Hi All

Im finally ready to upgrade my system from XP to Windows 7.

Now before I start this tedious task, I have one question.

I have an external hard drive to import all my files to. 
However, on my system I'm using 3 Drives, C: for my Programs, D: for my Samples, and E: for my Audio.

Do I have to import all 3 drives over before I upgrade, or can I just import my C: Drive?

You only need the CPW files and the audio folders. Hopefully you have kept them all in a easy to grab folder together in your DATA drives. 

The last thing on earth you "import" is the C drive. Your new OS will be overwriting this drive with nice new improved everything. 

Your D and E drives will not be touched, Leave them alone. The new system will use them just like the old system as DATA storage. 

Just make sure to back up all your personal data that may be on drive C... Even better, spend $100 ( or less ) and pull drive C and put a new drive in there. Then there's no way you'll screw up. New hard drives are always a good thing. 

Recommendation: BE SURE that you have not introduced ANY permissions limitations on those extra drives (make sure ANY user can Read/Write to them). Otherwise, you may not be able to access them after the upgrade. Windows is crafty like this and will cause you lots of grief here. 

In fact, I'd offload all the data from those partitions to external non NTFS-formatted drives for access later, and use verification or duplication, depending on how important that data is. Then I'd take those external drives offline during the upgrade. If you can't access the other partitions/drive letters after, you can simply reformat them and move the data back onto them. 

Cactus is also right: Go get another new hard-drive and keep this one as a backup for now, and a new backup for later. Hard drives are cheap, really.

If you are upgrading your system, including the computer, check out using an SSD drive as the C drive  and go with 64-bit OS.

you don't state 32 or 64 bit.. and thats important

with 64 bit you get another program folders file 

+ the ID's of exsisting VST's you used in tunes.. the 64 bit version of them might also be different and not found when you load a song in

you can import to 1 drive.. but there is reasons for using 3 drives.. speed (assuming they are 3 physical drives, not just partitions)

You can't upgrade in place from XP to Windows 7. You have to backup all your data on the C: drive, reformat the drive, install Windows 7, then reinstall ALL of your applications, then restore all the data you backed up. Its a long tedious process that you have to plan for. You should run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor from the Microsoft site because you may have some programs or hardware that will not survive the upgrade. If I were you, I'd go to Windows 8 and skip Windows 7. You should also install the 64 bit version and not the 32 bit version. 

Another option is to buy a new disk drive and install Windows 8 (or 7) on it. You'll still have to reinstall all of your applications, but you won't have to worry about losing any of your data because you'll still have the old drive that you can boot from or connect as a data drive. 

Whew!!

Sounds like a daunting task!The "buy a new drive" option sounds good and i
I'm running on 32bit.
However I saw an article on the Windows web site that suggests it's possible to run 64bit on a 32bit machine.
Is this possible?

No, 32bit Windows is incapable of running 64bit SONAR (or any other application written for 64bit Windows).

I saw an article on the Windows web site that suggests it's possible to run 64bit on a 32bit machine.  Is this possible? 


Yes, If the computer is fairly new it will run either OS version. 

Sounds like a daunting task!The "buy a new drive" option sounds good 


It is a bit of work but it will be well worth it. It is so much better working with Windows 7 64 bit. For me it was " Why didn't I do this years ago"




1- Install new 1 or 2 TB hard drive, put old drive in a cool dry place. 
2- Format drive into 100 Gig "C" partition and balance to a data partition. 
3- Install new OS 
4- Update all system drivers 
5- Run DPCLAT meter and tweak system for DAW
6- Disable on board sound card 
7- Install drivers for Audio interface
8- Install DAW software. 


Because all your CPW and Samples are on the other DATA drives you are now ready to get back to recording.