I am using Windows 7 Home Premium N and XP Home on a dual-boot system but I want to move my Windows 7 partition from one drive to another but am not sure how to do it. Currently XP is on partition C: and Windows 7 on partition O: and essentially, what I want to do is to move partition O: to my main drive where space is already available for this to be done.
I have seven drives on my system amounting to 6.5Tb (2Tb on external drives) and currently Windows 7 is on a partition on one of the internal 1Tb drives. However, I would like to free up the space being used and place Windows 7 in a separate 50Gb partition at the end of my main drive (500Gb). Since I pre-partitioned the current Windows 7 partition before installation, I do not have the 'hidden' partition I've read so much about.
I have an old DOS version of Ghost on a boot CD and can readily back up the current Windows 7 partition ready for recovering to the prepared partition on my main drive. Once transferred I then want to delete the current Windows 7 partition. However, I know there is more to it than this! I am quite happy to reletter the partition to drive O: since I have software installed on the Windows 7 partition which is referred to in the registry.
All this I'm fairly confident about doing - but it is operations involving the boot manager that I am completely unsure of. How does the system know where the boot info is located? What points it to the right partition/drive? Does it refer to the drive and/or partition? Is there anything else I just may have overlooked? Finally, should I perhaps just leave it where it is until I'm ready to do a reinstall on the appropriate partition?
A lot of questions I'm afraid but I would appreciate some help as I'm fairly new to the question of dual-boot systems and boot management.
PS I have been looking for info on this in all sorts of places but have not so far found the answers to my questions. Sorry for any inconvenience if the info I'm looking for is already on this, or another, site. It's just that I've not found the info so far and any help being pointed in the right direction would be appreciated.
So heres my problem: I installed Win 7 on a drive a while back and earlier today I decided that I needed more hard drive space. I saw that I had 100gb of unallocated space on the drive, but it was behind my Windows 7 partition, making it impossible to resize that partition. So I defragged with Perfect Disk 10 which moves all the files to the back of the partition, cleaned up, disabled all the usual things, ran defragger again, and then booted into a live cd of GParted. I then proceeded to move my Windows 7 partition behind the unallocated space so I could extend the volume.
Unfortunately, something went wrong and now I get the error message "Disk boot failure, please instert system disk and hit enter." So I followed the directions and ran startup repair, tried manually creating the bootmgr, and ran all the tests, but it still doesn't work. Luckily for me, I was able to reinstall Windows 7 on the unallocated space so I can at least get to the files on my other drive, which I discovered are all perfectly fine. I'm hoping this will be a quick fix since it seems like all the files are ok. What should I do so that I can boot back into that partition?
Long story short, I tried moving the partition, and something went wrong, and now I can't boot into that drive. I installed another copy of Win 7 on another partition and all the files are ok. What do I need to do to the original partition to get it to boot again?
I currently have a WD 120GB drive that i installed my win 7 on, but this drive is old and very slow.I have a brand new 1.5 TB drive and i was wondering if there is an easy way to move the win 7 installation to that new drive without much hassle.
I installed Win 7 on a partition on the same drive as XP.
1 - XP was on C: Win 7 installed to F:
2 - I have removed XP from C:.
3 - Repaired Win 7. Win 7 boots fine.
Now I want to move Win 7 to the beginning of the drive but unsure how - as Acronis doesn't allow me to clone to the same drive - even though its another partition.
Having obtained my new 80GB Intel X-25M SSD I will of course be using it as the Windows Partition in my new installation after I receive my release copy on 22nd October.
However, I was wondering on the best way to partition the remainder of my storage to maximise performance, and particularly where I place the swap file, applications and data.
The Maxtor was the original HD that came with the PC and is approaching 4 years old. I obviously don't want to use it for anything that affects performance so the obvious usage is as a backup volume. However, I'm not sure of the wisdom of this given it is the oldest drive!
So, my current plan is as follows:Boot & Windows Partition, including application installation: All 74.5GB of the available SSD Swap File: A seperate 10GB partition of the WD drive Data: The remainder of the WD Drive (Can you get Windows 7 to move the location of the User Folders such as 'Documents', 'Downloads' etc. to a partition other than the system drive? If so how?) Backup: The Maxtor Drive Even though I am getting a full version of Win 7 by virtue of the UK Pre-Order offer, I won't be maintaining my Vista install so no need for a partition for that (good riddance!).
It is important that the swap file is not on the SSD I understand to reduce the number of write cycles and maintain its lifespan.
Does this sound like a good plan to maximise performance? Certainly using the seperate swap file seems to work very well in my RC test installation.
I want to move my OS (Windows 7 Pro) to the new partition that I created for it but I am not sure how I would go about it. Can I just copy/paste or is there another way?
P.S. This is off-subject but I was only after thinking of it. My wireless adapter is a fair bit away from my router and it seems to have trouble connecting to the router whenever the two other laptops are connected to it. I would think that this is due to interference because all of the computers are on the same channel, is there any way to change the channel and would this be of benefit to me?
I have a new PC (HP) that came with an OEM version of Win 7/64, I also purchased an SSD that I had planned to use for a boot disk with all libraries on a second 1TB HDD.
I successfully installed Win 7 on the SSD and was happy for a bit, until I discovered some instabilities. Long story short, HP does not release the drivers for their in-house products and I could not stabilize the system, so I moved the SSD to Drive D and re-installed from the factory image. All the drivers I need are there and system is 100% stable.
is there a way to move the System partition over to the SSD so I get the 10 second boot that was so nice?
yesterday I ordered a Crucial M4 128 Solid State Drive. I want to use it in my laptop as a bootdisk for my Windows (my laptop has 2 hard drive slots). My old hard drive came with an Acer recovery partition. My question is simple (I hope the solution is also simple): how do I move the recovery partition from my old hard drive to the Solid State Drive? All the necessary drivers are on the recovery partition, which is the main reason I want to have it on my SSD.
EDIT: will I lose the functionality of restoring my laptop when pressing ALT+F10 on boot?
In an attempt to move my paging file from my C: Partition , due to my unfamiliararity with the process , I've now got this file on both my C: drive and the new desired Partiton.Is it OK now to simply delete this file from the C: Partition , thus leaving me with only one paging file on this other Partition ?My reason for using this process is an attempt to reduce the size of an Image File of my C: Partition .
Is it a good idea to create a 10GB partition and use it solely to place page file?And then disable pagefile and use Eraser to securely free wipe the partition? Would this get rid of the contents inside pagefile for good? And does the speed and performance be affected if pagefile is in another partition?
I wish to partition my rebuilt PC into C: (OS only), D: (games and utilities), and E: (data) drives, my intention being to make future upgrades or OS reinstalls easier. (The machine currently only has one HDD.)Therefore I want to move C:users to the E: partition. I've already searched for ways to do this and there are seemingly three ways of going about it:1. Change the value in My Documents->Properties->Location tab as described here: Move Your Data to a Safer, Separate Partition in Windows 7 | PCWorld3. Leaving C:users where it is and using a symbolic link to E:users as described here: Move the Users Directory in Windows 7Is there a consensus on the 'best' method for doing this? If not, what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of the above methods?
I want to move My Documents folder to another partition (D:) but I'm wondering if I do will other users on the computer now be able to access the contents?
I just made my partition with 14GB memory only. I have always an error that my partition is already full, but my folder I backupped is just 9GB.I want to ask if it is okay to cut and paste to my folder (pictures) to my new partition.
So, I have a disk with Windows 7 installed on the 3rd partition of that disk. I want to move that installation to the first partition of the disk.Repartitioning and boot settings aside, is there a way to do that? (besides using sysprep)Last time I tried that, windows would load slowly and after ''Preparing your desktop'' screen it would just show the one-color desktop, no icons, no explorer shell loaded.Alt,Ctrl,delete works, for running ''explorer'' from task manager, but computer, control panel or anything system-related does not open, instead it pops up an error window with, (e.x.)''{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}'' not found.
