Time for a Win7 Rebirth

[falcon409]

I have had all of Win10 I wish to put up with. It has made some processes I am used to null and void, it has caused anomalies in the Sims (both FSX and P3D_V4) and it has caused me to stop scenery work because the utilities I use, that I am comfortable with and that I will not move away from. . .less than productive. I will not go into specifics because it will only open this thread up to a debate that I care nothing about. I never in my life thought I would ever hear myself say this but. . .I'm an old man, I know what I like and what I have experienced with Win10 and I don't care for it in relation to Flight Simulator and all it's processes. If I was using it only for word processing and such I probably wouldn't have an issue with a few glitches. . .but it's messing with what I enjoy and I'm done with it. End of discussion.

So, with that I am looking for suggestions on what I need to do to save necessary utilities and what I should do to maintain necessary programs from the "C" drive before I format it and reinstall Win7 and then bring things back into the "C" drive.

[gman5250]

Ed, do you have the room in your box to run a dual boot system?

I've given up on trying to work around Gmax in Win10. The dual boot approach leaves an option to work in either drive, depending on your needs.
That's the route I'm looking at.

Just a thought.

[txnetcop]

Ed, I actually have 4 hard drives in my old system. One is win 10, one is win 7. one is win XP and heavily defended by apps to prevent hacking, the other is my SSD which can be used for FSX, P3d, or XP10 by any of the other hard drives. That has solved all my issues with applications that work best in each system.
Ted

[nomad13]

Plenty of computer users don't like Windows 10. Make an image of the operating system drive you have now in case you want to go back to Windows 10 using a free imaging program like Macrium Reflect. It's easy to use and it's free. Then do a fresh install of Windows 7. Once you install all the Windows 7 updates, install your games and programs, make a drive image of it so you can reinstall it in a half hour if you have problems in the future.

Windows 7 won't be going anywhere for a few more years. Microsoft will most likely be going to some kind of subscription operating system in the future. I'm not too keen on that idea and I don't like the Windows 10 updating and privacy issues, but it is what it is. My work computer has Windows 7 and my laptop has Windows 10. All my stuff is on Windows 7, including FSX, I see no reason to switch to Windows 10.

[falcon409]

Plenty of computer users don't like Windows 10. Make an image of the operating system drive you have now in case you want to go back to Windows 10 using a free imaging program like Macrium Reflect. It's easy to use and it's free. Then do a fresh install of Windows 7. Once you install all the Windows 7 updates, install your games and programs, make a drive image of it so you can reinstall it in a half hour if you have problems in the future.

I won't be going back to Win10 on this computer so doing a backup of Win10 is not necessary. . . .nor is setting up a dual boot system. I have enough headaches with one OS without adding another to the mix, lol. If I stay with Flight Simming, at some point I would require a new system and that would come with the current OS anyway. I have three HDD's (SATA. . .no I won't consider SSD's), each one has about 500Gig Free Space, 2 of which contain the Sims (FSX on the E: Drive and P3D on the D: Drive). The C: Drive contains the OS as well as all my Scenery Files and many utilities I wish to preserve to that drive in order to maintain the current Registry links.

If I make a backup of those specific folders and the registry, will that suffice to restore the necessary information?

[Jafo]

If I make a backup of those specific folders and the registry, will that suffice to restore the necessary information?

Almost always not. You need more than just the registry if you subsequently reinstall an OS.
It's the OS drive in total that needs 'backup' via imaging.
Ideally you would also regularly backup the data drives to alternate drives in case of hardware [drive] failure/corruption too.
In their case it's only needed to be the sim folders themselves...not the entire drive's image...

[blanston12]

Personally I was going to do what you describe I would start by buying a new drive to replace your current boot disk and a USB enclosure to put your current disk in. Install a fresh win7 and then you can plug the old disk into one of the USB ports and copy off anything you need. And while you feel now you will never go back, never say never and it would be simple to switch things back if anything goes wrong.

