And I finally found more explanations and [url=https://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/17058-secure-boot-enable-disable-uefi.html]here.

I hope it won't complicate too much the windows installation :/ (fortunately this tutorials seems well explained :))

Congrats!
But.. check a bit the files to verify that they have been copied correctly.

Btw, what do you need multiple partitions for? I usually just use different drives for different things (system,data,backup).

Thanks :)
Yeah sure :) I'll randomly test some big archives I have. I'm already trying to compare a bit the properties of main folders with their weight : how much weight they're precisely in octets (when you right click on it and go to see the properties), and see if there is a difference between the original and copied folder. That's the only easy way I found for a first look, is this useful ?
Well, because I'll still have only one hdd : I will keep my dying one aside for some time just in case my backup went wrong. And I always did that, to separate the OS from data, in case I should format & reinstall the OS only, to keep my data even if there's only one hdd :P
Edit : And to be able to defragment more easily : it takes less time to defragment only one part at a time than only one huge disk (but maybe I should'nt do that ?).

Aaaaaand you were absolutely right, and Microsoft are... I'll stay polite but it's really frustrating and makes you wanting to yell. Because yes, I have a pre-installed windows. So no, Microsoft won't let me download the installation iso.
Damn, this is a legal key for a full windows ! So... irritating !
And for now, the second option isn't working for me, I get an "ERROR. Please check your internet connection." message, and so I can't download the iso :( You can see more here about my issue. But it's maybe because I uninstalled IE since long time, maybe it's because I don't have all the latest windows update, or one software blocking something, etc... I'll try to take a look at that tomorrow n_n
But it seems you were right : getting the Windows 7 install' iso won't be as easy as I was thinking. At all. Argh.

I've read up on UEFI, and I must say it's a strange thing. I can understand how it might be useful, for corporate use, but for a home computer I view it as utterly unnecessary, and clearly it causes more problems than it prevents. I've never ran into problems such as yours, but that's because I've always bought my computers without an OS installed. Also, I always delete all partitions and format my HDDs, before I start my windows installation. Only then, do I partition the space the way I want it. You avoid a lot of trouble starting from zero. I wish you good luck with your installation, the process should be straightforward.

Pretty much, yes. You can format the drive in the first steps of the setup - use NTFS. Some tutorial here.


Definitely do some partitions. Probably 3 will suit your needs. One around 150 GB for Windows, a second one for games and other files that need faster speeds, and last one for backups, music, movies and other files that don't need great speeds.
It depends a lot on what programs you use, if you play big, demanding games, if you do video editing and so on. Extra info on partitions here.

I tested that Windows ISO Downloader tool and worked for me. Not sure what the blue buttons on the left do, I pressed them a few times and nothing happened. But the Copy Link for 64 bit on the right worked - pasted the link in Pale Moon and downloaded a few hundreds MB before I canceled it.

In theory you could use checksums, but it depends if the original HDD will calculate them in bearable times..

If you have a desktop, it would be a "shame" not to use a secondary HDD. They're relatively cheap nowadays.
One advantage of a dedicated system drive is that you can image it: if the HDD (SDD) dies, you won't need to reinstall anything, but just write your ISO to the replacement drive.

For defragmenting HDDs I use the program Defraggler.
It's convenient, because it allows you to see and fix just the worst scattered files, instead of moving everything for hours.

I absolutely agree with you.
I prefer too when I can do things "the clean way". I think it's more easy and clean in the long-term. A lot of years ago (let's say ~10years) I was using Ubuntu, that I installed myself ! I was pretty proud :) After that, I even managed to install a dual-boot for my father with Ubuntu. But now since years I'm only using Win7, so a lot of things are fading in my memory (and I'm not a "computer guy" : the main things I "knew" was mainly because it was explained on internet).
Thanks :) (if I got the installation image :P)

