vinifera Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 so heres the problem, my hard drive is full of stuff and now i'm gonna get new Motherboard, new CPU ... so obviously i need new installation, but because the issue at hand, i cant format the drive... i know in past windows could be installed again on same disk just another name (Windows1) or smth can win7 do the same ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burd Posted July 14, 2020 Share Posted July 14, 2020 it needs to be a different partition , then on the same disk is possible , which i am doing currently , triple boot vista 7 and 10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinifera Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 so, do i "split volume" or "resize volume" (using acronis disk director) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alacran Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 (edited) Because of your question I assume you have a single partition for your Win7 and maybe also a first little (150MB) hiden partition for the boot files/folders. You can do an UPDATE install on same drive location. Verify first if your HD is MBR or GPT (for UEFI) formated. If your drive is encripted desencript it now, if you used a HD password on the Bios/UEFI, remove it. If yor actual system is booting fine. I recommend to first fully defragment your HD before put the HD on new hardware, or you can do it from a WinPE on the new hardware before installing or reinstalling the OS, and make sure therere is enough space for the new install on same drive. Easier way is put your HD on new hardware, open the Bios/firmware and select CSM if your HD is MBR formated or UEFI if it is GPT formated. You need to be very carefull with this. Make sure the OS to install is compatable with the new hardware and if there are drivers available for it. Boot from from your 7, 8.x or 10 DVD or USB (it has to be same architecture x86 or x64 as previous install), and select UPDATE during install (no matter if it is same OS as previous), on same OS previous drive/partition location (without formating it), the install will put all old system isolated into a folder (Windows old) on the root of the drive and make a new fresh install on same partition, (no need to change name), keeping intact all your documents and almost all programs, of course you will need to activate it and maybe reinstall or update some programs if they are not compatable with new OS installed or hardware. NOTE: during install use same user name and password to avoid troubles with protected or encripted files (by Windows) on your documents folder, or they will not be accesible latter. alacran Edited July 15, 2020 by alacran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinifera Posted July 15, 2020 Author Share Posted July 15, 2020 (edited) i think i found less painful way i freed about 40% of drive space why don't i just partition that free space and then move the stuff on that space then format the 1st original partition, and then move back all stuff ? question is, can i merge then the newly but then empty partition back into 1 giant partition without things get wiped out ? Edited July 15, 2020 by vinifera Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HarryTri Posted July 15, 2020 Share Posted July 15, 2020 Just delete the empty partition and then expand the other one with diskpart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cannie Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 Hello, You may find a solution for this here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/144084-windows-7-and-windows10-together-adding-linux/ HTH Cannie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UCyborg Posted July 18, 2020 Share Posted July 18, 2020 It's possible to install Windows on the same partition where the current install and data is if the data is moved out of the way to avoid potential issues (out of the way - out of Windows' directory hierarchy), eg. place it in C:\Stuff and delete everything else from the partition from recovery environment - boot install DVD->Repair computer->use Command prompt and following commands: dir /A D:\ - list folder files and on partition lettered D (you have to find the right one since C:\ probably won't point to the right one) rd /S /Q D:\folderName - delete folder and its content del /A /F D:\fileName - delete individual file Or using robocopy (you need an empty folder first): md X:\empty robocopy X:\empty D:\ /MIR /XD D:\Stuff /R:0 /NFL /NDL /NJS /NJH /NP /LOG:X:\robocopy.log This gets rid of everything with minimal log output except D:\Stuff and probably System Volume Information folder, which I've no idea how to get rid of entirely using Windows. Last time I've done this, I cheated and deleted it from Linux because takeown and icacls couldn't help. If separate boot partition exists, format it to clean up. At least that's how I purge Windows while preserving data without having to migrate it off partition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vinifera Posted July 21, 2020 Author Share Posted July 21, 2020 well i did it, luckily i already made in 2016 custom win7 dvd so not to much to "recover" from last system but weird thing that was, neither latest Acronis partitioner, nor win7 disk manager, could partition disk in 2 parts O_o but Partition Wizzard (boot/PE) did it without a problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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