Inquiring about information on backing up Windows 7

[LoneWolfSan]

Hello. =)

I'll try to be as brief, but short and quick to the point as possible. I am building a custom gaming PC, and my only worry is that should something go wrong (whether it be defective parts that come to me, or problems after installing new OS that are out of my control), I may not be able to use my current PC. Reason being is because I only have one hard drive (500GB), and I'm going to pluck this one out my current eMachines Desktop and into the custom PC. Once it's installed into the new PC, it'll be formatted so the new one will run Windows 8.1.

Now, if something goes wrong with the custom PC and I need my old computer to fall back on, would this render my current eMachines PC unusable (you can look at all my listed specs in my profile)? Since this hard drive is the only drive I have, Windows 7 is obviously installed on this drive, and when I need to format it for new PC, it'll be wiped (I also lack the money to buy a new hard drive). So does that mean I'd be erasing my version of Windows 7 off the eMachines PC? Could I re-use the product key (that I found using a program that searched my registry for it. I don't think the product key on the label on the side of my case is correct. This is a pre-built machine I bought from a retail purchase three years ago) to re-activate Windows 7 should I have to come back to this computer? And if so, how do I go about doing it?

There's a 99.9% chance that everything will be fine with my new custom PC, but in the very worse case scenario that the odds stack against me and that 0.01% comes to bite me (which tends to happen sometimes...), I want to be fully prepared for it! Thanks in advance.

 

[rvcjew]

Look at macrium reflect free in my signature and use that on the emachine to make an image of your current hdd setup. But you need another disk that you can create this image on so that you can recover from it in the case of needing to go back to your old hardware. The image reflect makes will be slightly smaller Than the used space on the 500GB hdd as it is compressed. You will also want to make a disk of the bootable reflect software when it asks you first thing onto a cd or usb stick for safe keeping.

Hope this answers your question.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi and welcome to SevenForums,
I would not risk your current install like this,
Buy a new hdd they are cheap.

Parts for a build well it is a risk as long as you get them from reputable sites like Newegg and possibly Amazon if Amazon sells and ships them you should be fine also make sure they are New = unopened boxes.

This was my first assembly and yes I was very nervous
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/373933-new-assembly-ready-fired-up-first-time.html

This was my first transplant and yes still nervous
http://www.sevenforums.com/pc-custo...52-modifing-old-desktop-machine-new-case.html