My Windows 7 now refuses to boot properly and now only boots into startup repair. This started happening after I shrunk and moved the /dev/sda2 partition (on my computer, the C: drive), so I could install Ubuntu. I did notice that Windows failed to boot but I was stupid and didn't fix as soon as I realized. I installed Ubuntu (and with it, Grub) and now Windows just boots into Startup Repair which just says it can't do anything and then displays some HP software that gives me a few options (none of which has helped). It may be important to note that I have the option to go to the command prompt.
I have tried all the fixes I have found on the internet (such as the various bootrec.exe commands) to no avail and am becoming desperate!
i read all the topics from here but i am unable to resize my win 7 partition .
i think the problem is that the free space is in the extended partition . how to get the free space from the extended partition without erase or format the other partition (D and E)
http://i31.tinypic.com/2cr3dx1.jpg
I try a lot of programs but no one works becouse the free space is inside the extended partition
I have windows 7 RC, windows vista, and linux mint running in a triple boot config. I don't really want to keep linux and was planning on installing the Retail version of Windows 7 once i buy it. However, while im booted in windows, i cannot see linux at all. I can only see the Windows 7 partition (C: ) and vista partition (D: ) under Computer.
But i can see it in Disk Management
The last two partitions are for linux.
So my question is, when i decide to install windows 7, will the windows 7 install disc see those linux partitions so i can delete them while installing Windows 7? You know the utility in the Windows 7 install disc that allows u to delete, format etc. partitions.
I have an older computer that is or was being used for Win XP Pro. I put a new hard drive that is partitioned with 25gb on the C drive with two other partitions of different sizes. I set the the hard drive as cable select (later tried as Master only)
Windows 7 in cable select saw all the partitions. When set to Master it only saw Partition 1 and the rest as unallocated which seems weird.
I have the boot order in Bios set as Floppy, CD Rom and then Hard Drive.
I have an external usb DVD reader for the install disc.
When i start the pc, then press to boot from CD, it sees the install disk and the install process starts. I get to the point to select where to install and I get this Notice:
"Windows can NOT be installed on to Disk 0 Partition 1"
I hit the more info button and get this notice:
"The computer hardware may not support booting to this disk. Ensure that the disk's controller is enabled in the BIOS Menu."
It should boot to the hard drive the way I have it setup. At least it does for Win XP.
I was wondering if anyone has any suggestion as to how to get around this issue.
I am running Windows 7 all great and haven't had any problems, I want to make Windows 7 my sole operating system and remove my XP partition. I managed to install Windows 7 on a separate partition with no problems but just wondering if it's all fine to go ahead and delete my XP partition and then resize my Windows 7 partition back up, this wouldn't create any problems?
Just a matter of backing up all the essentials first, just in case?
I'm currently running Windows XP (SP3)and am trying to run the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade. Each time the installation gets to the point of starting to erase the XP program files and load the Win 7 files and stops with a statement that it doesn't recognize the C partition where XP is installed. The PC has a single SATA HD with only a single partition. Is there some step that's left of the installation instructions that I could be missing?
Is it possible to install Windows 7 on a GPT disk?
I created a RAID 0 array on my dual Xeon 5580 system and tried installing Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit RTM. When I got to the "Where do you want to install Windows" part I used shift-F10 to open up a command window, then I used diskpart to create a GPT with the following partitions:
Disk 0 Part 1 - 102 MB EFI System
Disk 0 Part 2 - 128 MB MSR
Disk 0 Part 3 - 500 MB Primary
Disk 0 Part 4 - 7446 GB Primary
But there was a message "Windows cannot be installed to Disk 0 Partition 3 (show details)" - clicking on "show details" gave me "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style."
What gives? I thought Windows Vista and beyond supported GPT.
