How would I move my Windows 7 partition?

[Freelancer852]

So I recently got a couple more hard drives to put in a RAID 1 and replace my old storage drive, and I would like to move my Windows 7 partition onto the old drive. My current HDD setup is as follows:



I'm going to move all of the data that's currently on the "Media & Files" hard disk to my new RAID array. Then I'd like to move my current "Windows 7" partition to the empty "Media & Files" disk and have it use the entire disk. Then I'd like to get rid of the old "Windows 7" partition on my other 500GB drive and have my Windows Vista installation take over the whole disk again.

Hope the above makes sense... Anyone know of a program that could do this? I own a copy of Acronis Disk Director, but it takes FOREVER to do anything...

 

[limneos]

Symantec Ghost Suite 2.0 does a full ghost image of your partition to another partition or drive.

This one is compatible with Vista, because other versions and other software failed to create a successful ghost image of Vista, due to some bits needing to be written to the new image afterwards. It should work with Windows 7 too.

 

[Freelancer852]

Symantec Ghost Suite 2.0 does a full ghost image of your partition to another partition or drive.

This one is compatible with Vista, because other versions and other software failed to create a successful ghost image of Vista, due to some bits needing to be written to the new image afterwards. It should work with Windows 7 too.

After it's moved I assume that I would have to either use Vista Boot Pro or the Windows installation disk to "repair" the Windows 7 installation so that the paths lead to the new hard drive right?

 

[hooutoo]

My advice would be to first determine which drive in your configuration is the fastest. I use hdtach which can be found here; http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,69656/description.html It's probably going to be a partition in your raid, particularly if it's a raid 0. Once that has been ascertained then setup partitions on that drive (virtual drive). I set my partitions at 50 Gig (could be bigger) and use three. Every time I install a new OS I just rotate out the oldest OS. Remember, there will be more versions of Windows 7.

 

[Lordbob75]

Hey Freelancer,

I think it would be really easy to just create an image backup of Seven now, delete it, and copy it in the new partition where you want it. Done.

~Lordbob

 

[Freelancer852]

Hey Freelancer,

I think it would be really easy to just create an image backup of Seven now, delete it, and copy it in the new partition where you want it. Done.

~Lordbob

And then use my Vista installation (and Vista Boot Pro) to change the Windows 7 drive paths and such?

What program would you recommend to make this hard drive image? I've never imaged a hard drive before so I'm looking for all the info I can get!

Edit: None of my programs would work if I moved my installation though would they? I may just reinstall a newer version of Windows 7 (I'm running 7000 still) on my second 500 gig and just plain out remove my current installation.

 

[Lordbob75]

You can use the built in backup. I used it myself, and it works GREAT! Actually, you could just back it up to a new partition (like I did) and install in the new one, and then restore to the backup. ~Lordbob

 

[Freelancer852]

Ah. I'm thinking I may just wait for the moment and do a clean install of RC1 when it's made public. Unless I can track down a build that's 7022 or newer in 64-bit.

 

[Lordbob75]

Well good luck.

~Lordbob

 

[cham44]

You can use the built in backup. I used it myself, and it works GREAT! Actually, you could just back it up to a new partition (like I did) and install in the new one, and then restore to the backup. ~Lordbob

I need to move a win7 RC1 install from a partition to a new drive that is already installed and empty. System is muliboot, winxp,win7, vista. Not sure I understand exactly what you are saying here. I understand that i can use win7 backup to backup but then what? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

If you are talking about restoring the image to another partition - you can - then add the new entry to bcd so you have the option to boot into it.

Alternatively, use the "Copy" partition fuction of Paragon partition Manager. Copy the existing 7 partition to unallocated space and you can select the partition size on the fly, and it will update bcd for you.

What Lordbob did ( I think) was install 7 to the new drive, then overwrite the installation by restoring the backup image to that same partition.

That is assuming you still want to keep the first HD as the drive you boot thru. If you wish to change it to make the second HD the one to boot thru ( or have the choice of booting thru either, by changing the HD boot order in the Bios ), you need additional steps.

Hope it helps

 

[Lordbob75]

What Lordbob did ( I think) was install 7 to the new drive, then overwrite the installation by restoring the backup image to that same partition.

I don't remember, but I think I meant that just the backup worked great. For him, he could do the backup, then restore from a new install.

~Lordbob

 

[cham44]

i ended up just cloning the entire drive then deleting win7 from one and vista from the other. used win 7 dvd to repair startup/boot then i expanded the partitions. now each os is on a seperate drive. only problem is that my dvd burner has disappeared from xp, not in device manager or disk management.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all

Best FREE partition manipulation software is GPARTED

download from here

GParted -- Welcome

cheers
jimbo