Two windows questions: replacing disk and xp->win7 keeping profile

[you2]

I have two windows questions (I'm basically a linux user who uses windows for games and am a bit lacking about basic system crap under windows):

a) I have a non-boot disk that is full under windows xp (c is boot; d is data disk). I want to copy d to a new 1 tb disk and then remove d and have all the old installed software on partition d work with the new disk (i.e, the new disk becomes d). Is there a simple way to do this? Can i just put the disk in; do the copy; remove d and have the new disk become d ?

b) This summer I will upgrade to windows 7; can I keep saved games and profiles under xp in windows 7 (I realize that I will need to copy the data; but is there an easy way to copy it so that windows 7 software accepts the old saves and such ?)

c) Is there a better forum for these questions ?

 

[you2]

Is there a better forum for these questions ?

 

[semo]

a) If C: is your systemdrive and D: is only data then you can copy the contents of D: to the new drive then change the drive letters. In diskmanagement right click on D: and change/remove the drive letter. Then assign D: to the new disk. You can also do this from the registry by swapping the drive letters in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices

b) look in to Windows easy transfer (it lives in 7). Usually with games you just have to copy the save folder. I would just google the game name+move save data or something like that

 

[you2]

a) If C: is your systemdrive and D: is only data then you can copy the contents of D: to the new drive then change the drive letters. In diskmanagement right click on D: and change/remove the drive letter. Then assign D: to the new disk. You can also do this from the registry by swapping the drive letters in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices
---
Yea! That's what I wanted to know. Yea Steam is on D and C is boot disk with some data. So this will work well; plug in new disk; copy unplug old disk but keep as backup; rename new disk to D!
--


b) look in to Windows easy transfer (it lives in 7). Usually with games you just have to copy the save folder. I would just google the game name+move save data or something like that

Thanks mega for the answer; switching to windows 7 will be a pain.

 

[you2]

One quick question (I'm finally doing this; takes forever to format a 1tb drive):

Does windows use the drive letter or is there an internal symbol it uses?

I.e, D is currently my steam drive; I will copy D to Z (Z is the new drive); then rename D to X and Z to D and shtudown. Then pull the power from X and reboot; having just C and D. Should all work correctly at this point or will something realize that the old D is no longer there ?

 

[you2]

bleh this is turning out into a real pain. In linux I would just cp -r /a /b.

I tried copy via gui but midway it said "can't copy system folder". Is there not an easy way to copy all the content from my old (small) disk to my new (large disk). I want to emphasize the old small disk is not the boot disk; it is the disk I install all the games (the D: disk).

THanks

Ok. I think I figured it out; instead of copy D i have to copy everything at the top level of D to Z. Bleh Windows sucks rotten eggs.

Yea; someone ported the unix tool diff to windows that'll let me check it.

I hope after all this crap it all works when I rename Z to D

 

[you2]

Oh done. What a total PIA. Had to boot off of a linux boot disk; mount the old and new disk; cp -r; diff -r ; reboot in windows and change the drive letter.

Now why the F@)(#*@CK can't window allow for a simple cp -r; diff -r ?

 

[rasczak]

you could have done a steam backup (this backs up all of your game data) installed steam on the other PC, then done an import from steam.

 

[you2]

I had a lot more than just game data on the disk. What was breaking the copy (with windows) is that there was a very old folder from two generations ago that was a 'system' folder so everytime I used the gui to copy the disk; it would eventually hit that folder and give an error "can't copy system folder".

The unix trick worked and was very simple; also I had the added advantage of being able to check the data for bit errors. If I hadn't wasted so much time trying to copy the data in windows I would have been in a better mood . Basically it took 10 minutes to download a linux boot disk and burn it; boot up in linux; mount the two disks; issue cp -r; go to the gym; issue the diff -r; go to the store; reboot in windows

Isn't linux great

you could have done a steam backup (this backs up all of your game data) installed steam on the other PC, then done an import from steam.