Moving Windows 7 to another partition

[magnetite]

I originally had Vista on this machine and did an upgrade install. However, I find the system is unusually slow (more than Vista I think). Maybe it's the hardware. This machine is about 4 years old, although it is well maintained.

Anyways, I was wondering if there was a way to make a new partition and copy my old Windows 7 install onto it without losing all my data. This hard drive is 2 TB and it has about 400 GB of free space, and I don't have a big enough hard drive to back it all up.

So I basically just need to copy the Windows 7 install (programs & Windows 7 installation files), not all my video files I have stored on here. Is that possible without losing my data?

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map with listings, using SNipping Tool in Start Menu.

Moving Win7 to another partition won't affect performance noticeably and can cause new problems.

The problem is likely the inferior Upgrade install. You need to clean reinstall to a wiped/formatted partition at the beginning of your HD.

YOu should always back up your data or risk loss due to HD failure, however if you place the data in another partition, then you can boot the Win7 DVD and as long as you are certain that you are choosing only the first target partition for install the data should be there when you finish.

 

[whs]

Hmm, that triggers a few points:

1. moving your system to a new partition on the same drive is not going to help with performance.
2. if your user data is in the OS partition and not in a seperate partition, you would have to move the whole thing - and for that you do not have enough free space
3. if you seriously want to persue that, I suggest you seperate the data into a seperate partition so that you have a more reasonable size OS partition. For that you will need the help of a good size external disk.
4. your performance problems probably have another cause. Maybe you can be more specific on that point and we can see what should be done.
5. if you really, really want to cure the problem, I would spend $100 on a SSD and install the OS there. That would make a world of difference.

If you want to persue any of these ideas, post back and we can develop a plan of attack.

 

[magnetite]

I have a SSD, but it's on my main system. Performance is very fast on that system. This is my older system. Since they don't sell external hard drives around 2 TB that I could afford I'll probably just wait until they come down in price and do it then. I guess for now, I'll keep my data on my current drive. Thanks for looking into this though. Probably was the upgrade install.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello magnetite, welcome to Seven Forums!



Will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.

In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that, it should look similar to this.


How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums

click to enlarge

​

 

[magnetite]

Okay, here's a screenshot of my Disk Management.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again.



I see you have a an issue with which Hard Disk Drive (HDD) is marked as "Active" and that could cause boot issues if you want to pursue a future re-install/install of Windows, it is a fairly straight-forward process to correct.

You said you don't want to have to reinstall all your programs/apps to a new Windows 7 install; how involved do you want to get in doing this?

 

[magnetite]

As long as I don't have to lose 1.5 TB of data, I'm okay with it.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

As long as I don't have to lose 1.5 TB of data, I'm okay with it.

This is the Disk 0 / C: HDD?

 

[gregrocker]

You really need an external or secondary HD to move the data off of one of the HD's so you can wipe it to clean reinstall. Or send the data over the network to another computer.

But if you really want to clean reinstall to the 2tb, you can use free Partition Wizard bootable CD to Resize C from the left side (preferred lower address) to make room for a clean Win7 install to the new partition. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

Afterward you can delete Windows files in the old partition to use it as a data partition. Here is how to link your Win7 User folders to another partition: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

Edit: The only hitch with this is that the new Win7 install will auto-configure a Dual boot with the old Win7 OS unless it is removed or disabled from the data partition just before install. I can test exactly how to do that if you want. You could also force delete old Win7 files from data partition afterward then remove Dual Boot using EasyBCD 2.0 if you'd like the Dual Boot option until it is sorted.

 

[magnetite]

As long as I don't have to lose 1.5 TB of data, I'm okay with it.

This is the Disk 0 / C: HDD?

That's right.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

As long as I don't have to lose 1.5 TB of data, I'm okay with it.

This is the Disk 0 / C: HDD?

That's right.

That's where Windows 7 is and it needs to be marked as "Active" first before anything else is done but at the same time (before) the Disk 1 has to be marked as "Inactive" start by having a look at this tutorial at the link below and then the snip shows how to mark the Disk 1 as "Inactive" which HAS to be done so it doesn't cause real issues along the way.

Feel free to ask any questions you want to.

Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

click to enlarge


​

 

[magnetite]

You know I just remembered something. The C: is a 5400 RPM hard drive. That could cause something. Maybe I should work with the D: instead. It's 7200 RPM.

 

[gregrocker]

In that case, you can clean up your data as much as possible, move 300+gb to the 2tb HD, Resize to Create a new NTFS Primary Win7 partition on the lefthand side of the smaller HD to clean install Win7.

Unplug the 2tb HD during install so that it doesn't configure a dual boot. When you plug it back in we can help you force-delete the Win7 folders so you can use it solely as a data drive. If you have some reason you need to boot it, use the BIOS one-time Boot Menu key until you delete the old Win7.

As Barefoot says you'll want to mark the partition you shrink with the data Inactive but that's all if you choose to do this instead.

Ask back any questions, or if you tell us exactly what you decide to do we can lay out the steps for you in order. I am gone surfing from 1-7 PST today.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

In that case, you can clean up your data as much as possible, move 300+gb to the 2tb HD, Resize to Create a new NTFS Primary Win7 partition on the lefthand side of the smaller HD to clean install Win7.

Unplug the 2tb HD during install so that it doesn't configure a dual boot. When you plug it back in we can help you force-delete the Win7 folders so you can use it soley as a data drive. If you have some reason you need to boot it, use the BIOS one-time Boot Menu key until you delete the old Win7.

As Barefoot says you'll want to mark the partition you shrink with the data Inactive but that's all if you choose to do this instead.

Here's the link to the new tutorial at the link below, don't let the title concern you, it does what Greg is suggesting to do, have a look, it's not that complicated and it's the best way to do it for the outcome you want.

Dual Boot : Create Partitions Using PWBD

 

[gregrocker]

I almost can't keep up with all of your great tutorials, Barefoot

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I almost can't keep up with all of your great tutorials, Barefoot

Don't feel bad Greg, it takes me a minute to sort them now too. :roflmao:

 

[whs]

I almost can't keep up with all of your great tutorials, Barefoot

I think we'll promote BFK to be our resident Partition Wizard Guru.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I almost can't keep up with all of your great tutorials, Barefoot

I think we'll promote BFK to be our resident Partition Wizard Guru.

Thanks mate, I like it, the PWG!

 

[magnetite]

I got Windows 7 installed on my 1 TB drive (7200 RPM), so now I just need to resize it again. As well as somehow get the product key to transfer from the old setup to the new one. Wouldn't take it when I tried to put it in. Probably need to call Microsoft for that. It does feel a bit faster. Probably the 7200 RPM combined with a clean install.