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WinXP-32 to Win7-64, using 2nd Partition as backup. Possible or Not?
WinXP-32 to Win7-64, using 2nd Partition as backup. Possible or Not?
- I have a 1TB SATA HDD drive with 2 partitions, formatted to NTFS. I'm currently running WinXPpro 32-bit in C: Partition (200M) and using the other partition (J:) for data storage (800M). I've backed up all my data to the J: drive and I'm ready to install Win7 64-bit. My question is; will my J: drive still be there after I install Win7? Will I loose all my data? Or should I go out and buy another HDD for Win7 and just use my exisiting drive as a slave? All told I've got 300MB of data on the J: drive and obviously don't want to loose it. I don't have the option of "backing everything up to an external hard drive" and I'd really rather not go that route if needed (but I'm working on acceptance!)
I'm not trying to multi-boot or run multiple OS on the same machine, I just want change from one to the other and want to know that my data will be safe. If it's a hard question to answer, I'd love to hear that too. More importantly, if it's known that I WILL loose everything that if this idea is strongly not advised, that would be helpful information too.
Any adivce??? If this has all ready been aswered, please direct me to the correct post.
Thanks in advance,
Dax- Edited byDax Arroway Tuesday, November 03, 2009 8:42 PMUpdate
Answers
My question is; will my J: drive still be there after I install Win7? Will I loose all my data?
Dax Arroway, when you install you should choose the 'Custom' install option and then select the drive partition where your Windows XP install is currently located. You will NOT lose your data if you ensure that the XP location is selected as the intended location for your Windows 7 install.
If you have organised your data into suitable folders on the J: drive, after installing Windows 7 you will only need to 'Add' its location to the relevent 'Library' in Windows 7 to regain access to your data from within Windows. There is no longer any need to copy it back into 'Documents', 'Pictures' etc etc. Those are now 'Libraries' rather than merely 'Folders', and you can add other locations to the library and even set a different added location as the default Save location for the relevent library.
P.S. This is an internet forum, not the formal customer support service. At times patience is required whilst awaiting a reply. People providing answers here are doing so voluntarily, and they come from all corners of the globe so the person answering may not even be in the same time zone as you are.
Cheers.- Proposed As Answer byTechwrighter Wednesday, November 04, 2009 1:52 AM
- Marked As Answer byDax Arroway Wednesday, November 04, 2009 4:31 PM
All Replies
- Well, I see that in 4 hrs 35 people have viewed my post and not one of them is screaming at me, "DON'T DO IT! YOU'LL LOOSE EVERYTHING!" So, I'm gonna bite the bullet and go for it. May God have sympathy on my data. (And may I have sympathy on my computer if I loose everything.) I'll let you know how it goes.
--Dax- Edited byDax Arroway Wednesday, November 04, 2009 12:05 AM`
My question is; will my J: drive still be there after I install Win7? Will I loose all my data?
Dax Arroway, when you install you should choose the 'Custom' install option and then select the drive partition where your Windows XP install is currently located. You will NOT lose your data if you ensure that the XP location is selected as the intended location for your Windows 7 install.
If you have organised your data into suitable folders on the J: drive, after installing Windows 7 you will only need to 'Add' its location to the relevent 'Library' in Windows 7 to regain access to your data from within Windows. There is no longer any need to copy it back into 'Documents', 'Pictures' etc etc. Those are now 'Libraries' rather than merely 'Folders', and you can add other locations to the library and even set a different added location as the default Save location for the relevent library.
P.S. This is an internet forum, not the formal customer support service. At times patience is required whilst awaiting a reply. People providing answers here are doing so voluntarily, and they come from all corners of the globe so the person answering may not even be in the same time zone as you are.
Cheers.- Proposed As Answer byTechwrighter Wednesday, November 04, 2009 1:52 AM
- Marked As Answer byDax Arroway Wednesday, November 04, 2009 4:31 PM
- Hi Dax,
If Drive C has enough space to install Windows 7, just get an Windows 7 installation disk and do a Customer Install. It will save old files to a windows.old folder on drive C (including program files, windows and Users and Settings folder).
Other partition will not be affected so files will still be there. After installing Windows 7, we can still access files on Drive J.
In addition, if there is any important files on Drive C, remember backup before installing Windows 7. - Well I'm not sure what happened but SHE NO GO! What happened was installation froze multiple times, hung a bunch more, and it would get up to 16% or 3% druing the "Expanding Windows Files" part of the intallation and then reboot all by itself. After doing forced shut downs multiple times and going through the install process yet one more time, I hit the Custom Installation button and my drive was no longer one of my choices to install Win7 to. I could see my other drive, another hard drive I had installed in my system for data backup but it was only a 200 Gig drive, almost full, so I couldn't back up my data to that one and I'm not going to use that one to install Win7. I bought another hard drive for Win7 (still experienced of other problems after eventually getting Win7 onto it but that's a whole nother posting) and I took the invisible drive to my local techy shop and they said it was formatted over. I called the HDD surgeon and they're quoting me $700 to $2,400 dollars to retrieve my data. OUCH!
It might be a hardware issue. I'm having my box checked out head to toe at the tech shop to be sure. If not, MS support says it might be a bad install disk, therefore, a currupt install which made the computer shut down, reboot, freeze, and take a LONG time to install. We'll see. I'll post back when I find out.
But in the meantime, word to the wise: Don't back up your data to a separate partition if it's at all precious to you because if there is any issue with the install Win7 might format your entire drive and render the data inaccessable and it will cost you a thousand dollars to retrieve! Back up your data to another internal hard drive or an external drive like the instructions tell you to or just buy a vanilla drive to load it onto; they're relatively cheap these days. Read these forums. Do a search for install hangs and read about how difficult it's been for folks. One post says its taken the person 40 hours to install! It's NOT as stable as they're making it out to be. You know that commercial about the person who says that Win7 was their idea? I'd like to know that person's phone number because I sure do have something to say to them! *smile*
Thanks for all the help folks! I'll post back when I figure it out. Till then, ALOHA!
--Dax- Edited byDax Arroway Sunday, November 08, 2009 4:37 AM.
