Upgrade Win7 to Win8 keeping user data&programs on 2nd hdd

Braddersz

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I want to upgrade from Windows 7 64 bit Home edition - To Windows 8 64 bit Home Edition.

I currently have my windows 7 installation on drive C (64GB SSD)

My user profiles, Data and programmes are stored on Drive E ( 1TB HDD )

If i use the windows 8 upgrade option - What will happen?.

Thanks
Brad
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 4Bit
    CPU
    Intel Core I7 1155 3.4 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Asus P8 - Pro
    Memory
    8gb DDr 3 Corsair
    Graphics Card(s)
    onboard
Brad,

Though my installation didn't span two volumes like yours does, I ran the upgrade on my system without incident. The upgrade program identified a handful of items that were incompatible and let me remove them as part of the upgrade process. Once done my system operated pretty much as before.

Suggest that you do an image backup prior to running the upgrade, however I'd say confidence is high that your upgrade will go smoothly. I have a lot of development tools and other items on my machine and have run into surprisingly few issues as an upgrade. This time I didn't feel like doing a system rebuild as that often takes me several days to get everything settled down. So far no issues of significance.

I upgraded from Win7 Ultimate (64-bit) to Win8 Pro/64.

-Max
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 17R / Dell XPS 8300
    CPU
    Intel i5 (17R) / Intel i7 (XPS)
    Memory
    8GB / 8GB
Thanks Max.

I'm not to bothered about my Programmes.

I'm more insterested in my user folders, My Documents, Downloads, Music, Desktop,Pictures etc etc

Everything I save Automaticly saves to Drive E.
To do this I had to make changes to the Registery in Windows 7. To point my user profile to E:\Users\Bradley....

My question is: Will windows 8 still know that my user folder is stored on drive E:\... Or will it think somethings wrong, and fail to boot.

Or possibly windows 8 may well just create a new user folder.

I will clone my C drive before i do this.

Thanks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 4Bit
    CPU
    Intel Core I7 1155 3.4 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Asus P8 - Pro
    Memory
    8gb DDr 3 Corsair
    Graphics Card(s)
    onboard
Thanks Max.

I'm not to bothered about my Programmes.

I'm more insterested in my user folders, My Documents, Downloads, Music, Desktop,Pictures etc etc

Everything I save Automaticly saves to Drive E.
To do this I had to make changes to the Registery in Windows 7. To point my user profile to E:\Users\Bradley....

My question is: Will windows 8 still know that my user folder is stored on drive E:\... Or will it think somethings wrong, and fail to boot.

Or possibly windows 8 may well just create a new user folder.

I will clone my C drive before i do this.

Thanks

If your Win7 libraries involve drive E: I'm pretty sure they will be preserved as-is. The Libraries are a virtual map to locations on your hard drive and my impression of the upgrade is that it is honoring all your settings as they are on your original system. You may have additional locations involved in your libraries, however I'm willing to bet they will be left exactly as they are.

-Max
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 17R / Dell XPS 8300
    CPU
    Intel i5 (17R) / Intel i7 (XPS)
    Memory
    8GB / 8GB
Thanks Max.

I'll give it a try. Once i've cloned my C Drive. I'll go ahead and upgrade to Windows 8. I'll be sure to let everyone know if it works and keeps all Virtual Mapping settings from Windows 7.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 4Bit
    CPU
    Intel Core I7 1155 3.4 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Asus P8 - Pro
    Memory
    8gb DDr 3 Corsair
    Graphics Card(s)
    onboard
Thanks Max.

I'll give it a try. Once i've cloned my C Drive. I'll go ahead and upgrade to Windows 8. I'll be sure to let everyone know if it works and keeps all Virtual Mapping settings from Windows 7.

Yeah, let us know. I was pleasantly surprised how it took my development machine and upgraded everything without breaking a ton of things.

-Max
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 17R / Dell XPS 8300
    CPU
    Intel i5 (17R) / Intel i7 (XPS)
    Memory
    8GB / 8GB
I want to upgrade from Windows 7 64 bit Home edition - To Windows 8 64 bit Home Edition.

I currently have my windows 7 installation on drive C (64GB SSD)

My user profiles, Data and programmes are stored on Drive E ( 1TB HDD )

If i use the windows 8 upgrade option - What will happen?.

Thanks
Brad

I currently have a very similar system as yours. The only difference is that I am trying to upgrade from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8 Pro, both 64 bit. I too have Windows 7 on a 64 GB SSD (drive C). My "Users" folders and almost all programs (installed in "Program Files" and "Program Files (x86) directories) are also on a 1TB HDD (drive E). I ran the 64 bit setup program for Windows 8 Pro (I did not boot from the Windows 8 CD, but just inserted it and ran setup.exe), and had a lot of problems.

First, the setup program told me I had to rename the "Users" folder on Drive C. I realized that I still had an old "Users" folder on Drive C, so I deleted it in order to get past this problem (renaming it did NOT work - "UsersOld" acted just as if it was "Users"). Next, the screen that is supposed to give you a choice of what from your old installation to keep only had a single choice - "Keep Nothing." I aborted the installation at this point and gave it another try. On the second try, there was still only the "Keep Nothing" choice. I decided to move forward anyway, keeping that choice. The installation program went on for about a half hour, rebooting at least once, and then finally said that it could not install Windows 8. It restored my system fine, but I have not attempted the install again.

I am wondering if I do the install by booting to the Windows installation CD if I will get different results? Regarding the "Users" folder, why is its location not simply an option? Doing a registry hack to achieve that seems pretty dangerous for the average user. Also, if I manage to complete the upgrade, will all my compatible programs that I have installed on drive E still work? I usually like to do a clean install, but do not have the time to completely rebuild my system from scratch.

Thanks,
Dave
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
I have some "program files" and my movies library on my 2nd D: drive. Upgrade left everything in place. In fact it went very well. I am usually against OS upgrades, but getting lazy in my old age...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 7 home premium 64bit
Well, I installed the upgrade again and got it to finish. I then tried several techniques to get my Users folder on to the hard drive (E) instead of drive C. This included a tutorial from this forum. Nothing worked, and it trashed my installation so I could not boot to Windows 8. So I said the heck with it and went out and bought me a bigger SSD (256GB), then did a clean install of Windows 8 (not the upgrade) keeping the Users folder in the default location. I did relocate the various data folders like "My Documents" via the properties dialogues. I'm up and running now. Some of my programs installed on drive E are still working fine, but others I am having to reinstall.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7
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