Basic Windows XP to7 question

I'm doing an upgrade (sort of) to a new Windows 7 machine from an XP machine. All programs (from the C drive) can be reinstalled as necessary for a fresh start on a new hard drive running Win 7... however, mp3 files, movies and other non-system files were kept on a rather large separate SATA internal hard drive (F drive) which was basically used as internal storage.

My question is, if I install Win 7 on the new blank hard drive, and either have the old storage drive from the XP machine already installed during OS installation, or, add it later in once Win 7 is setup, will it recognize the drive/files and work normally? Does Win 7 try to change anything or format it a certain way or will it even see the drive since it was all done in Win XP? This could save me some time (and discs) as far as backing up that data goes!

If it does work, is the a way to force that drive to be 'F' again?

Find more posts tagged with

SAVE $250 on Your Boot Camp — Use Code "EXAM26"

Exclusively for TechExams members for Infosec Boot Camps starting before April 30, 2026

View Boot Camps

Comments

Whiteout

So you have two hard drives?

1: Has the OS on it and 2: has your data on it.

Their should be no problem with doing a fresh install of win7 on either a new hard drive or the same one XP is on. Win7 will automatically recognize your SATA drive. Now if you were doing a XP install it would not automatically recognize the SATA drive, but thats another story.

Also yes you can change the drive name to "F" or whatever you want it to be.

In Win7 go Search -> Create and Format Hard Disk partitions -> Right click on the drive you want to change -> select change drive letter and paths

Hope this helps

JohnnyBiggles

Thanks!

Right. I actually had 3 drives but the second one in the middle was an old 6.4 GB hard drive...lol. I think I can do without it for now but my C drive had all my programs installed on it along with all the app data that went with them. I backed up the files from My Docs and some settings and other things one might need from the C drive later. My F drive was a large drive with large files and lots of other misc files. I was just concerned whether or not it was necessary to back the whole thing up to DVDs before assuming I could just take it out and pop it into the new system. I do not want to be surprised when I don't have access to that data for whatever reason if that didn't work after I get set up in Win 7, or worse, it gets corrupted somehow. I've done it in XP several times but it was usually XP to XP data (someone else's hard drive put into my XP system for testing/backups/etc.), and I wasn't sure if Win 7 was the same way, especially since it's 64-bit vs XP's 32-bit system.

Whiteout

If it is just data files, their should be no problem. Just make sure you install the OS onto your new hard drive and not the one with all your data on it!

dustinmurphy

Whiteout wrote: »

If it is just data files, their should be no problem. Just make sure you install the OS onto your new hard drive and not the one with all your data on it!

EXACTLY. As long as your OS can read the format of the hard drive (FAT32, NTFS, etc)... you can move that data drive to any PC and not lose the data. You could even put that drive into a Linux box and it should mount and be readable (as long as you have the right tools...)

That's why it's recommended to keep your OS drive and your data drive separate. (even separate partitions on the same drive) That way you can wipe the OS and not lose your data.

JohnnyBiggles

Cool. Thanks guys.