migrate my reverse to win7 files off my SSD

Golf1.6 · 25 Dec 2015 at 20:48

I am 95% sure I will keep my windows 10 installation. Had a small hiccup with avast, but change from avast to AVG and it's sorted the problems for me.

Currently disk cleanup reports there is about 40GB of space being used by the Previous windows installations.

It's sitting on my SSD primary hard drive. Is there a way to move those files onto a HDD which isn't limited in space?

Golf1.6 · 25 Dec 2015 at 20:56

I just googled and learnt that the installation is stored in windows.old folder

Can I move that folder onto a different drive and then move it back to the primary if I ever need it. Or will the move later the configuration and make it unusable?

Sparx · 25 Dec 2015 at 22:03

If you have no documents or photos stored within the Windows.old folder you can completely delete it with the 'Disk Clean-up' utility.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/how-do-i-remove-the-windows-old-folder

Nice and easy.

Golf1.6 · 25 Dec 2015 at 22:33

doesn't the windows.old folder contain the rollback data to revert back to previous installation?

I do have backups of documents but reinstalling the 40+ apps I use alogng with the configurations is what I hate most. So I prefer to keep a full system backup.

this_is_gav · 25 Dec 2015 at 22:45

Yep. You should be able to just move it and restore it should you need it (don't hold me to that though - I've not seen anyone try it, but it ought to work), but you only have 30 days to revert to your previous OS before the license permanently transfers to Windows 10.

It's stupid in a way, but given how long it took Microsoft to move people from XP to Vista & 7 I can understand.

Anyway, you've no worries from my point of view - Windows 10 is just as solid as 7 & 8 was for me.

StudentDavid · 25 Dec 2015 at 23:23

Yeah windows 10 is better than 7 anyways.

russell664 · 25 Dec 2015 at 23:48

Windows 10 has a few hiccups still (Start menu sometimes not working etc...) but overall it is a good experience thus far.

StudentDavid · 25 Dec 2015 at 23:49

Not had a problem with the start menu, I use win 7 classic shell.

this_is_gav · 26 Dec 2015 at 00:23

russell664 said:
Windows 10 has a few hiccups still (Start menu sometimes not working etc...) but overall it is a good experience thus far.

I've never seen that outside of a corporate set up.

There are some well documented problems with the start menu when it comes sysprepping and copying a user profile and trying to establish a default layout (to the point where clicking on the Start button gives no response), but like I say that has been limited to trying to dictate the layout to users, and I found it easy enough to solve through GPO anyway.

russell664 · 26 Dec 2015 at 00:33

I tend to sysprep my systems anyway, to automate a couple of processes. But on the latest build on Windows 10, the issue is far less frequent.