Installing a custom W7 install disc over a existing W7 install

[videobruce]

I have a stock W7 x64 installed on a GPT drive, no tweaks or updates.
I have a custom W7 boot disc with updates and a number of tweaks I want to install over and replacing this existing O/S to make things easier since many of the changes will save a lot of time and hassle.

This custom W7 x64 (AFAIK) disc (RT7 Lite) wouldn't install to this disc with the GPT error message, so I tried a 'stock' W7 which worked to my surprise.

Will installing W7 over W7 wipe the existing data in the 3 O/S partitions?

Side note the drive itself was already partitioned with the 2nd partition being used for storage. There was no issue here, the original finished install didn't bother this data partition. I hope all of that makes some sense.

 

[Spacednow1]

Probably asking for trouble. It really depends how you do it and what the changes are. I'd make a full disk backup with macrium or another 3rd party program before trying it. Many moons ago I got lucky by installing 7 on a different disk; then removing it and copying everything over the drive I had 7 on that was corrupted but had info in programs I couldn't find. I used another PC, enabled show hidden files/folders then copied everything from one C drive to the other (of course they weren't labeled C drive in the other PC)- choosing merge and replace when it asked the questions. I got lucky and everything worked. As a side note, I was using the primary admin acct that I enabled (and renamed) in the local security policy. I always did that and still do, but it's always strongly recommended not to and I haven't ever seen anyone else doing it. Best of luck no matter how you try and do it.
Edit: If you try what I did, I wouldn't copy/replace any of the boot files. It would probably leave you unable to boot with the way GPT formatting works.

 

[videobruce]

Not to get OT but, since you mentioned Macrium Reflect, did you run it via a bootable USB stick and if did, did you have any issue restoring previous images?
I tried to do so, but when I opened the folder that had the backups from the USB, the folder was empty even thou the program while in Windows showed the files.

I abandoned the original plan since it probably wouldn't of worked, or just way too complicated. I wasn't aware of the fact W7 isn't GPT friendly w/o jumping thru hoops which isn't worth it. The very minor advantages of GPT (other than it doesn't have the 2TB limit) are nill AFAIC.

 

[Spacednow1]

Not to get OT but, since you mentioned Macrium Reflect, did you run it via a bootable USB stick and if did, did you have any issue restoring previous images?
I tried to do so, but when I opened the folder that had the backups from the USB, the folder was empty even thou the program while in Windows showed the files.

I abandoned the original plan since it probably wouldn't of worked, or just way too complicated. I wasn't aware of the fact W7 isn't GPT friendly w/o jumping thru hoops which isn't worth it. The very minor advantages of GPT (other than it doesn't have the 2TB limit) are nill AFAIC.

No, I wasn't using a backup program at that time. I had done this a couple of times on NTSF drives and it always worked...But when I tried doing it on GPT it ended up with boot issues. But I use macrium all the time and I've never had that problem. Most of the time I have to browse to find the backups booting from the USB, but they've never disappeared on me.

 

[videobruce]

This doesn't see it's own backups which rules out using this anymore.
Again, this is when using a bootable USB Stick, not the program within Windows. Time to go back to True Image.