The problem with MBR is that you can't have a file system larger than 2 TB.
I am having a problem that seems more like a Win XP problem, but since its part of my migration to Windows 7 and many people these days may be trying the same.
As I said, I am in the progress of migrating to Windows 7. As a transient solution until I have transferred and re-installed everything under Windows 7 I want to have a dual boot capability, i.e. I bought me a larger HD, created two partitions on it, installed Windows 7 on the first partition, and then I used a disk-imager (Acronis Disk Director) to copy my entire old XP disk 1:1 to the second partition of the new HD. I then set things up so I can choose between the two partitions using the Windows 7 boot manager. After some fiddling the choosing and booting in principle works fine.
BUT, when I try to start WinXP, I have the very strange effect, that the system at first boots and starts WinXP up fine up to the point where it presents the login screen. When I then enter my name and password my credentials at first seem to be accepted, i.e. I get a "Loading your settings..." dialog but to my dismay only seconds later that dialog always turns into "Logging off..." (???!@#@$&!) at which point the system hangs for some long period. If I wait long enough (~5 minutes) it eventually returns to the login screen again. I also tried to login as Administator but that failed as well (the error message mumbled something about no domain server to verify my id which is complete nonsense, since my XP system was never part of any domain, so there is no server in the world that could verify anything here!).
Any idea what could cause this and why can't I not log into that copied/moved 1:1 Window XP installation? Any hints/suggestions/pointers would be highly welcome!
I have a small query about this whole partitioning business. I'm trying to set up a partition so I can dual-boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu.
My computer came with a Dell Recovery partition and an OEM partition as well as the main C: drive, which are all primaries. I've created a new logical drive, which I've called Z:, with the idea being to install the Linux OS in that chunk of the drive.
My first question: First up, I've formatted it as "exFAT" - is this the same as FAT32?
Next question: can I divide this 'Z' into smaller chunks with different formats, or do they all have to be the same format? I was hoping to be able to format a small bit of the drive into a Linux file-system so that both OSs can be kept entirely separate from each other, but leave the bulk of it as FAT so that I can see my files with both OSs. If this is not possible, what would be the best way to achieve the desired result?
Would anything happen to my other partition when i format win XP to win 7 in C: drive/partition?
Okay it goes like this, I have Win XP SP3 installed with two partitions, C: and E: (<----supposed to be D: ). I intend to install Win 7 Ultimate on my computer from XP SP3 and install it in C: where the current OS is at. My question is, will my E: partition prevail still? Will the reformatting touch E:? The reason is because there is where i want to put my backups and later migrate it.
I'm trying to install Windows 7 Professional on a system with the 2nd hard drive partition - 100GB in size. I used Paragon Partition Manger to create the two partitions, formatting both as NTFS.
Windows XP isproperly installed on the first partition. When I try to install Windows 7 Pro on the second partition it extracts the files & installs fine right up to the point of rebooting, then gives me this error on rebooting:
File: windowssystem32winload.exe
Status: 0xc000000d
The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.
I've purchased four Win 7 Pro license keys from MS and already sucessfully loaded Windows 7 Pro on three computers with a single partition HDD, using the DVD (downloaded from digitalrivers) w/o any problems - so one would think the DVD itself is OK.
Any ideas why I can install Windows 7 Pro (using the same DVD) just fine on a single (simple) partition but get this error when trying to install on a seperate partition?
im trying to dual boot windows 7 beside my already installed vista HP , when i try shrink my c partition with the inbuilt vista partition tool , to create room for the windows 7 partition , it will only allow me to shrink roughly 2000 MB of the drive even though there is 45% of a 250 GB drive still available .
they reccomend at least 16GB of free space to install it,
I created a 20gb partition on my external hard drive and no longer require the partition. It is currently unallocated space so I want to format it into NFTS. Using computer management the partition was selected and and I went through the steps to format but i keep on getting an error message saying there is not enough space on the disk to complete this operation.
