Running a custom W7 install disc over a existing W7 install

I have a stock W7 x64 installed on a GPT drive, no tweaks or updates.
I have a custom W7 boot disc with updates and a number of tweaks I want to install over and replacing this existing O/S to make things easier since many of the changes will save a lot of time and hassle.

This custom W7 x64 (AFAIK) disc (RT7 Lite) wouldn't install to this disc with the GPT error message, so I tried a 'stock' W7 which worked to my surprise.

Will installing W7 over W7 wipe the existing data in the 3 O/S partitions?

Side note the drive itself was already partitioned with the 2nd partition being used for storage. There was no issue here, the original finished install didn't bother this data partition. I hope all of that makes some sense.

What is "the GPT error message" .

It might be you booted the media in bios mode instead of uefi mode

It was booted the same as it was with the original disc version and that worked.
W7 has issues with GPT.

W7 has issues with GPT

no it doesnt

if you booted the dvd in bios mode then setup.exe will not want to install to gpt disk.

if you booted the dvd in uefi mode setup.exe will install to gpt disk

That is assuming the custom dvd you created is properly configured for both bios and uefi boot.

How can I check if the DVD is or not? I will have to look closer to see what the entries in the BOOT menu are.
When I did a search for this issue there surely was enough hits regarding this.

Rebuild it with efi and bios el torito

If you dont know how an easy workaround is to EDIT the official iso

replace the original sources\install.wim with the install.wim from your custom iso

can be done with anyburn free

Download AnyBurn

select "Edit Image File"



browse to the ms win7 iso



click next



dble click the sources folder



scroll to install.wim and select Remove



Then click ADD

browse to your customized install.wim

etc it should be obvious from there

I would be replacing the custom version with the official version of the install.wim file?
Assuming I still have the original .iso from 10+ years ago.

you would replace the install.wim in the official iso with the custom install.wim

anyburn will retain the original structure when the edited iso is saved


Anyburn cannot create multiboot iso from scratch, but it can save it fine

Ok, I had that backwards.
I have all the iso's and the unpacked versions, both the W7 Pro original and the edited RT7 Lite iso's.
Can I just do the swap just by a C&P move (no extra program), convent it into a iso then load that into a bootable USB or DVD?

BUT, is that going to transfer all the tweaks, programs removals (bloat), drivers added on, added updates, changes etc??

The size difference between the two .wim files is HUGE! 1,136 MB difference with the RT7 Lite being smaller of course.
2,883,769 vs
1,747,959

BUT, is that going to transfer all the tweaks, programs removals (bloat), drivers added on, added updates, changes etc??

Those will be in yout rt7 install.wim that you are putting into the official iso


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Can I just do the swap just by a C&P move (no extra program), convent it into a iso then load that into a bootable USB or DVD?

To convert the distribution folder to an iso that supports bios and efi boot

example commands:

OSCDIMG.exe -M -o -U1 -UDFVER102 -bootdata:2#p0,e,b"%WIMDIR%\boot\etfsboot.com"#pEF,e,b"%WIMDIR%\efi\Microsoft\boot\efisys.bin" "%WIMDIR%" "%isodest%"

it uses both etfsboot.com and efisys.bin

Most of the gui tools like anyburn, imgburn etc can only create an iso with etfsboot image which does not work for uefi

That is why it easier for most people to edit an existing bootable iso

dism++ can do it if etfsboot and efisys are in the expected places

https://github.com/Chuyu-Team/Dism-M....1.1002.1B.zip



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