Partitioning prior to New Installation ( Not upgrade)

[abar20]

I used to have an external hard drive enclosure, and I stored large video files onto its 1 TB capacity. I built a new machine, sold the enclosure and used the same 1 TB hard drive with the UNbacked up files still therein. Obviously I am new to this otherwise I would not have done this. I realized my mistake when I went to install Windows 7 and it said to back up your files. I read further and discovered the reason was "They will be deleted". I really don't want to loose these files. Is there any way to install the OS without deleting the files. Can I install another OS like Linux, then partition the hard drive, delete linux then install windows 7 onto a partition? WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS! OTHER THAN BUYING ANOTHER HDD ENCLOSURE! Thanks

 

[nocheese]

To install any other OS will require a place to put the OS, so that would require repartitioning the drive. There are free tools out there for performing this task, but you would want to backup the files anyhow in case something went wrong.

Just bite the bullet and get a new external drive to use for backups. You want this in the long run anyhow.

 

[Jonmor68]

Or you could buy another internal drive, maybe a smaller (cheaper) one to install Windows and programs, leaving the existing one where it is.

 

[arson94]

I agree with jonmor68. It's a personal preference of mine to have a large drive like that for storage only. I'm just not a fan of running my OS off the same drive I use to store most of my files. Buy a smaller/cheaper hdd on which to install Windows.

 

[abar20]

To install any other OS will require a place to put the OS, so that would require repartitioning the drive. There are free tools out there for performing this task, but you would want to backup the files anyhow in case something went wrong.

Just bite the bullet and get a new external drive to use for backups. You want this in the long run anyhow.

I actually found an hdd enclosure and managed to back up the hdd. The hdd is not partitioned ( i don't even know what that means to b honest, but I know the hdd is just on big volume that is formatted obviously) now that everything is backed up and I just install win7 onto it?) or should I plug it into my old computer via usb and "partition" it? Is there a guide for this?