Installing Windows 7 RC - Question about Windows.old

[thenext8seconds]

Hi guys.

Currently I have 2 partitions. The first one is my C: drive which has my Vista installation. On that C: drive, I made a folder which is located at C:\Media which contains all my music, videos, pictures, and documents.

The second partition is the one I have Windows 7 7057 on which I am on right now. I gave it the drive letter of X:

What I want to know is if I do a clean install of Windows 7 RC onto my C: drive, will my C:\Media folder be saved into the Windows.old folder?

Because otherwise I will have to transfer everything in that folder to an external hard drive temporarily so I don't lose it, and the main problem I have with that is that it will take forever because I have almost 150 gigs of information in that folder.

 

[swarfega]

It shouldnt touch your media folder as you can choose which partition to install win7 in. Note I said partition and not just hard drive. So you can be particular as to where windows goes.

Do you have any way to back up your files? Another hard disk perhaps? You will be safe in this instance though.

 

[thenext8seconds]

It shouldnt touch your media folder as you can choose which partition to install win7 in. Note I said partition and not just hard drive. So you can be particular as to where windows goes.

Do you have any way to back up your files? Another hard disk perhaps? You will be safe in this instance though.

So you mean it should save my C:/Media folder into the Windows.old folder? Or do you mean it won't? Like I said I want to install Windows 7 onto the C:/ partition which has my vista installation on it.

 

[swarfega]

no, it wont touch the media folder at all. Windows.old contains the windows folder, program files and programdata and I thing users folder.

 

[thenext8seconds]

no, it wont touch the media folder at all. Windows.old contains the windows folder, program files and programdata and I thing users folder.

So if I move C:\Media over into C:\Program Files\Media, then it would save it correct? Because that still would be much faster then transferring all that data to my external USB hard drive.

 

[swarfega]

it would but why would you want to when windows wont touch it. Itl be perfectly save and ready to use since its on another partition away from windows 7.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi thenext8seconds,

The windows.old directory will contain all the prior information for C:\ (all directories, including users). You could, if still unsure copy the contents for your secondary drive but, as you said, it would take 'a while'

 

[thenext8seconds]

it would but why would you want to when windows wont touch it. Itl be perfectly save and ready to use since its on another partition away from windows 7.

I guess you aren't understanding that I am wanting to install the Windows 7 RC ONTO the C: partition which is obviously where "C:\Media" is located...

 

[Orbital Shark]

When installing, choose not to format your partition but still select C:

It will move the entire contents of C:\ into the windows.old directory which you can later access once Windows has finished installing.

It acts as a quick rename more than anything

 

[andych]

I guess you aren't understanding that I am wanting to install the Windows 7 RC ONTO the C: partition which is obviously where "C:\Media" is located...

Why not create another separate partition for your Media, transfer it all there and then Install onto C:\. Then you don't have any problems.

 

[swarfega]

Ah ok. I think it would include the media folder if you copied it to the my music then it would be backed up.

 

[rkseagle]

As a precaution...

Seems more prudent to "move" those important files over to another drive and then do a clean install. I have about 6000 mp3 files on my C:/ drive and it would kill me to loose them because I didn't understand what a new installation was doing to them.

Another advantage to "moving" them to and from another hard drive will be in the "permissions" being corrected when you "move" them back to the original partition. You're gonna get an "owner" conflict on every one of those files if you don't be careful.

If you don't want garbage to get on your new system, then clean out the garbage can and start fresh...

 

[swarfega]

Or you could keep them on the other drive. I have my 19,000 files on an 1Tb HD dedicated to music which I sure wouldnt want to lose.