Relocating System Partition (Copying Only Data Required For Booting)
Mar 10, 2011
I recently (~2-3 months ago) installed windows 7 on a brand new 1TB hard drive. This hard drive is broken into two partitions - C & G. Windows 7 is installed on C; and G is only for data storage etc. Here is the description of partition C from Disk Management:
Unfortunately, "System" is missing from that description. Somehow "System" ended up on hard drive L - an old 80GB IDE drive that has migrated from build-to-build. This drive has just started on the *hopefully* slow road to death. I decided to retire this drive when I discovered I couldn't securely erase it because it is the System partition (there is only one partition on this drive).
So, how I can relocate the system drive data to another drive (preferably C) in the safest way possible. I found a solution here: [URL]. But I don't want to copy the entire contents of L to a new drive, all I want is the data needed for booting, and to securely erase everything else on L. Looking around, it seems I may be able to boot from a Windows 7 repair disk and recreate the system files on C, but this seems risky and likely to require a full re-install if something goes wrong.
In XP, I re-directed My Documents to a Data partition. In my old computer with Windows 7, I think I used TweakUI (which worked) and Junction for my iTunes folder.In my new Windows 7 laptop, I read about this mklink feature (which seemed to pass me by). Before I got a chance to use this, I selected all of the visible (non-system) folders in c:usersmyusername and cut 'n' pasted them to d:usersmyusername.To cut a long story short, this worked. Obviously i know it didn't move system related folders but it works.Basically it looks like Windows has automatically changed the target of the folders I moved . Is this right?
I've been taking images for years now, yet the other day my brain again failed to boot. My nightmare is when I reach for an image to restore I fail to save my bookmarks & My Docs before I revert. So the recent stuff is gone.Can I idiot-proof my Windows 7 by permanently basing My Documents, My Pics, My Bookmarks in another partition so only the CDrive op. system gets zapped & needs to be restored on demand.
I just installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and saw that the users private and public data are still saved in the C:Users of the system partition.
So, I'm looking for a specific guide for Windows 7 that separates the system partition from the users private and public data, saved in another partition on the same disk. In addition, private data created during the creation of new accounts (including the Administrator account) must be saved directly in the other partition.
In other words, in the C:Users directory, the All Users, Default and Default User directories must only remain and its must to be fully functional.
How can I access a system partition to read and copy data? Two partitions were merged together and ended up as a system partition. All of my data files are in there.
I am having a problem with installing Windows 7 on my netbook (Novero Solana). I did a clean install (wiped out Windows 8) and when using a USB boot install of Windows 7, I encountered the following error (Disk 0 Unallocated Space): "Windows 7 install Error "Setup was unable to use existing system partition because it does not contain the required free space". The other partition on my netbook is System Reserved (Disk 0 Partition 1: System Reserved), but I don't want to touch it, as I have heard it contains important files e.g. bootup. Attached is the screenshot of the "Install Windows" screen displaying the partitions.
I am wanting to copy my application data file from my PC (Win 7 Prof 64)to my laptop(win 7 hope premium). I have autocad user info etc and other prog info which has been stored in the roaming profile which I need to access on laptop. I want the same autocad settings available on laptop
Can I simply copy across the entire roaming profile or will this cause problems
Have a Windows 7 computer with two 500Gb data drives (just files, no OS) that I would like to "merge" into a new 2Tb drive but keep everything on one partition. I know I can clone the drives onto two separate partitions of my new drive, and then do a partition merge and resize to fill up all the free space. Or I can turn on view hidden and system files and simply drag & drop the contents of both drives to my new one.
My computer crashes every time I transfer large amounts of data onto the D drive of my computer. There is no such problem with my C drive.
First detected this problem while I was transferring some data through LAN. This problem occurs even when I am copying data from my C drive to D drive. I was able to copy a 700MB file onto the drive.
I have my HP Laptop which came with Windows Vista as the OS. I want to upgrade to Windows 7 so I bought Windows 7 from my local store.I entered the disc and did boot from CD. It reached to the page where it shows the disk partition. I deleted the partitions and created new one. However, whenever I create the partition, it creates a primary one and gives me error saying Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition.
I received a Crucial M4 128GB SSD and today have been trying to copy a Windows 7 partition across to it using the tutorial on the How To Geek website which seemed to be fairly comprehensive. However, although I managed to get to the point of creating a partition and setting the alignment I can get no further. The snag seems to arise in that the instructions tell you to create a primary partition with appropriate alignment etc. But then when it comes to copying the partition, the program (Easeus Partition Master) says it must be unallocated space.
I've also tried this with Partition Wizard but the same applies - it must be unallocated space. Although I could copy across the partition to unallocated space, goodness only knows what the alignment would be thus probably reducing SSD life and slowing the performance in the process. Any reliable way in which I can copy the Windows 7 partition whilst retaining the alignment. I should also add that I am fully aware that a fresh install would take care of the alignment for me but we want to avoid the hassle and time (probably days since this is my husband's PC) involved in a full re-installation what with the drivers and all apps and their settings etc.
