Is it possible to update windows on a slave drive?

[PiousDevil]

So I'm trying to clean up a friend's laptop, a Dell Inspiron 1545. I see that it hasn't been defragmented since 2010, and no windows updates have been installed since june 2012. Every time I try to update windows or run a defrag, she freezes up on me.

I've got the drive (Windows Vista on a 5400 rpm seagate) in an external enclosure and connected to my Windows 7 desktop through eSATA, and I'm in the process of defragmenting it.

Wondering if it is possible to apply windows updates to the slave drive somehow. Any help would be appreciated.

[GaryRouth]

No. The updates only apply the Windows operating system that the computer was booted from.

For those computers for which you know the updates that are missing, you can download those updates manually from a different computer, and then save them to removable media, and then install them on the target computer - but the target computer needs to have booted into Windows to install them properly.

Clean up what you can while the drive is connected externally, but you'll have to put the drive back in it's original case & boot from it to install Windows updates.

Best of luck,
. . . Gary

[PiousDevil]

Thanks for the prompt response.


I'm planning to clone her drive to a Seagate Momentus XT, but want to get it cleaned up before I do so, not sure if that's going to be possible though.

[GaryRouth]

Seems like your clone should be OK. You can run the updates later, when the Momentus moves into its new home.

You might want to boot it into Safe Mode on its first power-up in its original laptop - and schedule a full-service-scan run of CheckDisk to help the NTFS file system make sure it's happy after the cloning.

What fun!
. . . Gary

[PiousDevil]

Yeah, when I started this I couldn't even get any windows utilities to open in safe mode, they would just never respond. Hopefully that will change after I do everything that I can from the desktop.

[GaryRouth]

typo - oops. I mistyped earlier. I'd meant to type "full surface scan" for the Check Disk utility. Not enough coffee today, evidently.

You know, since you mention trouble with basic functions in Safe Mode on the troubled Win7 computer, what you might want to do once the Momentus is back in its case -->

1) Boot the computer with a Windows 7 repair disk (or with a Win7 installation DVD). [There's a utility to create the Windows 7 repair disk (DVD or CD) in the Accessories/System Tools folder.]
2) Choose Repair from the menu.
3) Choose Command Line from the next menu.
4) From the command line, type chkdsk /r
5) After chkdsk finishes, why not try a run of Windows File Protection? (it's easiest to do if you have a Windows 7 installation DVD around, or if you know how to point it to the latest Service Pack location on the drive). The command is fairly simple: from the command line, type: sfc /scannow
[The advantage to running this is that it will replace any damaged/missing system files that the malware played havoc with.]
6) If the extensive cleaning up happens to make Windows 7 unable to boot successfully, you can also use your Windows 7 repair disk (or a Windows 7 installation DVD) with the Repair my computer option, and then select the Startup Repair option. It has a decent chance of working, and doesn't create as much extra work as a full reinstall would.

Hope it goes well
. . . Gary

[PiousDevil]

The laptop that i am working on is running windows vista. Im not sure jow much of what you just typed is applicable to vista

[glc]

You DO know that the Dell has a recovery partition - and you can return it to the way it was shipped. Press Ctrl+F11 on startup.

Be very careful cloning the drive - you must preserve the partition structure.

[PiousDevil]

I knew that the feature was there but not how to access it, as we've been trying to a avoid that because of the hassle of recovering applications and files.

I am concerned about the cloning process with the partition involved. Ive never cloned a drive before.

The seagate drive comes with a proprietary cloning software, i believe. I assume that it will recognize and clone the entire drive, as its partitioned. If thats not the case what should i be prepared for?

[glc]

There will be at least 3 partitions - a small utility/diagnostic partition, a main system partition, and a recovery partition. The utility and recovery partitions must be kept the same size and position on the drive. The main partition needs to be expanded to fill the rest of the space on the drive if the new drive is larger than the original drive.

[GaryRouth]

Re: Repair Disk/DVD environment utilities - Check Disk & Windows File Protection (aka sfc - "System File Checker") ---
These work pretty much the same in Windows Vista & Windows 7.

Re: Cloning with the Seagate Disk Wizard program
Here's a link to their support site for Disk Wizard, it has a nice amount of information and instruction about using the program --- DiscWizard | Seagate

There is a step in the cloning process that will ask which drive, and which partitions are to be cloned. You'll want to clone the entire drive, including all partitions, to be safe. That way the Dell-specific partitions will be in their same locations. The 'main' partition the glc mentions can be expanded to fill free disk space is the Windows Vista system partition - usually the "C" drive.


Best of luck,
. . . Gary