid said:

I've been wondering about this so I looked, according to the disk management snip you posted earlier you only have just over 200GB of free space available, so you have an issue; WHERE are you going to store all the data you need to move?

No matter what program/how you shrink C: there's not enough room to store everything.

click to enlarge

I only have 251GB worth of data I will transfer. I have 300GB of applications which I've already started to uninstall. Currently I have 300GB of free space. In an hour or so I will continue uninstalling programs to make more room.

So I should have enough room to create a data partition to store my data. Assuming this, am I on track? Steps 4-6 are still the parts I am not 100% sure on.

Greg, once I have my partitions set up and Win 7 installed I'll let you know about the SysReserved partition.