Moving to WIN 7

[systemcrash]

i have a fresh install of win 7 on my laptop, and im looking for ways to enhance it to keep it fresher for longer. i have partitioned my drive and moved the pagefile, i have 2 partitions free, One i intended for C:\Users and Programs, And the other for my documents like music and pictures ect.

I have already booted onto a live CD and copied all the data i intend to move to the right partition so E:\ already has the users and programs folders and there intire contents. But thats all i got up to at the moment, i have read up on the internet and cannot find anyone who has sucessfully moved these folders, All i find is people who are questioning it or people advising against it saying moving the folders will stop windows updates installing..

Or people saying use junction points or a unatended txt during install. My laptop came pre-installed and i don't have a win 7 installation cd, so i cant reinstall the OS does anyone have any ideas on what i should do? Leave it or carry on?

[rm_rib]

Hi,
if you do not have an installation cd, you might want to make a backup of your fresh system, for instance as an image file on an external HDD.
I have used Macrium Reflect Free for this - with a good result.
After that, you can experiment more creatively and always get your system back if something goes wrong.
Best of luck!

[Sope]

I would suggest moving your pagefile back to the C: system partition. There is no benefit in moving it unless it is to a separate physical HDD from your OS. The pagefile is accessed frequently along with your system files and should therefore be as close to them as possible for maximum efficiency (less distance for the arm to travel).

Personally I would just aim to have all your system files and program files etc. on C: and just move your personal documents folders (i.e. Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) to a dedicated data partition. Here's a good tutorial explaining how to do it properly (sevenforums.com is an excellent source of many useful Win7 tutorials).

Keeping it simple will make things much easier in the long run

[Ritho]

I completely agree with sope about the paging file. I would like to explain in a little more detail. A lot of people have mistakingly believed that advice to move the paging file to another "drive" includes simply moving it to another "drive letter" and end up moving it to another partition on the same drive. The problem with doing this is as snope says you don't really gain anything, or not much, because only one part of the drive can be accessed at any given moment. The only thing you might gain is the space it frees up on your system partition, and if put on a separate partition totally by itself there is little worry about fragmentation.

The idea is to move the paging file to a second physical drive, so both the OS files and the Virtual Memory files can be accessed simultaneously.

In another thread here recently where we were discussing, virtual machine performance, I mentioned that the same thing also applies. Having a Virtual machine running off the same physical drive, even if it is not on the same partition as the Host's system, is very inefficient. The Hard drive must work over time, jumping back and forth between partitions, to keep both OS's happy. So anything, whether virtual memory, or virtual machines, or any other virtualization technology will benefit greatly if it is relocated to a second physical drive. I think perhaps even sandboxing programs like SandboxIE can experience a decent performance boost if they are on another drive in certain situations.

[Ritho]

You mentioned in the other thread that you bought a dell. You should read this. http://support.dell.com/support/topi.../backupcd_form

This may be of help too. http://support.euro.dell.com/support...&isLegacy=true and http://support.euro.dell.com/support...&isLegacy=true

Create your system rescue cd's, but also request your Dell ones before you have need of them. They don't necessarily come super quick.

[garth]

Originally Posted by Ritho

I think perhaps even sandboxing programs like SandboxIE can experience a decent performance boost if they are on another drive in certain situations.

Does this also apply to applications Ritho? I tend (as most people probably do) to install to the system drive since that's where applications generally default install to, but if i'm playing an online game that is constantly digging into the hdd is it better to install the game on a different physical drive?

[systemcrash]

Originally Posted by Sope

I would suggest moving your pagefile back to the C: system partition. There is no benefit in moving it unless it is to a separate physical HDD from your OS. The pagefile is accessed frequently along with your system files and should therefore be as close to them as possible for maximum efficiency (less distance for the arm to travel).

Personally I would just aim to have all your system files and program files etc. on C: and just move your personal documents folders (i.e. Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos) to a dedicated data partition. Here's a good tutorial explaining how to do it properly (sevenforums.com is an excellent source of many useful Win7 tutorials).

Keeping it simple will make things much easier in the long run

I have moved the PageFile Back and to C:\ and made another one on my external HD just because i had a big external hd that only really gets used for backups. Also looking at the thread you posted, Were you suggesting option 1 or 2 moving the entire user folder or just the documents, pictures and music folders?

I made a backup iage of my system, and thanks ritho for those links, never new about that.

[kendall.a]

I just need to say that not everyone is in agreement with the necessity of partitioning hard drives. I used to; but no longer. That's why I have an external HD. Here are some interesting reads if you are curious why many people do not suggest that you partition a HD:

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1182055

http://askbobrankin.com/partitioning...ard_drive.html

http://ask-leo.com/should_i_partition_my_hard_disk.html

[Ritho]

Originally Posted by garth

Does this also apply to applications Ritho? I tend (as most people probably do) to install to the system drive since that's where applications generally default install to, but if i'm playing an online game that is constantly digging into the hdd is it better to install the game on a different physical drive?

Opinions seem to vary about the efficacy of doing that, but I certainly believe it makes a difference. I currently am playing through Assassin's Creed which is very intensive on the drive, processor, and gpu. I have it installed on a second hard disk and it works well. Then again it might work just as well on the system disk but I doubt it. I don't have room there anyway because the game takes over 8GB.

[Sope]

Originally Posted by systemcrash

Were you suggesting option 1 or 2 moving the entire user folder or just the documents, pictures and music folders?

Personally I would go for option 2 which is the main one explained on the tutorial page I linked to, so just the Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos folders from within your profile. Make sure you follow the instructions precisely as described and it should work fine.

Sorry about the confusion.