Windows 7 Files question

I wasn't sure how to title this, so I hope this drives some traffic here.

I've gotten my desktop set up how I want it (RainMeter, Nexus, etc.) and I was wondering this:

If I copied all of the files from my C: Drive to a newly partitioned harddrive (being as mine is failing) would it have Windows 7 installed just as I have it on my computer now? Or would I have to re-install and set everything up again?

I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work because you also need your other parititon the Windows 7 setup creates that is about ~100 MB and used for initial booting. But what you can do is create a backup of your entire OS, then install Windows 7 then restore your "backup" on the new installation. Pretty much accomplishes the same thing.

You should be able to do some sort of mirror of the harddrive, but a simple drag and drop copy probobly wouldnt work. Also depending on how you copy your partition, your boot information might be wrong but I think that is pretty easy to fix with a windows 7 disc.

Download RedoBackup(free) and burn it to a disk. Backup your failing drive and restore it to the new one. Just make sure the new drive is not smaller than the old, or you won't be able to restore. I would suggest a clean install though. Copying C: over to another drive won't do anything because the MBR(master boot record) recognizes the drive Windows 7 was originally installed on and will ignore any other drive as boot drives, unless you've installed another OS.