Partition Advice for Backup of Laptop - Move to Win10

I am planning to upgrade my Dell Laptop XPS from Win 7/64 bit to Win10.

I am using approx 80 GB of the drive of 680 gb - currently partitioned ex factory as
OEM Partition, Recovery Partition 14.6 gb ntfs and OS Drive 683 gb NTFS

I wonder if I should make changes to the partition structure and whether I should do that before or after the upgrade? While I normally keep my OS Drive free from data files, so that I can image my OS drive and backup data separately, I am not sure how to do that sensibly for the laptop? Given the fact that I won't have any inbuilt data-drive, is it better to "just" image everything in future or should I still partition to separate data to be backup via an external usb drive?

 

That's a HUGE OS partition. It wouldn't hurt to shrink that a bit (quite a bit actually) then create a new partition from the shrinkage. At that point feel free to move ahead with the upgrade.

By the ay, what is it about W10 that makes you wanna upgrade? What new features do you plan on using?

 

beethoven,

My approach would be to resize the OS partition to 120 GB and create a data partition in the unallocated free space. Then Move the 6 System Folders to the data partition. Ask if you would like instructions on how to move these folders..

Then you can image the C: drive to the data partition and copy occasional images to the external HD in case of HD failure. You can backup the data files to the external HD with data backup software. You are more likely to restore an image for software reasons than for HD failure. Hence the convenience of using the data partition for images.

Then upgrade to Win10. I like Win10 better than the earlier OS. Seems faster and more stable but that is a subjective comment.

Edit.. This is exactly what we did with my son's Dell XPS laptop. We deleted the Dell Recovery partition too.

 

@ Rbf - it's a just a laptop and I am not using it very often. I take it on trips but seldom have time to go , so I am quite willing to use this as my test case for Win 10. I am also thinking doing it now for free may be better than later when you have to pay. At this point I am not touching my main desktop that is also running Win 7, just happy with how things work there.

 

Brian - just doing an image with Macrium but think I will be ready then. If you can post some simple instructions regarding your suggestions, I would be keen to follow these. Would I do the resizing with the inbuilt disk manager or do I need to dig out my BootIt? I am not doing this type of operation often enough to be totally comfortable with this and keep forgetting things

 

beethoven,

Resize it with BIBM. In Partition Work select the Win7 partition, click Resize and make it 120000 MiB. Wait for it to complete. Then select the large area of newly created Free Space and click Create. Name it Data, make it NTFS and type in the Maximum size.

Let me know the outcome.

 

Moving the 6 System Folders. This is how I do it.

Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos are now in my D: drive. I like my OS partition to be lean and mean so I have small C: drive images and fast restores.

Double click This PC
Right click the Desktop icon in the System Folders list, Properties, Location tab. Change C: to D: and click OK, etc. (Don't click the Move button).
Do the same for the remaining five System Folders.

I shift Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos to my D: drive. Anything I put on my desktop will not be in my OS partition. I’ve done this with Win7, Win8 and Win10.

Edit... if the data partition is E: drive, Change C: to E:

 

To upgrade to Win10. Download an ISO from...

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench

Use Rufus to make a UFD.
In Win7, double click setup.exe on the UFD
Follow instructions.
Easy.

 

Thanks Brian - will look for my trusted BIBM and proceed accordingly. As for the last step, will check out the link. I had planned to go just via the internal MS upgrade procedure. What is the advantage of downloading from there? I suppose I would want to have Windows 10 and not one of the special editions with a letter?

 

I upgraded to Win10 on day one. I tried the MS upgrade procedure and about 5 other methods (including running the ISO from the HD). All failed except for what I described above. I've done dozens of upgrades using this method.

After you have upgraded and decided you don't want to go back to the previous OS, you can run Disk Cleanup with Cleanup System Files. This will give you 10 to 15 GB of extra free space in the OS partition by deleting old OS files which will never be used again. I've always found the used space in the Win10 partition is less than the used space in the previous OS partition.

From my post in August 2015..

 

I looked at the Link I posted. You want...

Windows 10
English
64-Bit Download

(the same ISO is OK for Home and Pro)

 

The best option is to use an Notebook Optical Drive Bay.
I think Brian posted about these in another thread.

 

ok, progress report: the resizing with Bibm was smooth and I now have a new Data partition E.

With respect to the migration of the desktop and other system folders, I am not yet there. When I replace C with E in the properties folder, I am getting the error message: "the name E:\users\user\desktop specified in the target box is not valid. Make sure the path and file name are correct".
I am not sure I am following your "Double Click this PC instruction" correctly. Basically I go to Start, double click Computer and then look at the Desktop, Download.. folders under Favorites or Libraries, this may not be the right way?

 

Sorry, "This PC" isn't in Win7. Is it "My Computer"?

I don't think you can use Libraries. Stand by while I look at Win7.

 

Win7...

Click the Start button
Hover on your Name and you will see the 6 folders (pop out) I mentioned and some others. Ignore the others
Right click a System Folder, Properties, etc

Does that work?

 

Also, you can...

Click the Start button
Right click your name
Open
You now see the System Folders and others

 

Brian, the hover part did not work but the second suggestion went fine for me - thanks again.

 

Whew. I haven't worked on Win7 for some time.

What is the size of E:\Users?

 

Brian, it's only 410 mb - I really have not used the laptop much and I normally don't save to the default folders. With the new set-up what are the consequences when you run the laptop as a limited user account as I have now done all these changes under the admin login?

 

beethoven,

I don't know. I never use a limited user account. Maybe you need to do the same edits from your limited account as well as I expected E:\Users to be many GB (maybe 50 GB) but it depends on where you have stored your data.

 

It's because the laptop was for travelling and I felt better having set it up for Surfing etc under LUA. Either way it probably makes no big difference for me as I am not really saving much on my laptop and now with E partition I can easily shift data manually if necessary.

 

OK. I suggest moving your data into the relevant or near relevant System folders. You should finish with a lean and mean OS partition. My Win10 partition (after almost one year of use) has 25 GB of used space.

 

Thanks Brian - I just redid this for the folders in the LUA account and that doubled the size of the folder E:\users. Seems fine to me. I will do the upgrade via rufus tomorrow. Just to clarify, when using the ufd for the installation of Win10 , do I still get the option of the upgrade with all my settings being kept or is this a fresh installation then?

 

This is an upgrade. All your installed programs and settings will still be present after the upgrade. I recall there is a statement to this effect during the install. Win10 will automatically Activate.

After you have Win10 up and running you should disable Fast Startup...

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/ucf/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=427

Edit...
After the first restart you can unplug the UFD, if you desire. In your BIOS boot priority order make sure you don't have UFD preceding HD, otherwise after the restart your computer will boot the UFD instead of continuing the install from the HD. I've been caught with this and now always have HD first in the BIOS boot order.

 

Time taken for the upgrade. Anything from 15 to 150 minutes. It depends on your hardware.