can I boot from a smaller drive and use a larger one as my primary?

[Goblin137]

Hey guys

Got a new 2TB hard drive (f and have it installed, obviously showing up as an empty drive at the moment. Is it possible to use my old 320GB (c drive as boot only but still have the new one as the primary drive, programs install there, download there etc?
any help is appreciated!

PC is a homebuild running Win 7 64bit,
can provide specs if needed.

 

[bigmck]

Hey guys

Got a new 2TB hard drive (f and have it installed, obviously showing up as an empty drive at the moment. Is it possible to use my old 320GB (c drive as boot only but still have the new one as the primary drive, programs install there, download there etc?
any help is appreciated!

PC is a homebuild running Win 7 64bit,
can provide specs if needed.

I'm not sure what you mean by "primary drive". There is no problem with using the 320GB as your C: drive with your Win 7 and programs on it and use your 2TB for music, pictures and other data. Be sure and put your programs on the same drive as your Win 7 is on.

 

[D3LL]

Hi there,

I understand what you mean and yes it is possible.

You are able to use the 320GB as a drive just for Windows 7 and then use the 2TB Drive for storage.

 

[Goblin137]

Thanks for the responses guys, that is what I meant, I guess default is a better way of saying it than primary.

I think I have messed up somewhere here though;
I have just used Seagate DiscWizard, from their website, to copy my original drive to the new one. I was under the impression this would mean I could boot from it, and use it as my main drive, then format the older one.
However now anytime I try to use anything windows related; device manager, regedit, or if I try to right click computer and manage, I receive the same error "the specified path does not exist, check the path then try again"
This happens no matter which drive I boot from, or which ones are plugged in.

Is this something I have done wrong, I'm sure I followed the instructions properly.

Any help here would be really appreciated.

EDIT: Now I have booted and the drives have switched designation. I used the BIOS to instruct to boot from the original HDD but it has instead booted from the new one and labeled it C:
This is very confusing for me.

 

[braddersz]

Hey.

You can use your 320gb for the os only then use the 2tb drove for programmes and data. You can even tweek the registry so that your user folders, (desktop, downloads, music ) etc etc. Are autokaticly stored on the bigger drive.

I'd suggest formatting the 2tb drive, then for backup sake. Copy your data from the 320gb to the empty 2tb,

Once you have a copy of the data you want to keep, re install windows on the 320gb drive?.

Then ill help you change the registery so that user folders, will be placed on the data drive.

That's if I'm correct in thinking that's what you want.

 

[Goblin137]

thats exactly what I was looking for thanks!

However as I mentioned, I think in my haste I messed something up.

I edited the registry to make the default installation folder match my new drive, which was named x: so registry value HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/ SOFTWARE /Microsoft /Windows/ CurrentVersion programfilesdir is now x:/programfiles
I then cloned the drive to the new larger one and now neither drive is named is named x: so the registry value is obsolete.
I cannot run anything windows based, including regedit, so cannot set this straight.
Any ideas?

EDIT: it appears to be that i cannot run anything that requires administrator privs. it just gives the path cannot be found error. what have I done!?

 

[braddersz]

Not sure this is possible but, can you boot from installation CD, go in as if your about to repair the os but instead open command prompt. Try deleting the reg key by command, then add a new reg key, using the old path?

 

[Goblin137]

I dont have the install CD. Will have to retrieve one and try. CMD prompt is something I can still use but i dont know how to edit the reg from there. Should this be started as a new thread?

 

[braddersz]

This link Here shows you how to delete and add reg key using command prompt

http://www.ghacks.net/2010/04/05/how-to-delete-and-add-registry-keys-from-the-command-line/

make sure you know the right path before you do it, perhaps check on another systen

 

[Goblin137]

Thanks a lot braddersz, but I dont really understand :/ I get the principle of deleting the old value and adding a new one, but I'm lost when it comes to the \t \d \v commands.
I think it would be "reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir"
then "reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion /v ProgramFilesDir /t Reg_SZ /d C:/Program Files"

lol sorry to use you as a proof reader but does that seem right?
thanks

 

[JackALope52x]

Hey Goblin137,

I recently installed a new HDD and SDD in my computer and in all honesty it might just be easier for you to start over. Get an external drive and see if you can save as much information as you can. Reinstall Windows onto your 320GB HDD (make sure your 2TB HDD is not installed when you do this) and then wipe the 2TB HDD completely. When you install the 2TB HDD it will just show up as a secondary drive. If not just go into "Manage" and assign the drive a letter path.