[falcon409]

Almost always not. You need more than just the registry if you subsequently reinstall an OS.
It's the OS drive in total that needs 'backup' via imaging.
Ideally you would also regularly backup the data drives to alternate drives in case of hardware [drive] failure/corruption too.
In their case it's only needed to be the sim folders themselves...not the entire drive's image...

Ah yes, in a perfect world of course. That, however is not the world I live in, lol

[falcon409]

Personally I was going to do what you describe I would start by buying a new drive to replace your current boot disk and a USB enclosure to put your current disk in. Install a fresh win7 and then you can plug the old disk into one of the USB ports and copy off anything you need. And while you feel now you will never go back, never say never and it would be simple to switch things back if anything goes wrong.

Thanks for the insight Joe. I operate on a shoestring budget and the strings are knotted tight most of the time, so my only option is to do whatever backup/imaging I decide is necessary then run the formatting process several times and do a clean install of Win7. Then do what I can to return those utilities/programs from the current "C" drive to the new OS and hope that everything functions correctly.

I can promise you, as finicky as Win10 has been with SBuilderX, ADE and some other programs I use for scenery building and general simming. . .I want nothing to do with Win10.

[Jafo]

OK....
You already have 3 HDs....so there's no impact on budget.
You simply reformat 'C' and install 7.
Install your FSX etc...into a second drive...and use free imaging software to back up the 70-odd gig of the OS drive including swapfiles and hiberfil ...if you like...onto the third drive....makes it isolated and accessible for restoring if/when the C drive ever karks it.
That alone eliminates 'tears'.
Also....important individual files can be backed up regularly via such things as Syncback [also free] and again on a redundancy drive...not the source one.

I might have half a dozen computers....all on Win 10 ....except this one....the MAIN one....that has all my stuff...including FSX. It might have cost the better part of 10 K .... but I am absolutely ANAL about backups.
When you get serious you also do secondary backups....of the backups....[as I do].
In this world there are only 2 kinds of computer users...
Those who backup...
...and those who cry...

[falcon409]

OK....
You already have 3 HDs....so there's no impact on budget.
You simply reformat 'C' and install 7.
Install your FSX etc...into a second drive...and use free imaging software to back up the 70-odd gig of the OS drive including swapfiles and hiberfil ...if you like...onto the third drive....makes it isolated and accessible for restoring if/when the C drive ever karks it.
That alone eliminates 'tears'.
Also....important individual files can be backed up regularly via such things as Syncback [also free] and again on a redundancy drive...not the source one.

Earlier in this thread I mentioned that both my Sims (FSX and P3D) are located on other drives (FSX on the E Drive and P3D on the D Drive). Of course the operating files, those that run the heart of the Sims are located deep in the C Drive. I attempted to do an image backup yesterday to the E Drive which has 770Gig of free space and was told there wasn't enough space to do the ghost image and the backup as well. Many of my utilities which have been tweaked to perfection reside on the C Drive. . .my email program. . ."Outlook" with every receipt and key code for every addon going back 10 years are saved somewhere within the C Drive. Far too much to just wipe out with formatting and start over. virtually everything on the C Drive except the actual OS needs to be maintained.

I might have half a dozen computers....all on Win 10 ....except this one....the MAIN one....that has all my stuff...including FSX. It might have cost the better part of 10 K .... but I am absolutely ANAL about backups.
When you get serious you also do secondary backups....of the backups....[as I do].
In this world there are only 2 kinds of computer users...
Those who backup...
...and those who cry...

I am of the group who "Cry". Call it a character flaw if you wish, but I seldom, if ever do backups. I have paid the price many times yet still return to what I know, which is not backing up. Those who do. . .wonderful, I won't change though so that's not even a consideration. I will most likely bumble my way through this, lose a lot of valuable information and start over. . .again, lol. At least I'll be rid of Windows10, that alone will allow me to sleep better!

[sixstrings5859]

I'm building a new gaming rig and will be using Win7 64 bit. Have it now on my computer now and i have everything backed up on a external 1TB SSD. Refuse to use Win10 and Win 7 has all i need ,so why bother.Used to never back up but i learned my lesson long ago.