Windows 7 + Vista Advice needed please

[liam72]

Helo.... i had Vista on a 500gb drive and i bought a 1tb+ widows 7 +extra ram. But i forgot to buy a splitter to power the new drive I really wanted to install windows7 the day i bought it so i removed the drive with vista and installed windows7 on the new 1tb. The pc now boots at warp speed and sees all the ram
I now have the splitter so i can put the drive with vista back in but i dont know what to expect when i first boot and how to delete vista. Will the pc boot windows 7 even tho the slave has vista installed? or can i just put the drive with vista in then try deleting vista? if you can delete vista easily?? I have various applications on the vista drive which i would like to keep without having to reinstall them but its not the end of the world if i have to.Also would i benefit from partitioning the 1tb that has windows7 and can that be done with win7 already installed?
Any advice you can give me would be really appreciated

 

[strollin]

You can install the old drive. Since you are currently booting from the new drive the machine will still boot from that drive as long as you don't change the boot order in the BIOS.

The best way to remove Vista from that drive would be to format it. It's not practical to recover the installed applications, especially since they've been installed to work with Vista. If you have any data (pics, vids, docs, etc...) you should copy it to the new drive before formatting the old. You will want to reinstall your apps in Win 7.

Another possibility is to use both drives to boot either Win 7 or Vista by changing the boot order in the BIOS.

 

[AstaLaVista]

This is how I would do it

Plug in the Vista drive as a 2nd device, just like "strollin" said...

as long as you don't change the boot order in the BIOS.

win 7 should boot w/o a problem.

Once you are on the Win 7 desktop, I would proceed to Re-format the Vista drive.

+1 on NOT trying to save the Applications, just make sure you backup any Documents, Pictures, Saved Games so you don't loose those and they can now be on your new Win 7 drive.

Once the drive is formatted, you can now use it as a back up or whatever, even though, with a 1TB drive, I just can't see why you would bother having another drive in the PC but hey... to each his own, right?

 

[liam72]

Thankyou
I have never had to format but i presume its easy. I have loads of vids of my kids on that drive and tons of music/media which i shall move first. Should i partition the new drive or is there no benefit to doing so?
Thanks for any replies

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello liam72, welcome to Seven Forums!



Have a look at these tutorials at the links below, it's better to have separate partitions to move the data to first.

Partition or Volume - Shrink

Partition or Volume - Create New



After you have moved all the data you want to keep from the old Hard Disk Drive (HDD) have a look at this one, it's better than a format as formats don't remove data they just mark said data to be over-written as needed.

SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

 

[liam72]

This is how I would do it

I just can't see why you would bother having another drive in the PC but hey... to each his own, right?

There was a time when i thought 500gb would last me forever but i bought the 1tb because the 3 other drives totaling 1.3tb are nearly full so the new 1tb will only last so long. I am always making hi-def vids of the kids (every day) and have tons of HQ music/blu-ray which all seems to consume lots of gb. I have all my dvd/vhs home vids going back to 1989 on the pc and am thinking how to get round the "i only have space for 4 drives in the pc problem" ...New bigger case i suppose
Thanks for replies

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You may also need/want to start a backup plan; have a look at these.


Macrium Reflect FREE Edition

Imaging with free Macrium

 

[liam72]

You may also need/want to start a backup plan; have a look at these.


Macrium Reflect FREE Edition

Imaging with free Macrium

Thankyou im very gratefull

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

You're welcome, did you see my post #5 above?

 

[liam72]

You're welcome, did you see my post #5 above?

Im gona look now...

 

[liam72]

I think i need a good nights sleep before i can get my head round some of that
I am a vehicle engineer so i understand engines but i have a lot to learn about computers, im sure i will get there in the end..well i hope. At least hard drives are cheap now 1tb for £40

 

[whs]

1. It may not be such a bad idea to keep Vista around for a while. You can always load it by changing the boot sequence in the BIOS (very easy). This may be handy to run some of your Vista applications in the future that you do not want to reinstall in Win7
2. As long as you have Vista, you can include all your Vista user folders (documents, pictures, music, etc.) into the Win7 Libraries. Just open your Vista partition from windows7 (Start > Computer > double click on the Vista partition/drive > Users > Your Name > right click on the folder(s) that you want to include into the Win7 Library > Include into library).
3. later, when you really want to get rid of Vista. I suggest to create a seperate data partition for all your user files were you can consolidate all your data. In fact you can do that at any time starting by moving the Vista folders to this data partition.

If you have questions, let us know.

 

[liam72]

Thanks

 

[gregrocker]

You do not need to change the boot order in BIOS boot order to boot Vista once you plug it back in. Instead use the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key which every computer has - look on the first boot screen or in your mobo manual.

So if you want to boot Vista instead of Win7, tap the key for BIOS boot Menu as the computer starts up and choose it's HD to boot.

 

[liam72]

Thats handy...i have only been in bios for emergencys
I will keep vista like that for the time being if it doesnt cause confliction at least until i get more spare time to learn how it all works...Thankyou

 

[gregrocker]

You can also browse to Vista from Win7. You may need to resolve permission errors to transfer files over. Someone here will be able to help you with that, no prob. Or post a new topic in General with exact issue in title.

 

[liam72]

Thankyou

 

[liam72]

I have discovered that the graphics card is in the way so i wont be able to have all 4 drives in so i will buy a caddy and make an external drive leaving the vista drive in the pc. Got it to boot with Vista with the f8 key after 2nd attempt because the only motherboard manual i seem to have doesnt have english so i could not use the bios boot key on keyboard, i got no joy with google I didnt save settings so i presume next boot will be win7 by default. I had full control and all video played fine so i am happy It would be a lot easier for me if i knew which key is the BIOS BOOT menu key and would be grateful if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Many thanks for all the advice you have given me...Alan

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Alan.





If you post the make/model of the mobo I'm sure someone will try to help you; if you're not sure use this little app to find it, it'll show you everything about your system and can even be installed and run from a USB stick for portability


SIW - System Information for Windows

 

[liam72]

Thanks...i feel like i need to be an octopus sometimes i have 7 explorer windows open right now with all sorts of things i have to research today including spec details for my car,tropical fish info, etc,etc
motherrboard is Asus p5q pro turbo
regards Alan