That I should succeed easily :) (finally something I know a bit !) I already formatted several drives and installed Linux ! (Ubuntu to be precise) But it was "long" ago :P So thanks for the vid', I'll take a look, can't be bad for me :)
I watched the vid', he's really good at explaining things easily ! I already knew that (a good surprise on my side :D), but thanks again for it !
3 partitions... Hum, I'll have to think about it. But.. if C:\ is for Win, D:\ for softwares and E:\ for data : if you format C:\, you'll still have to install again all your softwares ? I guess it's for having greater disc speed ? (like explained in an earlier video you send me previously)
I'm not playing huge games, but I usually like to have a lot of games installed on my comp', which takes a lot of space.
Lucky you XD But this means it come from my comp' (thanks for testing by the way ;)). I'll try to do some updates to see if it fixes it. I'll tell you :) Maybe, if I reaaaally can't fix it and can't find another way, I'll ask you if you could send me the link for the french version since it's a link that can be copied/pasted ? If it's possible, and I don't want to abuse from your kindness (I'm serious).

Theory sounds nice, but indeed you're right, my dying drive is veeery slow, even only to see properties of big folders. So checksum doesn't seem a priority...
I understand and do agree, it would be useful indeed. Yeah, they aren't too expensive, it's only my wallet who can't afford a second hdd due to very low revenue because of long-time unemployment :P And aside the financial side, I prefer to limit the number of my purchases of hi-tech when possible :)
Oh, that's pretty smart ! I'll have to try this ! I saw it existed but didn't knew if it would be... "clean" ? So I never really tried (I wasn't sure of the result).

Edit : And everything I wanted should be on backup now ! :D (I'm REALLY happy)
Still I hope files aren't corrupted, but every archives I tested were fine. Sooo I'll keep good hopes, and at worst I keep the dying drive close :)

They are fine now, I had issues only with the older ASUS machine. When updating the Storage Controller drivers, it also wanted to install the Intel Rapid Technology utility, which seems is causing a boot problem on this ASUS (no problem on the Windows 10 Acer; the other difference is that Acer has a SSD drive and the ASUS has only HDDs, not sure if that Intel Rapid utility is only for SSDs, and whether it is really needed for them either?).

So I just clicked cancel when it offered that Rapid utility, and all is well (on the Acer I let it install). I guess it still updated the Storage Controller drivers on the ASUS too because now SlimDrivers says everything is up to date.

So when you are updating the drivers with SlimDrivers one by one, remember to say "yes" to the dialog where SlimDrivers asks whether it should create a restore point. Then you can always go to that restore point (=the situation before the driver update) if something goes wrong.

In my case, when I forced a power-down and rebooted Windows 7 the second time (after it got stuck loading Windows), it said something went wrong with the earlier boot and asked whether it should try to fix it. I said yes, at some point I think it asked whether it should an earlier restore point, I said yes, and then after awhile it booted ok to the situation before the Storage Controller driver update.

I personally don't see much point having several partitions on one hard drive. I keep one hard drive as one partition, I hate having lots of different partitions on Windows and juggling files between them when I'm starting to run out of space on them. (On Linux I maybe mind them less because Linux has a better filesystem where partitions are behind paths, not "drive letters".)

I guess extra partitions are supposed to bring some extra "reliability" in that if one partition's filesystem gets broken due to a software error, other partition(s) may still be ok. But then if the hard drive itself gets somehow broken (hardware error), that affects all the partitions anyway... Just keep copies of important files to you on external hard drives, and you should be fine. Don't keep anything that you can't afford to lose only in the internal hard drive(s).

EDIT: It was mentioned that if OS is on its own partition (and data/installed programs on another) then it is easy just to format and reinstall the OS on its own partition... but you still need to re-install all those programs that you had installed, don't you (for registery keys, valid shortcuts in the Start menu etc.)? So I don't know what advantage it gives to have OS on its own directory and installed applications on the other, you still have to reinstall them all.

For data files that don't need to be "installed" (like your documents, photos etc.), yeah those can and should be on a separate partition, but I feel they should be in a separate _drive_. At least backups, on external hard drives or even the cloud if you are so inclined.

