Backing up entire hard drive including OS

Trance-Lord-SnyderTrance-Lord-Snyder Eastern PA Member
edited October 2009 in Science & Tech
I'm currently running windows XP service pack 3. I have a 2nd hard drive attached to the system in which I have more than enough space to back up the entire primary drive. I want to back up the entire system including the OS so I can just reload the entire thing back to how it is currently in case my plans don't work out.

I want to try out windows 7 to see if I like it or not and install it on this primary drive. If I do like it, then I wouldn't need to reinstall this copy of XP, I would buy windows 7 to replace the trial and do a fresh install.

If there is a way for me to install windows 7 on either of these drives without over writing files and having it run normally, that would work too. I just want to test out windows 7 to see if I want to make the jump from XP to 7. Thanks for the help in advance.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    Divide the second hard drive into two partitions. Give 35GB to the first partition, and the rest of the space to the second. Install Windows 7 on the 35GB partition. Leave Windows XP on your first hard drive. Windows 7 will give you the option to choose between the two OSes. If you end up liking Windows 7, just reformat the Windows XP drive completely and use the Windows 7 drive as your main OS/boot drive.

    As a note, don't install anything to the 35GB partition that can go on the second (bigger) partition. You'll save yourself tons of reformatting time in the future.
  • Trance-Lord-SnyderTrance-Lord-Snyder Eastern PA Member
    edited October 2009
    Can I divide the 2nd drive into two partitions with information on it? I should have mentioned. It has too much information on it to store on the primary drive.
  • Trance-Lord-SnyderTrance-Lord-Snyder Eastern PA Member
    edited October 2009
    Let me be more specific to the situation, I should have made this clearer.

    Primary Hard Drive: WD Raptor 74 GB, has about 55GB of data on it.
    I do not want to clear this drive until I know windows 7 is for me. It will take some time to get the data I need off of this drive. This will be my primary boot drive in the future with windows 7 should I upgrade.

    Secondary Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 250 GB, has about 150 GB of data on it.

    This is for extra files, that are not installed or associated with the primary drive.
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