Another thing that is common that baddersz mentioned was to move your Windows User Profile over to the 2TB drive. Just follow the steps on this link and you should be fine: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/87555-user-profile-change-default-location.html. It will also show you how to change your registry so that all new saved information will be saved to your user profile on the 2TB drive.

After that when you go to install any programs you can choose what drive you want to save them too. Also when you put all your information back onto you computer that you saved onto the external drive, make sure you put it in the User profile that was saved onto the 2TB drive.

Hopefully this was helpful. Let us know how it goes.
-JackALope

 

[braddersz]

I'd give it ago, it should work, perhaps backup regostery firat

 

[Goblin137]

Awesome guys cheers a lot for this, I'll try and edit the registry first, because if i'm going to end up re installing, whats the worst that can happen right?

I'll let you know how it all goes.

 

[bigmck]

Thanks a lot braddersz, but I dont really understand :/ I get the principle of deleting the old value and adding a new one, but I'm lost when it comes to the \t \d \v commands.
I think it would be "reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ProgramFilesDir"
then "reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion /v ProgramFilesDir /t Reg_SZ /d C:/Program Files"

lol sorry to use you as a proof reader but does that seem right?
thanks

Unless you know what you are doing, DO NOT mess with the Registry. There are other ways to do things. Just tell us what you need and we can give you directions.

 

[braddersz]

Awesome guys cheers a lot for this, I'll try and edit the registry first, because if i'm going to end up re installing, whats the worst that can happen right?

I'll let you know how it all goes.

My thought Exactly. Sounds like we have nothing to lose here.

Good luck

 

[Goblin137]

Hey Bigmck, thanks,

I agree with you because im sure thats what caused this problem for me initially, however if i'm going to have to clean install, is it not worth attempting the registry fix?

if that is the case, what i need to do is return the registry value for ProgramFilesDir and ProgramFilesDir (x86) to c:/program files and not x:/program files.

the problem i'm having is that i cannot run any task that requires admin privs, even though i am the admin, it doesn't even give me the option, just doesn't start, or tells me the path doesn't exist.

what would you do to correct this? i cant access the registry via regedit because it wont start.

 

[bigmck]

Hey Bigmck, thanks,

I agree with you because im sure thats what caused this problem for me initially, however if i'm going to have to clean install, is it not worth attempting the registry fix?

if that is the case, what i need to do is return the registry value for ProgramFilesDir and ProgramFilesDir (x86) to c:/program files and not x:/program files.

the problem i'm having is that i cannot run any task that requires admin privs, even though i am the admin, it doesn't even give me the option, just doesn't start, or tells me the path doesn't exist.

what would you do to correct this? i cant access the registry via regedit because it wont start.

At this point considering I don't know what has been changed in the Registry, I don't think anything that I can tell you would be reliable. Did you back up your Registry before you made the first change? == If you feel that you should do a Clean Install, I can help you with that.

 

[Goblin137]

I have clean installed with windows 8 everything is working well now which is great

Would migrating the user profile and things work in the same way on 8?

thanks for all the help guys, at the end of the day a fresh install was all i could do, and seeing as i was going that route, i took the chance to upgrade.

 

[braddersz]

I have clean installed with windows 8 everything is working well now which is great

Would migrating the user profile and things work in the same way on 8?

thanks for all the help guys, at the end of the day a fresh install was all i could do, and seeing as i was going that route, i took the chance to upgrade.

No idea about the user profiles and windows 8. Tomorrow when i'm in work, I'm going to take a clone of my current hdd. Then perform an upgrade to windows 8, really curious to know weather it will take a snapshot of my complete registry, As i have certain REG KEY modifications on my windows 7 OS to point my user folders on a different hdd then the OS

 

[Goblin137]

interesting to know the outcome of that one mate, would still like to use the larger hdd for my main accounts so hopefully it can be done!