Cloning

Jakstaar2007

Jakstaar2007

Jakstaar2007

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I have just purchased a 1TB WD Caviar Black ready for when Windows 7 comes out.

I currently have a dual boot going:
500gb - Vista (Not used very often)
160gb - Windows 7 RC (x64) (Main OS)

Since i have been using the Windows 7 mainly, all of my programs, games, etc, are on this drive.

When i receive the new drive i will be removing the 160gb one and replacing it with the new one.
I intend to install Windows 7 onto the new one when i receive it and it will be the 64bit installation.

In the mean time, i'd like to clone my 160gb drive onto the 1tb drive, or at least transfer everything except the OS (which i can install on the new drive)

I intend to partition the drive into two parts, The OS partition and the Games/programs partition.

Now for the question...

Would i be possible to clone the 160gb drive to a 1tb drive seeing as the are different sizes without partitioning off 160gb worth.
Or could i install the RC until and copy over the files without having the touch the registry as they are the same OS (assuming i'd need to copy over the registry also).

Then, when i receive my full copy of Windows 7, would i be able to use the programs, games, etc with the new install once i format the OS partition of the new drive and install the new OS?

Sorry if some of it doesn't make much sense :p


Cheers for reading ;)
 
You should be able to clone your disk using something like Acronis True Image. Just download the trial from their website and you get full use for 30 days.

I just used it to clone a 150G Raptor onto a 160G Intel SSD drive to play around with until Win 7 arrives. There are options to create a partition the same size as the source disk (160G in your case) or expand to use the whole disk. So you should end up with 160ish used out of your 1T drive.

Hope this helps.

Richard
 
I may try a different approach;

I am thinking of just installing the OS from scratch on the new HDD on its own partition. And then copying the files and folders i need over onto the 2nd partition of the new hard drive.
Then, when i receive my copy of Windows 7, install that over the RC on the 1st partition.

My question is, will i be able to use the games that i copied over with the RC until i install the full OS, and then with the full OS when it's released (will x64 still)

And second question;

How much space should i set aside for the primary partition which will have Windows 7, AVG, Evga Precision, and a few other utilities on startup?

Cheers :)
 
Some games will work from the "old" disk or 2nd partition, some may not and will need reinstalling. Save games might not work depending on the path they are trying to save to.

Win 7 with default pagefile and hibernation on will take up about 25gb, assuming it's your 8gb RAM machine - you can obviously turn these down/off.
 
Yep, will be exactly the same machine as in my sig.

OK then, no problems there, i will just reinstall the necessary games. So should i say maybe 30-35GB for the primary partition to be on the safe side?
 
It depends how often you re-install Windows as it will grow over time, and how much you install and how you use Windows. For example I use the desktop a lot for temporary rips and stuff.

30-35gb should be enough, but you might want to consider more, but providing you never fill the entire disk you may be able to resize if needed in the future.
 
To be fair, i do use my desktop for a lot of temporary files and downloads like yourself. What would be enough.
I have another 500GB drive too so if need be i can pretty much wipe that as that has most of the same games on it, and it is a 32bit Vista install which i only really used as contingency or for watching blu rays and HDDVDs, but my BD/HDDVD drive works on my 7 install fine now.
So yea, space isn't too much of a problem

So what would you partition yours off as?

Cheers for the tips!
 
LOL I don't partition mine :)

Just have my C:\ drive in my main box and it's 500gb.

But it's SSD, so I don't really need to partition it as it doesn't help defragging, the whole drive is imaged overnight and my main data is kept on the servers. Before I moved to this approach I tended to have c:\ at about 100gb for OS and Apps, 300gb for Games and main data on server or NAS. I also like to have a lot of overhead on the desktop for ripping blurays or DVDs.

Hope that helps.
 
Ah fair enough. Would be tempted to do that, but i seem to have bad luck with corrupting system files and have had to completely reinstall the OS a few times. Was easier than trying to repair the install from the CLI as i don't really have data that can't be replaced(mostly games), just an inconvenience.

Cheers for the help mate, will weigh up my options. ;)
 
Yep I know what you mean, with my backup set up I can restore bare metal across the network in about 45-60mins so I don't really need to care too much.

Good luck :)
 
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