• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Migrating Win7 C drive questions

alostpacket

alostpacket

Over Macho Grande?
So I am about to Migrate my Win7 C drive in a day or two and am trying to come up with a checklist of what I need to prepare. I plan on doing a fresh install but have a few questions.

When doing a fresh install is there a way to save program installations? (other than Steam). I dont think that there is, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I also have Norton Ghost that came with my new SSD drive -- but I dont know what version. And, it sounds like more trouble than it's worth.


Here's my checklist so far. Any tips appreciated.


  • Set up Slipstream with SP1, hotfixes, Video drivers, Sound drivers, possibly chipset, and RAID/SATA drivers
  • Be sure to have RAID/SATA III drivers on a separate CD (just in case)
  • Be sure chipset drivers are also on a CD (just in case)
  • Have my portable apps, especially Eclipse copied and ready to go
  • Back up my PATH variables
  • Back up my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles and plugins
  • Back up my /user/ directory
  • Back up my Firewall profiles/rules
  • Make a note of overclock settings from the bios as a basis to re-do the overclock after.
  • Back up registry (just in case)
  • Make a list of Services (any easy way to do this?)
  • Back up my Scheduled tasks (I have a network drive auto-mount as SYSTEM via a batch command)
  • All data backed up to NAS

Is there anything I am missing here? Some type of recovery USB?


:bebored:

Incidentally I am planning on re-seating my heatsink and placing two 40MM fans on the North Bridge prior to the HD->SSD upgrade. But I figured I would do all the backing up first.

:pcguru:


thanks!
 
alostpacket said:
So I am about to Migrate my Win7 C drive in a day or two and am trying to come up with a checklist of what I need to prepare. I plan on doing a fresh install but have a few questions.

When doing a fresh install is there a way to save program installations? (other than Steam). I dont think that there is, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I also have Norton Ghost that came with my new SSD drive -- but I dont know what version. And, it sounds like more trouble than it's worth.


Here's my checklist so far. Any tips appreciated.


  • Set up Slipstream with SP1, hotfixes, Video drivers, Sound drivers, possibly chipset, and RAID/SATA drivers
  • Be sure to have RAID/SATA III drivers on a separate CD (just in case)
  • Be sure chipset drivers are also on a CD (just in case)
  • Have my portable apps, especially Eclipse copied and ready to go
  • Back up my PATH variables
  • Back up my Firefox and Thunderbird profiles and plugins
  • Back up my /user/ directory
  • Back up my Firewall profiles/rules
  • Make a note of overclock settings from the bios as a basis to re-do the overclock after.
  • Back up registry (just in case)
  • Make a list of Services (any easy way to do this?)
  • Back up my Scheduled tasks (I have a network drive auto-mount as SYSTEM via a batch command)
  • All data backed up to NAS

Is there anything I am missing here? Some type of recovery USB?


:bebored:

Incidentally I am planning on re-seating my heatsink and placing two 40MM fans on the North Bridge prior to the HD->SSD upgrade. But I figured I would do all the backing up first.

:pcguru:


thanks!
Click to expand...

Have all product keys in a list. Notepad is good enough for this. Most will let you copy and paste.

You Probably know this but do not restore your Registry until you have everything back on.

Firefox / Thunderbird - I normally make sure I have a backup copy of my bookmarks and emails that I must have that is seperate from the folders they reside in.

Services - Print Screen is the easiest I have found. Name them in succession (Service Screen 1, Service Screen 2, and etc..)

Any updates you can download after Service Pack 1 you may want to have those just to keep from having to wait so long for Windows to Update.

I don't see network drivers so any wired / wireless drivers you have make sure you have those.

Reinstall of programs are done manually with me. I guess I'm more old school and prefer to just reinstall then re introduce my settings back to them. Which is another thing make sure you have a list or a backup of settings you have for your programs. Better than having to do it manually by memory.

double, triple, quadruple check to make sure you have done everything before taking it down. I used to have a basic spread sheet that had my check list on it. I need to do one again I'm getting ready to upgrade this one to the Latest Fedora but I'm going to do a fresh install instead of an update. Last time I did an update I had a few issues.
 
You're just copying to a new drive? Just image it from the old one on to the new one. No need to gather anything at all.

Edit: Just saw that you got Ghost. Your solution is simple then.

1. Install Ghost on the current computer
2. Hook up the SSD as a slave drive
3. Fire up Ghost and image the C drive on to the slave
4. Unplug the current hard drive and power the computer on
5. Profit.
 
I guess I figured it would be a good chance to do a clean install of Windows though. I see that often recommended. I know it's not as big a deal as it used to be, but I think my system could use it. Is it really not worth the effort?


Edit: I should mention I'd love to get rid of the boot sectors on the other drives -- I think I originally messed them up so at least 2 of my 3 1TB drives are "bootable" though only 1 is Windows/active.
 
It's always worth doing a fresh install if you have the time and patience.

I.always recommend backup up literally just documents. All your programs are best installed fresh. I don't trust anything to backup each application and the correct registry entries.

Put the effort in, its definitely worth it ;)
 
Depends on how well your system is running. If you clone the drive, your system will continue to run as is and you'll have minimal headaches. If you're not happy with how the system is running, then a fresh install would be called for, but that's more of a headache.
 
what i normally do is just backup your personal files (documents) and drivers are normally somewhere on the drive. when i redo a computer i normally dump all the drivers in the root c:\ in a folder named drivers. and as far a programs go i dont back anything up as far as that goes. if you have a list of apps your gonna reinstall ALL of them which is fine if you want all of them but if you dont have a list you will only install the most important ones too you and fined that you didnt need some of the programs you had installed.
 
h4x0rj3ff said:
if you have a list of apps your gonna reinstall ALL of them which is fine if you want all of them but if you dont have a list you will only install the most important ones too you and fined that you didnt need some of the programs you had installed.
Click to expand...

This is an excellent point. This is probably where I get the most improvement. Getting rid of the stuff id didn't even know that I didn't need :D
 
Success!

Samsung's firmware is horribad, but all is working well. Managed to reseat the heatsink, and get 2x tiny 40mm fans in the case (one by the north bridge the other by the vreg -- damn those things were hot).



I have access to my old C drive. So now trying to rebuild settings as I need them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom