How do I copy/swap bootable partition on a windows 7 hard drive?

Question

I just set up a new desktop and split the drive into a 400GB partition for the boot/windows partition and a 600GB partition for data. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to me, win7 installed on the second, larger partition. Shrink/extend will not work in this case because of the locations of the partitions.

So, how do I get the contents of the 600GB partition onto the 400GB partition and then make windows boot off the 400GB partition?

Thanks in advance. Mike

Answer 1

Make an image of the system partition using Acronis or similar image software, restore the image to the partition of choice using the bootable Acronis media you make, when prompted by Acronis, set the restored partition as "Primary" and "Active"

Boot into the new partition, then use Disk management to format the old partition for storage. Acronis

or start over, boot from the W7 DVD, then delete both partitions, then partition as needed and install W7 to the correct partition.