I'm a little confused about what it is you want. If you want the same setup you have now except with Windows 10, then there's nothing stopping you from doing an upgrade install that keeps all of your files and programs. If you want to install Windows 10 to a second HDD but you also want the second HDD to have everything that's on your first HDD, then the easiest way to do it is to clone your HDD before doing an upgrade install that keeps all of your copied files and programs. If you're going to complain about how long that would take, I don't know what to tell you. Copying large amounts of data takes time, and that's the price of using a second HDD. If you're not married to the idea of having all of the same programs and files on both hard drives, then you can cut out the HDD-cloning part.
If you use the gatherosstate.exe method, you can update to Windows 10 as if it were still the free upgrade period.
I agree that clean installs are preferred, but upgrades are generally okay, and the OP wants something specific that would be accomplished by an upgrade installation.
You can keep your Windows 7 installation on a separate partition or HDD. If you want the same files and programs on a Windows 10 partition or HDD, then you need to copy those over beforehand.
Honestly why is it a problem @the_randomizer?
What is your end goal, to have two operating systems? And you want both operating systems to have the same files and programs? That's where the confusion comes in. If I were you, I would pick which OS is going to be my primary OS (probably Windows 10) and have all of my programs and files on that OS. If I'm going to have a secondary OS (Windows 7), then I would just do a clean installation of that OS on my second HDD or partition.
No, windows 10 isn't a scam. I really wish people would stop spamming things like this.
I'll back up once more today or in the next few days. And get a new PSU because mine's starting to have incompatibilities with newer GPUs than what I have.
You have full control over updates. In the normal Windows Update settings, you can choose between security or feature updates, you can pause updates for up to 35 days, etc. You can also use the Group Policy Editor to access the same Windows Updates settings from Windows 7 (e.g. Download only but let me choose when to install, Install Automatically, don't check, etc.).
That's not a legitimate criticism. My computer is a mess of pirated software, games, videos, etc.
That's a possibility. You might want to run an upgrade compatibility advisory and/or do some supplementary research on the software that is important to you.
And it loses all support in less than three years.
Make sure you do the gatherosstate.exe method. If you're confused on how to do it, let us know.I'm glad that Windows 10 can retain most of the apps I deem important, I mean sure I could reinstall the games, but it would take quite a while. If I can avoid the pain of doing so, I will. I did some thinking and going with the free-upgrade-to-keep-all method as being the one I'll go with. I'll back up all passwords, saved sites, etc as well. I'm sorry again, for stressing people out, I just well, didn't expect to get a free upgrade, much less this soon
I mean, there's a lot of legitimate criticism of Windows 10 and definitely a lot of concern over things such as privacy, but it's not this "catastrophic malware privacy scam" that certain people are hyping it up to be. The truth of the matter is that millions of PCs run Windows 10 and for the vast, vast majority, nothing will ever happen. Really, you're fine. The only thing to really worry about with Windows 10 is if you like it over other options, such as OSX or Linux, and if it serves your needs. But since it seems you'll be gaming, you don't really have much of a choice. It's foolish to try and game on anything but Windows.I don't know what I truly want, I hear good and bad about Windows 10 (invasive updates, no control over anti-piracy detection, software compatibility issues, etc). Windows 7 is obviously out as the main OS because it would have so many issues with new motherboard drivers, new CPU drivers, etc it wouldn't be worth keeping. I'm glad that Windows 10 can retain most of the apps I deem important, I mean sure I could reinstall the games, but it would take quite a while. If I can avoid the pain of doing so, I will. I did some thinking and going with the free-upgrade-to-keep-all method as being the one I'll go with. I'll back up all passwords, saved sites, etc as well. I'm sorry again, for stressing people out, I just well, didn't expect to get a free upgrade, much less this soon