I want to upgrade a laptop from XP to 7. My current XP does not have the required 16GB in one partition, rather than getting a new drive I was going to eliminate the D partition as it is not used. What is the best way to do that? Do I need other software to increase the C partition from the deleted D partition or will windows 7 be able to expand the C partition?
I have a copy of windows 7 from a friend. (USB, possibly enterprise)It runs well, is official and can be re installed and is verified through the Microsoft site, so the media doesn't seem to be a problem.I was able to install Win7 Ult x64 on my WinVista HomePrem x86, but I went back through to clean the hard drive (it was full, I didn't format before) and after low level formatting I cannot reinstall the OS. The harddrives are completely empty, and I get stuck at "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition," after hitting next when you are selecting the HD partition to install on. I tried a couple of things already:
-Installing on another harddrive -Formatting using Hiren's bootcd -Using a hard drive with XP installed to see if it is an upgrade and not a full version (no luck, still wouldn't install) -diskpart > list disk > select disk 0 > list partition > active \ in cmd..I have three hard drives attached to the computer right now, they can't all be broken. T.T
I just spent like 18 hours copying 600K files, 1.33 TB, from a USB 2.0 ext. drive to a 1.36 TB USB 3.0 partition, but at the very end I got a handful of prompts to replace folders that already existed in the newly created folder, asked me to merge the original folder with the one just copied on the destination drive, eventually asking for permission to replace thousands of items and that's what it's doing now. I don't know what's going on. It appears that all files are there in both folders on each drive (with the exception of half a dozen that wouldn't copy due to long filenames).
Nearest I can guess is it is writing DOS names in addition to Windows names so the computer is going to spend more than a dozen more hours doing that. Windows Explorer copy wrongly offers to merge folders Windows Explorer copy wrongly offers to merge folders. The folder being copied that is being merged is called Drive(D), probably from a backup of Win 98SE being restored onto a Win XP machine, so it may resemble a system folder to Windows 7.
I am unable to install windows 7 whenever I try to install I get this error: "Setup was unable to use existing System partition because it does not contain the required free Space."
After doing a copy and paste, we have, on 3 occasions so far, found the copied data in an entirely different file. Twice data from a copy appeared in an excel spreadsheet and once a picture copied in facebook appeared in an email. The excel problem is very worrysome as it is our family budget. how this could happen? In the case of the excel events no paste operation was intentionally done.
Recently my SSD failed so I tried installing windows 7 from DVD on my HDD but I always get an error message: "Setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an existing system partition."I've tried everything I could find here: I gave boot priority to the HDD, I unplugged every other device but nothing seems to work.
So currently I have Windows Xp and Windows 7 /32bit installed. Windows XP on C Drive and Windows 7 on D.I would like to install Windows 7 /64 bit over windows XP so I can use more than 4G Ram. So I would have both 32 and 64 bit windows on the same PC. I have few questions: Can I somehow upgrade from XP to 7 without losing data and files? Will I still be able to go on the Windows 7 /32Bit?
Through a series of shenanigans involving experiments with mirroring on Windows 7 64 bit using Disk Management, and then subsequently removing the mirror after having recurring errors/problems with the synching, My 100MB System Reserve partition has ended up on a separate partition than my system image. For instance: Disk 1 System C: Healthy (Boot, page...) Disk 0 Healthy (System Reserved...).
In addition, the System Reserved partition has been assigned a drive letter "G:" or "E:" and is now visible in explorer and it won't allow me to remove it and supress from explorer view.
I'd like to
1) move/create the System Reserve partition to Disk 1 (with System C: drive)
2) remove the System Reserve partition from Disk 0 to free it all up as a data drive
Do I use command below to create a System Reserve on Disk 1? bcdboot C:Windows How do I then delete the System Reserve partition on Disk 0. Also a byproduct of all of this, when I reboot now, I have a "Windows 7" option and a "Windows 7 Secondary Plex" option. The "Windows 7" option no longer boots (it's stops while the logo panes are flying in circles to form the logo and goes into a fix loop that never fixes it). I have a feeling it's looking for the old mirrored hardware configuration or something. However, "Window 7 Secondary Plex" option does boot just fine. Do I use MSCONFIG to remove the "Windows 7" boot entry so I don't get this annoying option at boot?
how to move all my files from my internal harddrive to my external harddrive. Everytime I try to transfer my files it will transfer for like 1GB and then it will freeze and restart.
