New C: Drive - Programs From Old C: Still Work Somehow.

For my new build I decided to leave Win7 installed on my old C: HDD (just not booting from it, so all OS functions should be disabled/ignored) to provide myself with an instant backup if needed, and I installed (clean/fresh) Win7 on an SSD to act as the main/current/active system drive.

Strangely enough, when I tried running some progs & games from the old C: drive, many of them still worked! The same goes for some progs & games installed on my storage only HDD (all from previous OS) Is this normal? I thought everything would need to be reinstalled because all programs from the old C: drive wouldn't be in the 'current' registry, therefore, be pointing to a location that doesn't even exist. Does this mean I have 2 registries? I didn't think that was possible and surely it's liable to cause problems.

To explain better: One of the HDDs still has Win7 installed on it with the associated folder structure (program files x86, Users, Windows etc). I left it installed incase my current SSD C: drive dies, then I can go straight back and boot into the old C: HDD, no need to format (atleast in theory). I've simply got the BIOS to ignore the old C: HDD in the boot order. However, now I'm not sure if this is causing the entire PC to get confused, not knowing which OS to communicate with and getting its wires crossed. Is this a possibility? Does anyone know for sure? I don't want to continue down this path if I'm only setting myself up for a disaster!

Some advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks!

 

Every time you run a program off your old hard disk you risk corrupting your registry. As you don't seem to have had any problems yet it may be because the two setups are so similar, but the only safe way to do this is via a dual boot.

 

Thanks, so, any ideas what I should do from here? Would it be better to just somehow remove the old Win7 from the other drive or is dual booting a more sensible option?

The main reason I left the old OS 'installed' is for quick easy backup/recovery (I wanted to avoid the dual boot scenario) but now I think about it: The new Win7 install is registered to completely different H/W (new mobo & CPU) so if I was to try and boot the old drive, would it just not work (because the old Win7 was installed and loaded with drivers for diff h/w)? If so, I think I'll just take the plunge and remove the old Windows (I read it's as simple as changing ownership options then just hitting delete on the windows folder). It'll free up about 18gb and on these old HDDs the space is tight...

Thanks!

 

You don't give the size of your drives but personally I would save anything you want to keep on the old drive and reformat it. Then I would install imaging and backup software in Win 7 on the SSD and create a backup regime for both system and data, storing everything on the old HDD, if it's big enough. With a system image updated regularly on the HDD you've got your Windows backup available should you hit system problems or a severe infection, and your data will be backed up there too. Ideal scenario.

EDIT - I agree with the suggestion in your other thread to use a sync backup program for your data, or use the settings in WinRAR to only backup new and changed files.

 

Thanks for the reply, my 2 HDDs are a 1TB & a 500GB (both have only about 40gb free) and my SSD is a little 120gb 850 Evo. Right now I couldn't afford to get a drive big enough to backup the old 500gb C: drive (I'm skint after buying all the new kit for this build!)

Most, almost all precious data from both drives is already backed but I'll lose all my movies, disc images and anything really big that can't fit anywhere else. I could have a serious look through the old C: drive to see what Im willing to lose, but formatting it would be an absolute last resort for me ATM. Is there any way to completely remove all traces of old Win7 without formatting? If so, things will be a lot easier and I should have room to store a backup image. I'll probably only have room for the OS to be backed up though, buts that's alright. I'll have to look into those Winrar settings then, I've actually been using that to compress big backups so I can squeeze loads more onto my USB sticks. So there's a setting that only adds files to an archive if they're different from what's already there?

 

There's no quick way that I know of so I guess it's a case of going through it manually deleting everything that isn't yours. Would be worth studying it with Treesize first to get an idea of what is achievable. In fact you could use Treesize to delete stuff.

Yes. The default is 'Add and Replace', which backs up all existing files and new files, but there is also 'Add and Update', which adds new files and replaces any existing files that have changed. The problem with WinRAR though is the user interface which needs a serious makeover and has done so for years.

 

I have a backup drive with programs from 2 different Vista systems and this Win '8. The same programs will run from any location. Some only need their regular folder files. Some do need a dll that was not in Win '8. I can usually add the dll into that program folder and the program will run. I can also add it to the current 'Windows' and it will run. The only time I notice a difference is if the backup drive is not plugged in and I run CCleaner registery checker and it does show missing shortcuts. Most things that were installed from a zipped folder to any location will run from whatever location you put them in. If you copy their folder to a different location (or drive) they will still function. I also have drives from other computers that I've had and many programs will run if these drives are added as a second drive without anything to do with dual boot. Music and video and utilities stored in their own local folders (not my documents, or myname/videos, but in just their own folders on any drive) work across systems.

