[help] moving win 7 from one partition to another


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hi i have the following problem - i have one harddisk in my system with 4 partitions.

partition1- C: 47 GB with Vista 32bit on it (system,active)

partition2- D: 47 Gb with Win7 32 bit on it

Partition3- E: 500 GB for Data

so all the files for booting are on drive c - so what i want to do is make an image from partition2 with win7 on it und put this image on partition1 with actually vista on it.

but i am sure if i just make the image from partition2 then start the system from acronis start cd an copy the image of partition2 on partition1 the data would be there - but i won't be able to boot the system as there are missing the boot files.

so to all the cracks out there - is there a way to get this scenario done and working without installing win7 to partition1 from scratch ?

would be great if someone could help me out.

thx

greetz ilovebytes

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You can use Windows Backup to create a full backup of your Windows 7 "drive", then boot from CD and load your backup onto drive C.

There should be no boot issue after doing the system restore, if Win7 boot fails you can boot from CD and do a Startup Repair.

If you dont know how to do that, here is a Tutorial.

<edit>

You can also use your acronis image, then boot from cd and choose startup repair

</edit>

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I'm not completely sure what you're looking for here.

Are you saying you want to MOVE partition2 to partition1? That's pretty easy.

Do you have data on Partition1 that you want to preserve? That's where it gets tricky. There's no easy way to just drop a Win7 installation on top of Vista.

Since you're just trying to do a 32-bit to 32-bit upgrade, why not an upgrade install?

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hi i tried it the way camlann suggestet - make an image with acronis of partition2 with win7 on it and put this image on partition1 with vista on it - so vista and all data on partition1 is deleted - as i want it.

but as promised win7 won't start as there misses the bootloader which was on partition1 before deleting it - but as camlann said that could be solved and repaired with the win 7 media.

so win 7 starts up fine - but then i got a massive problem - when it comes to login - win 7 starts to prepare my desktop again as before the first login after a fresh install and it never manages to prepare my desktop.

i presume it could be a problem that win 7 is not able to load my profile as the path's changed when i put the image on partition1

is there anything i could do about that - otherwise i will have to do a fresh install :(

Greetz ilovebytes

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Hmm Ok, so you have to change the Windows Driver letter in Registry...

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to open TaskManager, then open a explorer.exe to figure out what's the new Windows 7 OS drive letter.

Then start regedit and go to the following Key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
2. Find the drive letter you want to change to (new). Look for "\DosDevices\C:".
3. Rename it to an unused drive letter "\DosDevices\Z:".
This frees up drive letter C.
4. Find the drive letter you want changed. Look for "\DosDevices\D:".
5. Rename it to the appropriate (new) drive letter "\DosDevices\C:".
6. Click the value for \DosDevices\Z:, click Rename, and then name it back to "\DosDevices\D:".

Hope that helps :)

Next time better use Windows Complete PC Backup, and you woun't have that issue ;)

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