Windows 7 and Norton Ghost query

CurlyWhirly · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:05

Currently I have the OEM version of Vista Home Premium on my C: hard drive, it is 1 TB in size.

I have a spare hard drive that is new and I was wondering if I could take a Norton Ghost 'image' of Vista and copy it on to this smaller drive?
It is 250 GB in size.

The Norton Ghost 'image' is only 60 GB in size and so it isn't as if there isn't sufficient free space on the new drive.

Is this possible?
I'm wondering if anyone has used Norton Ghost 12 in this way before?

I'm hoping this will work as I don't really want to format the Vista drive and start again.

Ultimately I want to run a dual boot system on my PC with Vista and Windows 7 and I'm wondering if there would be any conflicts in doing this?

Please note that I have never run a dual-boot setup before.

Thanks.

p.s. the Windows 7 DVD is Retail as I pre-ordered it a few months ago.

CurlyWhirly · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:09

Oops, I forgot to mention that I want to install the new Windows 7 installation on my 1 TB drive as opposed to the (new) 250 GB drive and I want to get Vista on there instead (if you follow)

Burnsy2023 · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:29

Yes it's possible. As long as the destination drive has the space to copy the image it's fine. Why do you want to dual boot though, why not just go 7?

CurlyWhirly · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:43

Burnsy2023 said:
Yes it's possible. As long as the destination drive has the space to copy the image it's fine. Why do you want to dual boot though, why not just go 7?

Because I have started a lot of games and, if I format the current Vista drive, I will have to start all the games from scratch on Windows 7.

Just curious if it's possible to always boot from Windows 7 and then just click on the Vista drive when I want to game?
I have never thought about this before.

Eventually when I've completed all my PC games on Vista then I will ditch Vista and move over to Windows 7 for keeps.

Windows 7 isn't installed yet obviously

Dewotter · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:45

CurlyWhirly said:
Because I have started a lot of games and, if I format the current Vista drive, I will have to start all the games from scratch on Windows 7.

Not necessarily, if you can locate the save folders for your games you could be alright. However, you would almost certainly need to reinstall them in order to ensure the correct registry settings are applied.

Burnsy2023 · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:46

Or just do an upgrade install. I did.

CurlyWhirly · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:47

RKO said:
Not necessarily, if you can locate the save folders for your games you could be alright. However, you would almost certainly need to reinstall them in order to ensure the correct registry settings are applied.

Yeah that's what I was thinking about the registry settings.

Risky move which is why I was hoping to dual-boot for now

CurlyWhirly · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:47

Burnsy2023 said:
Or just do an upgrade install. I did.

I didn't think you could do that as Windows 7 had to be a fresh install :confused:

Dewotter · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:49

CurlyWhirly said:
I didn't think you could do that as Windows 7 had to be a fresh install

You can upgrade to 7 if you have Vista, not XP.

Personally I would always reinstall.

CurlyWhirly · 25 Oct 2009 at 18:58

RKO said:
You can upgrade to 7 if you have Vista, not XP.

Personally I would always reinstall.

I see.

I think I'll do a fresh install too!

Burnsy2023 · 25 Oct 2009 at 19:19

RKO said:
Personally I would always reinstall.

There's so little difference between OSs it doesn't really matter.

Dewotter · 25 Oct 2009 at 19:40

Burnsy2023 said:
There's so little difference between OSs it doesn't really matter.

True but I always prefer to start off with a clean slate.

CurlyWhirly · 28 Oct 2009 at 09:54

RKO said:
True but I always prefer to start off with a clean slate.

Agreed after reading this :eek: