Migrating WoW

[LavCat]

Tomorrow I plan to install Windows 7. What is the best way to migrate my WoW installation? In the past when installing a fresh copy of Windows XP I have installed WoW from the discs and then copied over my existing WoW files. There must be an easier way. Since I now have WoW on its own drive, I'm thinking I could just use the same files without doing anything else.

Am I missing something? Does any know the proper way to migrate?

[Concillian]

Tomorrow I plan to install Windows 7. What is the best way to migrate my WoW installation? In the past when installing a fresh copy of Windows XP I have installed WoW from the discs and then copied over my existing WoW files. There must be an easier way. Since I now have WoW on its own drive, I'm thinking I could just use the same files without doing anything else.

Am I missing something? Does any know the proper way to migrate?

Last time I moved I just had to copy the directories. There wasn't anything "anchored" to the windows install.

If it's on it's own drive, you should be able to just use that.
Add new shortcuts to the start menu somewhere so smartsearch works on the menu.

Try it. Worst case is you have to install from the discs and download all the freaking updates again anyway, but I don't think you'll have to.

[vor_lord]

I've installed WoW from disc just once, on day 1. I've since run it from that install on Windows XP (a couple different installations), Windows 7 Beta (a little), and linux (two clean installations). It moved hard drives when I upgraded a couple of times.

You should have no trouble. In the event that you do, you may find it easier (if not faster) to download the client with your battle.net account rather than messing with the discs.

[Mavfin]

You should have no trouble. In the event that you do, you may find it easier (if not faster) to download the client with your battle.net account rather than messing with the discs.

If you *do* for some reason have to install from the discs:

Install from the WotLK DVD, then copy all the 3.x.x patch files from the old install to the new one, and watch the patches fly.

i.e. no need to use BC or vanilla install media.

[shoju]

I just went from vista to 7 this past friday. If your WoW is in a folder outside of your normal program files, then all you need to do is Copy the folder, put it on an external/thumb/pen drive that will hold it, get Win7 in, and paste that bad boy right down on the hard drive. Works like a charm.

[Jim]

Tomorrow I plan to install Windows 7. What is the best way to migrate my WoW installation? In the past when installing a fresh copy of Windows XP I have installed WoW from the discs and then copied over my existing WoW files. There must be an easier way. Since I now have WoW on its own drive, I'm thinking I could just use the same files without doing anything else.

Am I missing something? Does any know the proper way to migrate?

Hi,

I did a clean install of my Windows 7 one month ago. I also did a clean install of WoW with my Wrath of the Lich King DVD & had bnupdate bring my WoW up to date. I do it this way to insure that all files are current and not corrupt. I back up my Addon & Screenshot folder and that's it, ALL Files to include our character files are kept on the WoW server.

If you haven't set up your Blizzard account in awhile then you need to because it is different & rather nice, go to "Manage Account" at WoW. btw I did not have to use the Product key to install WoW, the version you have is now varified & kept at Blizzard. note I stopped playing WoW back in Aug 09, Bliz sent me 7 free days to play two weeks ago so I played. and now I am good to when ready
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/

FYI: Read this thead here at LL about Diablo 1 & windows 7.
Windows 7 (x64) & Diablo 1, Compatible?

edit: Windows 7 is WoW friendly :wub:

[LavCat]

Hi, :)

I did a clean install of my Windows 7 one month ago. I also did a clean install of WoW with my Wrath of the Lich King DVD & had bnupdate bring my WoW up to date. I do it this way to insure that all files are current and not corrupt. I back up my Addon & Screenshot folder and that's it, ALL Files to include our character files are kept on the WoW server.

Thanks for the help so far! At the moment my problems are a lot more than WoW. I can't get my Windows installation to go the way I want. Maybe someone here will have suggestions?

I have Windows 7 Professional Upgrade, as well as the full retail XP Professional. My goal is to create a dual boot DOS/Windows 7 64 installation, with the system partition being drive C and the boot partition being drive F. If anyone wonders why, this has been the way I have installed NT 3.5, NT 4.0, 2000, and XP. (No experience with NT 3.1 or Vista.)

Starting with a fresh hard drive (Seagate ST3300655LW) I used Windows 7 Diskpart to create four primary partitions, and set the first partition active. I then used DOS 6.22 to format the first partition. At this point I had a nice, bootable C drive.

Next I installed Windows 7 Professional from the 64-bit version of the DVD to the second partition. Installation went smoothly except that I never could get the program to accept my product key. Microsoft support was closed for the night but through much trial and error I discovered that a blank product key number works.

Windows 7 booted right up, but of course nothing was right. My boot partition was drive C and my system partition had no drive letter assignment. And I no longer had DOS.

In searching the web I found one person solved the dual boot problem by copying over bootsect.dos. I tried this, but it did not work for me. Maybe I should have reformatted the system partition first? I plan to try again.

The second problem is getting the boot partition to be the right drive letter. Again from the web people say there is no way to assign a drive letter when installing from the Windows 7 DVD, but that this can be done from a scripted installation. How does one do a scripted installation? It sounds like a lot of reading and a lot of work. It may also be possible to get the boot partition to be drive F by adding the right number of discs to the system during the installation. But I have to get dual boot working first.

Any help will be appreciated. How are things in Dalaran?

[Jim]

Windows 7 booted right up, but of course nothing was right. My boot partition was drive C and my system partition had no drive letter assignment. And I no longer had DOS.

In searching the web I found one person solved the dual boot problem by copying over bootsect.dos. I tried this, but it did not work for me. Maybe I should have reformatted the system partition first? I plan to try again.

The second problem is getting the boot partition to be the right drive letter. Again from the web people say there is no way to assign a drive letter when installing from the Windows 7 DVD, but that this can be done from a scripted installation. How does one do a scripted installation? It sounds like a lot of reading and a lot of work. It may also be possible to get the boot partition to be drive F by adding the right number of discs to the system during the installation. But I have to get dual boot working first.

Any help will be appreciated. How are things in Dalaran?

Hi, :)

I'm not playing WoW at this time. And Partitioning is not my forte, I tried many times and failed, here is a nice Free utility that will help you:

A partition manager for home users.

Partition Wizard Home Edition is a free partition manager designed by MT Solution Ltd. Home users can perform complicated partition operations by using this powerful but free partition manager to manage their hard disk partition such as Resizing partitions, Copying partitions, Create partition, Delete partition, Format partition, Convert partition, Explore partition, Hide partition, Change drive letter, Set active partition and Partition Recovery. Even the inexperienced users will be able to easily manage their partitions.

NOTE: Free for non-commercial uses only

Here are some key features of "Partition Wizard Home Edition":

· Support RAID.
· Extend system partition to improve computer performance to maximum.
· Manage the hard disk to get the best performance of computer.
· Create , Delete and Format partitions with simple steps.
· Disk Copy to protect or transfer data.
· Support disk and partition size larger than 2 TB.
· Convert partition format from FAT to NTFS.
· Partition Copy: Copy the entire hard disk to another one.
· Copy Disk Wizard: Copy the entire hard disk to another one without windows reinstalling.
· Disk Map - Visually demonstrate your disk / partition configuration; preview the changes before applying.
· Hide/unhide partition, set active partition, etc. - Change partition properties.
· Explore FAT/NTFS partition.


Requirements:

· x86 or compatible CPU with main frequency 500MHz
· Capacity of RAM memory above 256M


Limitations:

· Merge function is not available
http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-D...e-Edition.shtml

[Jim]

Hi, Found it in my Tomshardware forum folder: :wub:

I can only give you some guidelines. The details as to size and number of partitions is something you have to figure out based on _how_ you will use your machine. I will start with the way I do it, stating why I do it that way.

When deciding how to partition a hard drive, two factors that you should keep in mind are:

1. hard drives transfer data that is stored at the beginning of the drive faster than data that is stored at the end of the drive.

2. if files you access frequently are stored all over the surface of the drive, then the hard drive's read/write head will have to travel a lot to retrieve the files you want. If, on the other hand, you group your files into groups of "frequently accessed", "less frequently accessed" and "rarely accessed" files then the hard drive's read/write heads will very often be in the "frequenly accessed" area, implying they will have to travel less and consequently, accessing the files will be faster. In technical terms, this grouping is to maximize locality.

Given the above, when configuring a system you'd want to have all your frequently accessed files at the beginning of the drive and the rarely accessed files at the end of the drive. A partitioning scheme that accomplishes this, could be the following:

First partition (C: ) - Your choice of Windows version - First Windows installation. (Windows files are obviously accessed very frequently, therefore it makes sense to have them in the first partition at the beginning of the drive.) It's difficult to openly recommend a size for this partition, I use 32GB and only use this space for Windows and utilities that help me manage and/or recover a computer in case of problems. Everything else goes into a different partition - keep reading to find out where.

Second partition (D: ) - for swapfile and temporary files created by Windows. I use anywhere between 16GB to 32GB. I manually set the swapfile to be in this partition. I also manually set all temporary files (including temporary internet files) to be in this partition. The point of this partition is to place all the file that are frequently accessed there AND that you do not need to backup. Do not place anything you would mind losing here. This is a partition for what you could consider "junk".

Third partition (E: ) - Your choice of Windows version - Second Windows installation - size 16GB to 32GB. When you have a problem with your computer, particularly if it is a software problem, you'll be glad you have a second installation you can boot into. You use this installation to repair any problems that the first installation may be having. Whether you make C: or E: the installation you use on a daily basis is a matter of personal taste. I have a slight preference for making the installation in E: my daily one because many viruses/trojan/crapware are hard coded to affect drive C:, therefore by using E: you dodge the bullet. If you chose to make E: your daily installation then do boot into C: every now and then to make sure it is still working properly (in case one of those poorly coded viruses/trojans/etc got in there without you noticing.

Fourth Partition (F: ) - Your programs go here (Games, Office, etc). This partition is still quite fast to access, for this reason your programs should go here. The size of this partition depends on how the number and size of the programs you want to install. About 200GB is usually sufficient.

Fifth Partition (G: ) - Your Data goes here. I redirect the "My Documents" folder to this partition. You do this by right clicking on "My Documents", selecting properties and clicking on the "Move" button. Again, the size of this partition depends on how much data you think you have. This is the partition you should be backing up very often and everything you do not want to lose should be stored here. Accessing the information in this partition is slower than it is in C, D, E and F but most data files are small in comparison to program size, for this reason they still load very quickly.

Sixth Partition (H: ) - an "Attic" partition - Seldom accessed stuff goes here. As I said at the beginning, the end of the hard drive is noticeably slower to access than the beginning. For this reason, I normally make this partition anywhere between 25% to 30% of the total drive size (transfer rate drops noticeably after 75% of the drive). In this partition I keep files that I do not access very often but that I still want to have "online", that is without having to search for a CD or DVD.

Very Important, the sizes I gave for C, D and E are the sizes I use but, my O/S of choice is Windows XP Pro 64bit. Windows Vista and, I believe Windows 7 use quite a bit more space, therefore, if you intend to use Windows 7, I would double the size I stated for C and E (D should probably be ok as stated but, you may want to make it larger if that makes you more comfortable).

Here is the breakdown in my main installation which uses 1TB hard drives:

C - 32GB
D - 32GB
E - 32GB
F - 350GB
G - 150GB
H - 320GB

Note that it does not add up to 1TB, this is because I quadruple boot my machine, there are two Windows XP 64bit installations and 2 Windows XP 32bit installations. I did not include the Windows XP 32bit installations above to keep things simple.

Another important point, make sure that when you partition your hard drive, you only have one (1) primary partition. Avoid creating multiple primary partitions. Windows has a very unpredictable way of assigning drive letters when there are multiple primary partitions and there are multiple hard drives in the system. This problem is made worse by the fact that the Windows Setup (from the installation CD, does NOT assign drive letters the same way that a fully installed Windows does). These problems can be managed but they are very tricky and the best way is to avoid them by having one and only one primary partition in the system.

When you get your SSD, you will make your life a lot simpler, if you _disconnect_ your hard drive from the system (so it cannot be seen by Windows - alternatively, you can disable it in the BIOS but, I'd rather be safe and disconnect it) and install Windows 7 on the SSD as if it were the only installation. Once you've done that, connect your HD back and set the BIOS to boot from the SSD. If you do it this way, you will have to reinstall the programs you have in drive F. When you install your SSD and reconnect your HD, you will find that the drive letters that were originally assigned to the partitions on the hard drive have changed. You can - and should - set them back to what they were originally using the "Disk Management" console of Windows. The one partition you will not be able to assign the same drive letter will be C (since it will then be unmodifiably used by the copy of Windows on the SSD), this is not a problem and, since you should not be storing or changing anything in what used to be partition C, I would simply hide the partition by removing whatever letter Windows 7 assigned to it. Doing so will not prevent you to boot into that partition if you ever needed to (because the BIOS will still see the partition and give you the option to boot from it - if you have a BIOS that has a boot menu).

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251381...rtitioning

[LavCat]

Hi, :)

I'm not playing WoW at this time. And Partitioning is not my forte, I tried many times and failed, here is a nice Free utility that will help you:

Hmm, I see that Partition Wizard has a Change Drive Letter function. No Microsoft tool that I know of will touch the drive letter of the boot partition. Partition Wizard warns you not to change the drive letter of the system partition, but it does not say anything about changing the drive letter of the boot partition:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/help/change-letter.html


I also found this MS KB article warning not to change the system/boot drive letter, but how to do it anyway. The article does not apply to Windows 7 but might work anyhow:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...b;EN-US;Q223188


I also read about a MS tool, Bcdboot, that lets one change the location of the boot files. In other words Bcdboot can change the location system volume. Unfortunately my boot files *are* in the right place, that is on the correct partition. I just want the system volume to be called the C: drive. Is that too much to ask? And why does MS call the volume with the boot files the system partition, rather than the boot partition? Am I the only one to get confused?


Better, though, to install Windows with the correct drive letter to begin with. I am reading about Windows PE and the Windows Automated Installation Kit. More information than I wanted.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en


However I still hope to force the Windows 7 boot partition to be the F: drive by getting dual boot to work and having two extra drives connected at installation time. That is, my system partition should be C:, the next drive should be D:, the third drive should be E:, and the boot partition should end up as being F: -- wish me luck!

And if anyone could tell me how to make the "Insert Link" tool work on this is site it would be nice. Insert Link works for me on other sites.

[LavCat]

Hi, Found it in my Tomshardware forum folder: :wub:

Thanks! Interesting thread. I did not see your message until after I replied to your previous one. What the Tom's Hardware people are doing is what I am trying to do. When I was a developer I had several operating systems installed at once. Now that I can't get that kind of employment I am making do with retail copies. The most interesting thing I read in the Tom's Hardware thread is that "MS actually allows you to install Windows as many times as you want on a single machine." I did not know that. I thought each Windows installation required it's own license, even for a virtual machine. I'm not positive the original poster is correct about that, but if so I would install a second copy of Windows 7 if I had the disc space.

In the meantime I plan to log on and do a couple dailies, then get back to muddling on with my project.

[Jim]

Thanks! Interesting thread. I did not see your message until after I replied to your previous one. What the Tom's Hardware people are doing is what I am trying to do. When I was a developer I had several operating systems installed at once. Now that I can't get that kind of employment I am making do with retail copies. The most interesting thing I read in the Tom's Hardware thread is that "MS actually allows you to install Windows as many times as you want on a single machine." I did not know that. I thought each Windows installation required it's own license, even for a virtual machine. I'm not positive the original poster is correct about that, but if so I would install a second copy of Windows 7 if I had the disc space.

In the meantime I plan to log on and do a couple dailies, then get back to muddling on with my project.

Hi, :)

I have Windows XP Pro OEM & Windows 7 Home OEM. I used Win XP no less than 6 times on two different computers I built, I always use the same Computer Name :P

You may find this web site of interest IF you don't already know it:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/

[Jim]

And if anyone could tell me how to make the "Insert Link" tool work on this is site it would be nice. Insert Link works for me on other sites.

Hi, :)

When you get the error message ["ERROR! You must enter a URL, You must enter a Title"] click OK.
Now click on the Insert Link button a 2nd time, you should then have a yellow bar appear under your Tabs with a Script message to ["Temporarily Allow Scripted Windows"] click on it.
Now a new Box will appear for you to place the URL in click OK, then another box for the Title will appear.

Let me know if you do it :P

[LavCat]

Hi, :)

When you get the error message ["ERROR! You must enter a URL, You must enter a Title"] click OK.
Now click on the Insert Link button a 2nd time, you should then have a yellow bar appear under your Tabs with a Script message to ["Temporarily Allow Scripted Windows"] click on it.
Now a new Box will appear for you to place the URL in click OK, then another box for the Title will appear.

Let me know if you do it :P

Yes, that is the error that I'm getting but I get the same error however many times I try it. However the same kind of function works fine on at least one other forum site.

Now after few dailies and a typically glorious victory in Wintergrasp (manditory WoW content), I am off to swap hard drives and try Windows 7 once again!

[Jim]

Yes, that is the error that I'm getting but I get the same error however many times I try it. However the same kind of function works fine on at least one other forum site.

Now after few dailies and a typically glorious victory in Wintergrasp (manditory WoW content), I am off to swap hard drives and try Windows 7 once again!

Hi, :)

I get the error message every time I need to post a URL with a Title, cut & paste is easier...maybe there is a script for the script so that we don't have to go thru the same proceedure every time :whistling:

btw, Good Luck !!!

[LavCat]

btw, Good Luck !!!

This was going to be a "Greetings from Windows 7!" post, but I gave up for the night and went back to XP. Besides, my lo mein is too salty, too oily, and cold. However I did get dual boot to work, actually triple boot. It's so nice to see a DOS prompt! Windows 7 won't recognise DOS, but XP will, so the procedure is to install DOS, then XP, then Windows 7.

The main problem remains how to set the Windows 7 system partition drive letter. Nothing I have tried has had any effect. At the moment the boot drive is C and the system drive is D. I have not yet tried the Microsoft registry hack.

Then I assumed that one could run the XP Easy [it's never easy] Transfer Wizard to save settings, then run the Windows 7 Easy Transfer Wizard to restore settings to the new OS. No. First one must install Windows 7, then transfer the Windows 7 version of the Easy Transfer Wizard back to Windows XP, run the Windows 7 Easy Transfer Wizard in XP, then transfer the Windows 7 Easy Transfer Wizard transfered settings back to Windows 7, and run the Windows 7 Easy Transfer Wizard under Windows 7 to restore the setiings.

Windows 7 spent considerable time and effort trying to format the Windows 7 installation DVD. I figure this is a productivity enhancement. That or it was due to an AHCI driver incompatibility.

I also checked the Windows 7 EULA with respect to the Tom's Hardware poster's advice that "MS actually allows you to install Windows as many times as you want on a single machine."

"License Model. The software is licensed on a per copy per computer basis...A hardware partition or blade is considered to be a separate computer...You may install one copy of the software on one computer."

[LavCat]

This is my Hello World post, Windows 7 version! WoW works great. Nothing had to be done but click on the launcher. In fact the frame rate in Dalaran is much higher than it had been. The frame rate now seems limited by vsynch.

Configuring Windows itself was not so easy. Here is what finally worked:

On the new hard drive create four primary partitions using the Windows 7 version of Diskpart from the 64-bit Windows 7 installation DVD. Let's call them 1, 2, 3, 4. Set partition 1 active.

Boot DOS 6.22 from a floppy and format partition 1 as FAT, transferring system files. We now have a bootable C drive and a DOS prompt!

Install Windows XP 32-bit on partition 1. We now have a working dual boot system. Because XP is 32-bit and Windows 7 is 64-bit, we can't simply install Windows 7 from XP. That would be too easy.

Set partition 3 active. Install Windows 7 64-bit from the installation DVD to partition 3. Boot into Windows 7. Format any as yet unformatted partitions and set up all the drive letters except C, which Windows 7 has selfishly assigned to partition 3, which by now you may have guessed is both the boot partition and the system partiton.

Copy the Windows installation DVD to partition 4 (just a convenient place to put it). Run Setup and install Windows 7 to partition 2, which is now the F drive. Boot into the new copy of Windows 7. All the drive letters are now correct except for partition 3, which is still C, and partition 1, which can't be C as long as partition 3 is C. See?

Remember partiton 3 is still the system partition, even though we now have partition 2 (drive F:) as the boot partiton. Use the Widows 7 utility Bcdboot to transfer the boot information to partition 1. Remove the drive letter from partition 1. Set partition 1 active and reboot.

We now have a triple boot: DOS, Windows XP, and Windows 7. Choose Windows 7. All the drive letters are as we left them. Partition 3 is still C, but since partition 3 is now neither the system partition nor the boot partition, the drive letter can be changed at will. I changed mine to L, and assigned C to partition 1, which previously had no drive letter assigned.

C is now my system partition and F is my boot partition, just as I've always had it for the past fifteen years. No registry hacks necessary. They said it can't be done. They being Microsoft forum folks. As in employed by Microsoft.

[Jim]

This is my Hello World post, Windows 7 version! WoW works great. Nothing had to be done but click on the launcher. In fact the frame rate in Dalaran is much higher than it had been. The frame rate now seems limited by vsynch. Configuring Windows itself was not so easy. Here is what finally worked:

Hi,

I just found this Windows 7 forum, looks great, I like the Tutorials:
How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Warning
To stop XP from deleting your Windows 7 System Restore Points everytime XP is started, then see System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete to hide Windows 7 from XP.

Windows 7 Minimum Hardware Requirements:
NOTE: For more information on this, see: Windows 7 system requirements
1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB RAM for 32-bit Windows 7 OR 2 GB RAM for 64-bit Windows 7
16 GB available disk space 32-bit Windows 7 OR 20 GB for 64-bit Windows 7
Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
DVD-R/W Drive
Internet or phone access to activate Windows 7.