Transfer of content from one C drive to another drive

Hello,

For the registry, you need to run in the box: "Regedit" as an administrator... Select Computer and export....

You're not creating a registry... you're copying the one that exists.

So... for this backup to be useful, you need to do it after installing all your programs on the other disk...

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If I were you, I wouldn't mix my personal data with the programs..

You need to think about the day you have a crash with Windows, when you can't access your disk on this PC... Generally, the solution is to remove the disk to place it in another computer... To do your recovery.

That's why I believe you should partition the disk into three...

C: = Windows OS
D: = Personal data
E: = Programs

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-- In any case, in the event of a Windows crash, the C: drive will need to be reinstalled, especially if the hard drive needs to be changed...

-- Your data will be easy to recover on the D: drive and with no ambiguity of mixing with your programs... It's clear, you can copy everything.

-- Your installed programs on the E:\Program Files drive must be installed by carefully choosing this drive... if it's the first time or if you're changing their location.

-- If Windows crashed, your programs are still on E: and you can also copy them to a new drive.. if you have to change it...
Then you load (import) your registry... restart the PC and Windows will recognize all your programs again without having to reinstall them... Those that were there on the day of your backup.

There are sometimes a few cases to readjust or reinstall, but it's minor.

There are also some programs that absolutely want to be installed on the C: drive, you have no choice...

That's the general plan of the matter... I did it with Windows XP, I'm in this configuration with Win 7 too, but I haven't had to perform a resurrection.
I should note that my C: drive is an SSD that only contains Windows
the others are mechanical hard drives.

If you have spare hard drives, I recommend doing some tests before you go all in... Caution.

Hello,
Here is my personal experience:
1. From the outset, I always have a second rack-mounted (removable) disk with the same configuration. So, basically, one operational disk and one backup/test disk.
Note: I am in multiboot, Windows and 2 versions of Linux Debian
2. My disk is organized as follows:
- "win" on the first partition (the first two partitions with Win 7)
- a "My Documents" partition. This way it is shareable between my systems. I even have another disk that is an exact copy of "My Documents". Extra security... When I broke my motherboard, I was very happy to find all my little files without too much hassle!
- the 2 partitions for my 2 Debian versions + one for "Swap" (Linux swap partition).
3. I do backups and restorations of the partitions using CloneZilla.
4. My "boot manager" is "GAG".
I have been working this way for years and I have been doing very well so far.
Of course, I have an external disk for backups/restorations.
Starting from Windows 8, it gets a bit more complicated, due to UEFI and the Windows protections in UEFI! There is a whole literature on this.
Be careful again, with Windows 7 and later, IDE/ATA is no longer recognized, SATA mode only to load the system!
Linux doesn’t care, it works (period!).

--
A poor lonesome Debianner....

Hello,

Yes, that's very good, it's the same philosophy...

I didn't give much detail, but I also have two Linux partitions (Ubuntu and Puppy) and the DATA disk is shared and accessible from all systems..
I'm still on Windows 7 Pro without UEFI.. I also have an XP 64-bit Pro which is not widespread, it's a shame because it runs well..

I have multiple PC backups on a Synology NAS RAID server and a large disk alongside that has the server backup...

That's it for the sharing of experiences..!

For now, I have just transferred my personal files to D:

I'm doing this to relieve C: and hoping it makes my computer a little faster (it's starting to be slow even though I don't have a lot of things on it.)

I just read the responses and I thought about splitting D: into 2 to create a drive E:, then I will create a program files folder on E:, or I will reinstall all my programs there before uninstalling them from C:.

Re,

If you have slowdowns... you may have fatigue or issues with your hard drive. The health of a disk can significantly slow down a PC..

You should test it with "HD_Tune" https://www.commentcamarche.net/telecharger/utilitaires/11625-hd-tune/

Run the Benchmark and Error Scan tests..

For Benchmark, you should get a figure that looks like the one on the website and not with roller coasters...
And for Error Scan, everything must be green, not a single red square.

You can attach the photos here, or the link to the photos..
Partitioning won't change much about the slowness..

Hello,

Your disk is 1 TB, so the scan takes a long time... you should start it in the evening and let it run all night... Let's hope everything is good...

However, I looked at the photo... it's not great... Your disk, without having any sector defects (??), has difficulties reading certain parts of the disk... the average access time is quite high while CPU usage is at 35%... that means it's using the processor to compensate for and/or correct errors... And not much cache... Maybe you have something else running at the same time..?? Anyway.

This CPU usage is slowing down your PC...

For now, I'm tempted to suggest that you change the disk... for another one that's a bit more efficient preferably (not necessarily as large, if not useful) and do a disk cloning... with a specialized program.

In this event, we need to know if this PC is UEFI and the disk is GPT..?? because I'm not sure about the proper functioning of the cloning in that case..??

In any case, you should keep the old disk as it is for at least a month...

Re,

Well, if you're not feeling it too much, I'm not surprised... it's an operation that we don't do every day... and many don't venture into it... and your disk is still working...

-- Emptying the internal disk, no, it needs to be kept as a backup anyway... however, it would be wise to copy a copy of your personal files (Photos, Movies, emails, accounts, etc.) to an external disk...

-- It's not possible to use an external disk as the main disk and run Windows that way, it doesn't work either... A copied Windows doesn't work either... It must be fully installed on the internal hard drive...

-- If you have the source of your Windows (DVD for example), you could do a fresh install on a new disk... and then install your applications gradually afterwards...

One must be aware that these things do not happen in five minutes, nor even in three hours...