 

As far as "blanking" the old HDD, why don't you use Disk Management and simply right click on the drive and select Delete Volume? It will leave the entire drive unallocated and then you can create a new simple volume to store your backups on.

 

Can you elaborate on that? The OP has a full bootable Win 7 installation on his second internal drive - is that what you mean by this, or do you mean you just have file backups from Program Files? If the latter then running those programs shouldn't cause any great harm, though it might result in a few registry changes and changes in Program Data that could cause some issues on the main system. However if the OP's system failed for any reason to boot from the C drive it would probably try to boot from the second drive and I wouldn't care to guess at what might result from that.

 

The OP said

so I assume he would have the same reservations about deleting the volume.

 

This is just for as far as the question of running programs off of the other drives is a normal capability. Right now I have my C: drive with 8.1 running. I also have a Toshiba external 500g data drive. I have another internal that is a full Vista. I'm in the process of getting music and pdf's off the Vista and onto the data drive. But I just ran some games off of this drive. Also played some of the music off this drive to make sure the ones I wanted. Right now I just launched slimbrowser from a downloads folder I created last year - not in myname/downloads. If I try to go to myname/ anything on the old drive I don't have access. But some programs in "Program FIles" do work.

So I think it is normally to be able to run programs off of other drives.

My 8 machine probably won't boot the Vista unless I change out of secure boot. But I don't want to boot it. I just need stuff from it. And play around a little with stuff that's on it and not on this main drive.

 

The problems arising from having a second full installation of Win 7 on the same system are now becoming evident in the OP's other thread. It is causing unnecessary issues on his new build.

 

It is normal providing those programs do not need access to any registry settings in order to run satisfactorily. Those that do need registry information will error in some way and could damage the host system's registry. I think it's inadvisable to endorse what the OP is doing as he is by his own admission no expert.

 

Yeah - I would finish the new build and get it 100% and stable before introducing extra drives - and I'm sure you would say 'the first extra drive should be one for an image'.

 

Yep, can't argue with that. Boring innit

 

Thanks for all the suggestions n ideas lads! I think I've decided what direction I want to take this mess now but I wanted to run it by you first incase there's anything dodgy about it:-

As suggested I'm going to make a backup image of my OS (using whatever utility is most trusted) then keep that in a 'safe' place. Then I intend to completely wipe the old remnants of Win7 from the secondary drive. I'll check out Treesize if there's a possibility it'll make the process smoother.

Right now AFAIK, without doing a proper investigation, the only things I need from the old Win7 install will be all the 'user data', EG, Documents, Desktop, Downloads and others, but as I understand, those folders aren't actually linked to Windows in a physical way (am I right?) so they can be safely moved beforehand AFAIK. I already did this with 'Downloads' & 'My Pictures' using the 'relocate' option in properties. I'd also like to move the 'temp' folders of my CURRENT install to another drive (I've heard it's a bad idea having programs constantly writing temp files to an SSD because they don't like being written to... Wait, what!?). I read the way to do this is through 'environment variables' settings but is it really a safe idea to have temp files separate from the C: drive?

At the end of the day though, I just want to use my SSD as a system only drive, also with a couple games installed (Fallout 4 & Alien Isolation right now), so if it DOES fail, I can either use the backup image, or even reformat if needed (no important data there), and worst case, I'll have to pony up for a new drive :-( ...

I try to keep my posts short, but... LOL. Thanks!

 

Your SSD won't fill up if all you are using it for is Windows and your software. In fact it's unlikely to grow to exceed 50GB. Also, with modern SSDs there is no need to reduce writes so no need at all to move TEMP to another drive. Your user folders are intimately linked to Windows as they are part of your user profile and duly protected from unauthorised access. That may not concern you but if you find this has happened it is possible to link them in again - I've had to do this more than once.

 

Thanks for clearing that up! I guess there's a lot of paranoia surrounding SSDs then (or just outdated info from back when the technology wasn't as 'solid' yet). Okay in that case I'll leave the temp folders in place.

Cheers!