Moving Windows from one hard drive partition to another

Tuvoc · 22 Oct 2011 at 12:29

Currently I have this:

Disk 1
- partition A Windows 7
- partition B Data

Disk 2 - Vista
Disk 3 - Data

Both Vista and W7 were installed as C: so no issues there. F8 key on bootup enables me to select the drive to boot from

I want to get rid of Windows 7 and put Vista on the first partition of the first hard drive. Disk 2 and 3 are old, Disk 1 is much newer and quieter.

Is this just a partition copy using say the demo version of Acronis ? Would the copy be bootable ?

CSA · 22 Oct 2011 at 16:12

boot into vista and install this:

http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Todo-Backup-Free/3000-2242_4-10964460.html

make a clone of the partition and select where you want to transfer it too,i used this software last night and it worked perfect

btw the partition options are in one of the sub menues in the app,took me a few minutes to find em but they ARE there

good luck

Mailman86 · 22 Oct 2011 at 16:55

May I ask why you want to get rid of Windows 7 and go back to just using Vista? I didn't think anyone actually prefered it over Windows 7.

Tuvoc · 22 Oct 2011 at 17:24

CSA said:
boot into vista and install this:

http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Todo-Backup-Free/3000-2242_4-10964460.html

make a clone of the partition and select where you want to transfer it too,i used this software last night and it worked perfect

btw the partition options are in one of the sub menues in the app,took me a few minutes to find em but they ARE there

good luck

Thanks, I'll know that next time. What I did in the end is was moved the data off drive 1, and then did a drive copy instead. Working fine

Tuvoc · 22 Oct 2011 at 17:28

Mailman86 said:
May I ask why you want to get rid of Windows 7 and go back to just using Vista? I didn't think anyone actually prefered it over Windows 7.

Because I need Windows 7 for another machine. And I'm quite happy with Vista, apart from how it works the hard drive a lot. But if the drive is quiet it isn't an issue. Vista has always worked well for me, it didn't really deserve much of the negative press it got

Mailman86 · 22 Oct 2011 at 18:25

Tuvoc said:
Because I need Windows 7 for another machine. And I'm quite happy with Vista, apart from how it works the hard drive a lot. But if the drive is quiet it isn't an issue. Vista has always worked well for me, it didn't really deserve much of the negative press it got

Fair enough. I agree Vista isn't as bad as it is made out to be but it's hard to argue that it's better than Windows 7 in my opinion. I was just curious as I thought you were dumping Windows 7 altogether in favour of Vista.

Tuvoc · 22 Oct 2011 at 18:30

Agreed, Vista isn't better than W7, but using it is no hardship. It was absolutely not worth £70 or so to buy another copy of W7.