I guess the reason why I am against this "OS on its own partition" approach is that I've had problems with friends' PCs which had a setup like that, and they ran out of space on that OS partition. On one such PC, it had run out of space ont he C: drive, meaning it couldn't download nor install any Windows updates anymore. I decided to reinstall Windows for her from scratch, and that time I made sure each hard drive was one partition, making sure she will not run into that same stupid problem again, with the OS partition running out of space.

Plus, if you keep installed programs on e.g. the D: partition, then you have to remember to change the installation partition each and every time you install a new program.

Just not worth it. Keep the number of partitions to the minimum, and important files backed up on external hard drives.

I'll certainly do the same in the future if I have to finally buy win10 (or the newer there will be), but at least it's not soon :)

I take note, and glad you didn't get much troubles :)

I do agree on this point. The only slight advantage would be hdd speed which can be a bit improved, but except that, you're right.
That would be the ideal indeed :)
I understand well your points ;) I made one time the mistake of creating a partition too small for the OS like you explain : now I'm more careful. But I like to have 2 parts : one for OS & software, one for data. For me it's better "sorted". So I think I will do 2 partitions as usual. It's not the best, but after hearing your several opinions, it's still the one I prefer. But thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

So, (a bit bad) news !
My laptop is jealous from my main comp' and want some attention : do you remember that I'm trying to download the windows installation image ? And that I can't because maybe I don't have the latest windows updates ?
Well, I can't do the windows updates : each time I try to look for updates, it doesn't look and says immediately that I have to restart my laptop before searching new ones. Always. I found a page explaining this issue here (I still have to try the solution proposed, I won't have the time certainly before tonight) [EDIT : I just tried. For steps "del *.blf" & "del *.regtrans-ms" it doesn't find files to erase, but everything else was ok : I restarted my laptop, launched windows update... and it's looking for updates !!! Yay ! :D] [Edit 2 : It WORKS !!! :D].
I tried to use a recovery point : ahahah. I get one error : 0x80071A91. It would have been too easy. I tried to deactivate recovery for the disk thinking it could help to wipe out all the recovery point : trying to change the option get me the same error.
I tried a chkdsk /f /r : I got one orphan file which couldn't be "fixed".
I tried sfc /scannow : it found some damaged files but could'nt repair them.
I tried to use the microsoft file WindowsUpdate.diagcab : it says it solves some issues but not the error "Windows Update 0x80070005(2017-08-08-T-02_03_48)".
I tried to install the update agent through this link this link : error.
If I go into windows update and see the history of updates, I can see that the "important" KB3138612 update failed. 2 times.
So I tried to download it directly from Microsoft to install it myself. Ahah. No. It's trying to install, and in the end, it says that "the update KB3138612 hasn't installed" and I've the choice between "restart now" or 'Finish".
If someone has an idea, I'll take it XD
[EDIT : it's maybe fixed, see my earlier edit in this post. If it's not, I'll remove this edit :P]

Can't wait to get my new hdd to have a second Windows to update !! :B
*feels desperate*

Typical microsoft shit in all its glory... Every MS software user experiences this kind of misadventures now and then...
(not much help, I know)

Ahah yes, but I do agree ;) The best was when I saw in a thread that someone contacted them and support told "go with windows 10, you won't have this issues" or something like this XD

As I was saying a friend the other day after having similar neverending problems (copy paste) :

microsoft, c'est cette boite qui t'empêche d'acquérir la pierre qui te servira à fabriquer un marteau de l'age de pierre qui te servira à fabriquer une hachette qui te servira à fabriquer le maillet qui te servira à fabriquer les cisailles qui te serviront à fabriquer le tournevis qui te servrira à réparer les moteur qui te servira à faire tourner la tronçonneuse qui te servrira à couper le bois dont t'as besoin pour rafistoler le bateau dont t'as besoin pour traverser la mer qui te sépare de l'unique médicament au monde qui te soignera de ta maladie incurable qu'ils t'ont inoculée : le CANCER !!!


(sorry, lazy to translate)

Ahah, so true XD

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