NTFS drives from xp-32bit to win7 64bit

[Blintok]

hello. search keeps timing out and google tells me everything except what i want to know.

It is time to put together a new game machine. my present game machine becomes my "Work" machine (video.pix.internet.email) and consists of an Intel i5-750 in an Asus P7P55D pro running Windows 64bit with 8gig ram.

Old "work" machine is a Intel E6300. Asus P5B. 2gig ram. on Windows XP 32bit sp3
I have 3 hard drives in this machine. drive0 is C: OS and E:apps
Drive 1 and 2 are Data.

I got 2 120gig SSD. one for new build and one for new work computer. Win7-64 will be installed on the SSD and current 640g drive (C: & D ) will be repartitioned as 1 volume and will become the applications/programs drive.

What i want to do is keep the drive 0 in old computer and move the 2 data drives to the new work computer. Maybe a silly question but will the data drives work or will i have to reformat them under win7 64bit? They are >not< fat32 but formated as ntfs.

 

[Mongrelchops]

You may have to re-word that slightly and split the hardware into 2 paragraphs, i.e

Work PC
SSD (Fresh OS Install)
2 x Data Drives from old PC

Home PC
SSD (Fresh Install)
New Second Drive

if i have read it correctly - you want to take Drives 1 & 2 from the work machine, and put them into your new build hoping that your programs etc will just work?

it is unlikely to work. When you install your fresh OS on the SSD it will have different registry entries and file locations to what your old machine had.

I know its hateful to go through a build process, but If you have a new machine - don't see it as a chance to cut corners, see it as a positive - i.e - an opportunity for a fresh install and a faster machine.

 

[Snapshot1]

NTFS from XP-32 SP3 should be OK on 7-64 with regard to user data, not so much for other things.

Things to watch out for include:

• Items on the drives to be moved that are in fact needed to boot or run the old system, including registry entries that point at things on these drives;
• Encryption, compression or other special features; and
• Time stamps may not be exactly compatible.

I would suggest disconnecting the drives to be transferred (without physically removing them), then operating the old system with just the drive to remain installed.

Once you are sure that is working then remove the drives and install them in the new system. On the new system the new drives will have new letters, so anything that references the data stored on them may require some tweaking.

You don't mention any specific applications, but one example that requires some care in doing this kind of move is Lightroom, because there is a catalog (database) which thinks it knows where the files for the images are located. Even moving them to a different folder can require some work to update the catalog. In this particular case you can also write the metadata to sidecar files to ensure that it is transferred with the image file and not left behind in the catalog.

Also depending on the type of data and application the applications may be different versions on the two systems; usually a newer version will read files created on older versions, but sometimes not the other way around.

Snapshot1

 

[Blintok]

ya bit confusing.
There are 3 computers involved here. Will call them A, B and C

A=E6300 based system with 3 hard drives. Win XP. 1 drive partitioned as an OS drive and apps drive. next 2 drives are data only. (movies.pix.backups)

B= based on i5-750. Win7-64bit it has 1 640gig hard drive in 2 partitions. Adding a new 120g SSD as fresh Win7-64bit install. 640g drive to be repartioned as 1 partition and want to add the 2 data drives from computer A

C=based on i7-2600k. Win 7-64bit. 1-120g SSD as Win7-64bit os. and has new 1000g drive.

All applications will be installed fresh on Computers B&C and computer A will be reformated and fresh installed with WinXP and given away

so most of the things on the 2 Data drives are just that, data. movies.tv shows.pix.documents. These are also backed up on 2 separate USB drives.

So make things much easier if i could just pop the 2 data drives into Computer B with no issues.

 

[VirtualLarry]

As long as they're just data, then go for it, they should transfer easily.

 

[sm625]

Many programs do run just fine if you just copy the program folder over to a new machine. Take League of Legends for example. I dont bother downloading it on a new machine. I just copy the entire 3GB Riot Games folder and it runs just fine. Done it on like 8 different machines so far.