Migrating From Vista to 7 with a New Hard Drive

[alexsim2004]

Hi guys, I have just pre-ordered Windows 7 Home Premium and I wondered if this scenario is possible:

I am currently running Windows Vista Home Premium on a single 500GB SATA hard drive.

I am planning to order a new 1TB drive to copy all of the 500GB data/files/programs onto, and then format and use the 500GB drive to install Windows 7 onto.

I am also planning to use a clone program such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to complete this operation, but what I wanted to know is:

Will the newly copied programs on the 1TB drive still work and be recognised by Windows 7 after I have installed it on the 500GB drive?

And also: When cloning, is it possible to exclude the Vista OS files from being copied to the new drive (as I would not need/want Vista once I am on 7)

Many Thanks

Alex

 

[zigzag3143]

Hi guys, I have just pre-ordered Windows 7 Home Premium and I wondered if this scenario is possible:

I am currently running Windows Vista Home Premium on a single 500GB SATA hard drive.

I am planning to order a new 1TB drive to copy all of the 500GB data/files/programs onto, and then format and use the 500GB drive to install Windows 7 onto.

I am also planning to use a clone program such as Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost to complete this operation, but what I wanted to know is:

Will the newly copied programs on the 1TB drive still work and be recognised by Windows 7 after I have installed it on the 500GB drive?

And also: When cloning, is it possible to exclude the Vista OS files from being copied to the new drive (as I would not need/want Vista once I am on 7)

Many Thanks

Alex

Hey alex

Nope the programs cant just be restored back or copied. You can do an upgrade though that isnt recommended by either MS of most of the ppl here. to be honest you want a clean system even if it is a PITA. If you upgrade you import all your current problems into a new OS.

Let us know if you have more questions thats what we are here for

Ken

 

[wallyinnc]

Will the newly copied programs on the 1TB drive still work and be recognised by Windows 7 after I have installed it on the 500GB drive?

Welcome to the forums Alex
I have a similar sitation in a machine, I had to do a system recovery and ended up with the old "Program Files" folder with the old programs in it, inside a new Windows installation (XP in this case). I could run some of the programs by just clicking on the ".exe" file, but it is hit or miss, more miss than hit. The old programs will not be set up in the new registry so most probably won't work correctly.
I would follow Ken's recomendation and clean install Win7 and then install the programs in the new Win7 environment
Keep us posted
Wally

 

[alexsim2004]

Ah ok, I feared that this was the case, I will stick to just moving the data/documents then. Thanks for the replies

 

[zigzag3143]

Ah ok, I feared that this was the case, I will stick to just moving the data/documents then. Thanks for the replies

Alex

You can while doing a clean intall have your settings, and pref's kept in a folder thats called windows.old. Might help if you forgot something

Ken

 

[bobgay]

also use easy file transfer and copy all your settings onto a flash drive or an external hard drive. It will also transfer all your data so you will have your data in 2 places .old and easy transfer. In .old go to your user folder that where all the good stuff is stored. The more downloaded programs you have the easier it will be for you. But it is very important to re-install all your main programs so you have error free registry settings. Good Luck
Bob