[kidnova]

I am upgrading some of the hardware components of my system, and at the same time I will be doing a clean install of Win 7 64 bit on a new hard drive. My current system is running 32 bit. I will eventually be wiping the old drive and using it as a backup. So, my question is what is the best (read easiest) way to migrate my data files to the new drive prior to formatting the old one? I know I can't restore any of the program files, but can I simply use the backup and restore tool in Windows to restore my pics/vids/docs etc? I know I could move all of the data to an external drive or flash drive, but I don't have one large enough and would rather not buy one. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

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install windows on the new drive...get it updated completely before doing anything else......this will actually take several times of checking for updates with multiple boots in between updates
install the antivirus of your choice...we recommend free ones like MSE or avast ...
unplug from the wall then connect the old drive to another sata slot...
go to computer...click on the old drive...right click on the my documents folder...click on copy
the go back to computer and click on the C drive...click on the documents folder then press ctrl+v to copy it all into that folder/s...this assumes all your stuff is in your documents folder in the old drive...if you have other folders containing stuff you want open two windows each taking up half the screen...one of the new drive and one with the old drive then just drag and drop those folders onto the c drive...check the c drive after the copy is complete to make sure it copied it all...check the old drive carefully to make sure you got everything the check again just prior to formatting the old drive...once you have the old drive formatted...partition it and create a partition equal to twice the size of the ram you have installed now and /or if you think you may add ram in the future make the partition twice the size of the total amount of ram you will eventually have...name it swap...thats going to be your swap file...its going to be on the fastest part of the drive and will help immensely with the overall speed of your system
all this assumes they are not SSD drives

[happyrock]

install windows on the new drive...get it updated completely before doing anything else......this will actually take several times of checking for updates with multiple boots in between updates
install the antivirus of your choice...we recommend free ones like MSE or avast ...
unplug from the wall then connect the old drive to another sata slot...
go to computer...click on the old drive...right click on the my documents folder...click on copy
the go back to computer and click on the C drive...click on the documents folder then press ctrl+v to copy it all into that folder/s...this assumes all your stuff is in your documents folder in the old drive...if you have other folders containing stuff you want open two windows each taking up half the screen...one of the new drive and one with the old drive then just drag and drop those folders onto the c drive...check the c drive after the copy is complete to make sure it copied it all...check the old drive carefully to make sure you got everything the check again just prior to formatting the old drive...once you have the old drive formatted...partition it and create a partition equal to twice the size of the ram you have installed now and /or if you think you may add ram in the future make the partition twice the size of the total amount of ram you will eventually have...name it swap...thats going to be your swap file...its going to be on the fastest part of the drive and will help immensely with the overall speed of your system
all this assumes they are not SSD drives

[kidnova]

Thanks for the reply. I thought that might be possible, but was afraid that having a 32 bit install on the old drive would cause problems with the new OS recognizing the drive. If that's not the case then I shouldn't have any issues. Thanks for the tip on the swap partition. I am not going with an SSD for this upgrade as I don't think the $/GB is there yet, but will likely install one in the future for just the OS.

[kidnova]

Just to button things up, I completed the upgrade last night and it worked fine. Thanks.

[happyrock]

We still have work to do...
you need to set the swap file size on the C Drive to the minimum windows will allow (I think its about 4 MB) and set the other drives swap partition to the max... use the custom option and set the minimum and the maximum to the same value and ok your way out

if you don't set the CD drive swap file size to the minimum on the c drive it will use it for all it's paging operations instead of the swap partition you created...

you also need to change the amount of space used for the restore partition on the C drive to only three or 4% do the same for the other drive also if you even want restore on that drive...I personally don't but I am diligent with my back ups to external drives