I am working in Windows 7 XP Mode, trying to install and run a Microsoft utility called: WT1230: Batch File Converter for PowerPoint for Windows 95. (See WT1230: Batch File Converter for PowerPoint for Windows 95). Yes, the utility is intended for Win95, but I'd like to see if I can get it running in XP Mode. The utility installation instructions ask that I copy 2 files to the "Windows/system" folder. Of course, these instructions were written for Win95, not XP, let alone XP Mode. Still... if I copy the files, the core executable runs fine, but it can't find the 2 files that should be in "Windows/System". So, I gather XP Mode must have its own Windows/System folder.
What would be the easiest way to do a dual boot? Would it be:
1)Use a second hard drive, one with XP one with Windows 7? If I did this would I be able to plug the XP drive in and see it as my D: drive? What if I went and switched it back in the bios to the XP hard would I see windows 7 stuff in D:? I’d like to do this since I have two hard drives one that is brand new.
2) Just partition my current hard drive and dual boot. If I did this would I be able to switch back and forth and see files on both boots? Also what about if I added my other new hard drive would both see it easily?
I don’t know much about dual boots so please fill me in and answer my questions.
I've got a weird problem I couldn't find any solutions for on google. In trying to move my 'Users' folder to my new 1 TB Media Drive M: I accidently moved the directory (right click>Properties>Location Tab>Change directory path) "C:UsersScottMy Music" to "M:UsersMy Music" where the system MERGED it with "C:UsersScott" instead of creating it adjacent to that directoryAfter that the system has decided that the directory structure of "M:UsersScott" is the same as "M:UsersMy Music" so whenever I move a file or folder to "M:UsersScott" in trying to complete the migration it puts it in "M:UsersMy Music" instead.If I create a new folder in "M:Users" and rename it to 'Scott' the system asks if I wanted to merge the two folders as it thinks Scott already exists, even if it shows My MusicThis problem is not a huge issue and because of other potential problems this may have caused I am going to create a new profile, move my data over, and remove this profile, but I wanted to find out what is causing thi
I'm in a bit of a pickle here. My CD drive won't allow me to boot from CDs anymore, for whatever reason. I have 2 partitions on my hard drive and I'm wondering if it's possible to format the main partition by copying the windows setup files to my secondary and then somehow running them from there, whilst wiping the main one. I really don't want to reinstall without formatting, but right now I have no other option.
I deleted the ubuntu partition now windows wont boot. I have tried the recovery disk and tried "bootrec /fixmbr" but it didnt work.Now the win7 installation is not showing up in the recovery console.When I turn the laptop on I get "Insert System Disk in drive Press any key when ready".
I had an empty 70 GB partition on the left of my computer and a 230 GB on the right side but I wanted to combine them. Windows was on the 230 GB partition. I booted GParted and combined them, it copied everything from the 230 GB partition over and resized it, it took a few hours.I assumed after it wouldn't boot and all I would have to do is pop in my Windows 7 install disc and go through the repair setup. At first I ran startup repair and it would say it found a problem, and I rebooted and still nothing.. After the bios loads and it lists my DVD drives I just get a cursor _ blinking, nothing else.. No BOOTMGR missing.Odd I thought, so I ran repair again, and again it found another problem. I did this several times before it said it could not detect a problem but it still would do the same thing.I opened the cmd prompt and issued the following commands
I tried installing a second copy of Windows 7 on a 10 GB partition on the end, it went successfully but still blinking cursor. Theres a 54 MB partition at the beginning of type Primary, the main windows one is System and the test windows 7 partition is Primary as well. I thought the first one was usually 100 MB but maybe I am wrong.Still I am stuck with a blinking cursor?
I have been given the challenge to make a way to install Windows without any installation media and without having to even touch the computer while it's installing. So far I've made a .wim image with the help of this guide and I've made an Autounattend.xml file with thI put the install.wim image in the sources directory on a flash drive and the Autounattend.xml file in the root of the flash drive, and it does exactly what I want it to - all except it's not on a partition. So I move it to a partition and add a boot entry using EasyBCD. It boots fine, but it acts like the Autounattend.xml file isn't even there. So right now I have the choice of hands free installation with media, or manual installation without media. My main question is why the Autounattend.xml file isn't working when I boot the same media from a partition
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop that got a virus on it. I tried to fix the virus but was just not able to and every time I turned the computer on it would get an error message and ask if I wanted to start windows normally, once in a while I would get a BSOD and it would reset itself. I don't remember what the error messages were because I kinda ignored the problem for a couple months and finally got around to saving what I needed and trying to do a reset. Everything went fine when I went into Dells Datasafe Restore. After it wiped the drive and re-installed I got past the Dell screen at startup and on to the windows screen then suddenly got a flash of a BSOD then the computer restarted. I went through the startup repair and got the message Failure while setup is in progress. I've been searching for a solution for a few hours now and I haven't found one. I don't have a recovery disk (I was just trying to use the partition) and I don't have a windows 7 cd. Where do I go from here?
