Repair/fix a really really really old win7 ultimate

idoru · 28 Dec 2021

@SIW2 :
I was (and you were) right : I've found a W7 ultimate 2018 (???) at microsoft and launching it offered me the upgrade option. So nice.

Until it said "tsss... Tsss... having your user profile on another disk is a no go". I do have to make room for 270 Go on my system drive or cheat by creating only the structure, copy only ntuserxx.xxx files and keep the rest on my data disk. I hope this will be ok.

Anyway, I have work to do now.

@Snick :
Thanks for the simplix link, it will come handy !

idoru · 03 Jan 2022

Well, I guess I'm ****ed.

As my sytem drive wasn't big enough to house everything needed, I've replaced the HDD by a bigger one.
Then I proceeded to move my actual profile from my data disk to the system one with error 'insufficient memory' from xcopy due to filenames over 255 characters. I went to robocopy, unable to copy some locked files like 'secure preferences" from chrome/dragon (even with the use of unlocker).
So, I came to teracopy my profile but facing the long process, I ended up copying only NTUserxxx.xxx. I've also edited the key profile location in regedit then restarted.

Launch setup to get "sorry but profile, programs, etc... must be on the same disk/partition".

As I don't have a 1To HDD to house both system+data partitions, as fusing the 2 partitions will be hazardous, as 400Go of software/data are referenced in the registry on the data disk/partition, as going thru holes would be time consuming, painstaking and errors prone, I'm face to the ultimate solution of installing either a fresh copy of 7 on a new disk and installing the whole software I'm using these days or make the jump to 11.

The later should be the better at first hand.

- - - Updated - - -

Thinking about my previous post, I was thinking about simlink.
Do you think that symbolic links could be used to fool the setup ?

Snick · 03 Jan 2022

I would do a full disk backup and then reimage the new drive. I have an external 4tb Seagate HDD that I routinely disk backup to with AOMEI Backupper Standard (Free)

External HDDs are getting cheaper all the time. HDDs are more reliable than SSDs

Read the blue text in my footer.

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idoru · 05 Jan 2022

I failed to understant what you meant : my concern isn't a disk big enough to backup on but the impossibility to update because of programs installed on a different disk than the system one.
My profile and it's files can be relocated back on the system disk but what about 50 Go of installed sotware/recovery points ?

That's when simlinks came to my mind : can I fool setup simlinking <data_disk\program files (x86)> and the 3 others program files, programdata, programmes to the system disk ? (If I'm not mistaken, it is possible to simlink folders (my readings aren't yet that thorough, thus my being here ;.))

- - - Updated - - -

Upon going down the torrent ;.) I've just realized how simplier it may be...
1. Backup systen and data disks (already done 3 days ago).
2. Do 2 partitions the size of each backup on a big new disk.
3. Restore each backup on each partition.
4. Merge the 2 partitions.
5. Update windows.

But I'm left with one big disk as I don't see how I could split back the 2 partitions as I'd like, for safety and speed reasons, to have one boot/system disk and one data one(my motherboard too old to boot on SSD).

Snick · 06 Jan 2022

idoru

Sorry I misunderstood you!