Install Vista from one partition to another

[eric302]

My laptop has two partitions on its hard drive right now - there's a C
partition with Windows XP and programs, and a K partition with my data
(and My Documents is pointed to that). My plan is to reformat the C
partition and install a clean copy of Vista to it, while keeping the K
drive.

The problem is that the laptop is physically a bit broken, so the DVD
drive almost always refuses to data DVDs (oddly enough, it usually
reads DVD movies and CDs just fine). I took my laptop to a friend's
house, plugged into their network, and copied the contents of the
Vista DVD to a folder on my K drive.

I have a USB hard drive, but my BIOS won't boot off of it. I don't
have a flash drive big enough to hold the 2.4GB of Vista either. So,
what I'd like to do is run the installation from the K partition and
install to a reformatted C partition. Does anyone know if this is
possible? I guess there'd have to be some sort of trickery with
setting the active partition as necessary, but I have a copy of
Partition Magic 8 if that would help.

I guess another possible solution would be some sort of bootable CD/
flash drive that would be able to read and then "boot off" my USB hard
drive. Anyone know of some (free) utility that could do that?

Then, last resort would be to find an external DVD drive, but they
cost more than I paid for the Vista academic upgrade, so I'd probably
just not bother.

Thanks for any help.
-Eric

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Hi Eric

If you want to do a clean install of Vista (not a bad idea) you'll need to
boot up from the DVD. If your internal DVD doesn't work, you'd need to get a
bootable external DVD drive (and, the BIOS on your laptop must support
booting from the external drive - not all machines do this). There's no way
to do a clean install, without booting from the DVD media.

If you want to do an in-place upgrade from XP to Vista, you can just run
"setup.exe" from the Vista installation files, which you copied to your K:
drive. If you can't access a DVD drive, this would be your only solution.

Maybe not the answer you wanted, but ... hope it helps a bit.

Andrew

 

[eric302]

Hi Eric

If you want to do a clean install of Vista (not a bad idea) you'll need to
boot up from the DVD.

Hmmm... I saw a page at http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry
about installing from USB, so I thought someone might be able to give
a pointer on extrapolating that to installing from (maybe) a small
FAT32 partition on my hard drive.

I'm going to try making a copy of the Vista DVD on a friend's DVD-R,
and see if that reads.

 

[Andrew McLaren]

Hmmm... I saw a page at

http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry
about installing from USB, so I thought someone might be able to give
a pointer on extrapolating that to installing from (maybe) a small

Installing Vista from a USB key is easy! if (and only if) you're doing an
in-place upgrade, not a clean install.

It's possible you *might* be able to clean-install Vista from a USB key,
*if* (and only if) your machine supports booting from a USB device. Some do,
many don't. And installing Viista this way is not a scenario that Microsoft
has tested or supports, so you'll be on the outer perimeter of civilised
computing. The option to boot from a USB device is usually configured in the
machine's BIOS. This is different for every brand, so look at your machine's
manual for exact details. Basically looking for something which says, "Boot
from USB device? [yes/no]" and choose Yes. Then configure the boot device
order, to try booting from the USB device before booting from the Hard Disk.
Apart from that, it's easy - copy the contents of the Vista DVD to a USB key
(you'll need a 4GB key), then boot up from it like you would a DVD. Even if
your machine supports booting from USB key, I'd still only give it a 50%
chance of success - Vista was not designed to be installed from USB, many
things could go wrong. But worth a shot if you have the chance to try it ...

Good luck!

Cheers
Andrew

 

[xCal]

perhaps, if you build or connect your laptop to a network, you can
install vista. At least, this is obligatory on enterprises, but i dont know
how to do it.
Carlos.

 

[xCal]

looking to you coment ...

"I took my laptop to a friend's

house, plugged into their network, and copied the contents of the
Vista DVD to a folder on my K drive."

completely wrong, things will not work so...

 

[Darrell Gorter[MSFT]]

Hello,
You can generate a bootable Windows PE Ram disk on a flash drive. This
should see the external connected drive, so you can then format the C drive
and install from K: drive. ( just a note drive letters in WinPE may be
different than they are inside the Windows Vista installation you are
currently booting so verify which drive is which before formatting)
Download and install the Windows AIK on another machine.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C7D4BC6D-15F3-4284-
9123-679830D629F2&displaylang=en
Read this section:
Walkthrough: Create a Bootable Windows PE RAM Disk on UFD

Thanks,
Darrell Gorter[MSFT]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
--------------------
|> From: "Andrew McLaren" <[email protected]>
|> References: <[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
<[email protected]>
|> In-Reply-To: <[email protected]>
|> Subject: Re: Install Vista from one partition to another
|> Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:38:20 +1000
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|>
|> > Hmmm... I saw a page at
|> > http://kurtsh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!DA410C7F7E038D!1665.entry
|> > about installing from USB, so I thought someone might be able to give
|> > a pointer on extrapolating that to installing from (maybe) a small
|>
|> Installing Vista from a USB key is easy! if (and only if) you're doing
an
|> in-place upgrade, not a clean install.
|>
|> It's possible you *might* be able to clean-install Vista from a USB key,
|> *if* (and only if) your machine supports booting from a USB device. Some
do,
|> many don't. And installing Viista this way is not a scenario that
Microsoft
|> has tested or supports, so you'll be on the outer perimeter of civilised
|> computing. The option to boot from a USB device is usually configured in
the
|> machine's BIOS. This is different for every brand, so look at your
machine's
|> manual for exact details. Basically looking for something which says,
"Boot
|> from USB device? [yes/no]" and choose Yes. Then configure the boot
device
|> order, to try booting from the USB device before booting from the Hard
Disk.
|> Apart from that, it's easy - copy the contents of the Vista DVD to a USB
key
|> (you'll need a 4GB key), then boot up from it like you would a DVD. Even
if
|> your machine supports booting from USB key, I'd still only give it a 50%
|> chance of success - Vista was not designed to be installed from USB,
many
|> things could go wrong. But worth a shot if you have the chance to try it
...
|>
|> Good luck!
|>
|> Cheers
|> Andrew
|>
|>

 

[Andrew McLaren]

You can generate a bootable Windows PE Ram disk on a flash drive. This

Thanks Darrell - great info!