New computer, hard disk from old computer

[Guest]

Greetings !

The motherboard on my computer died, so I have bought a new computer.

I have installed the hard drive from the old computer, seen as Drive O: by
the new computer.

How can I address the programs stored on Drive O: ?

i.e. in the Registry file on Drive O:, the references are all to Drive C:

Thought:
Copy the entire "O:\Program Files" folder to the new Drive C:, and then add
the entire contents of the old Registry to the new one....

Or is there another way ? Say to "APPEND" Drive O: to Drive C: ???

Yes, I could simply re-install all the programs - IF I could find the CDs...

"There must be a better way" ???

 

[Malke]

Greetings !

The motherboard on my computer died, so I have bought a new computer.

I have installed the hard drive from the old computer, seen as Drive O: by
the new computer.

How can I address the programs stored on Drive O: ?

i.e. in the Registry file on Drive O:, the references are all to Drive C:

Thought:
Copy the entire "O:\Program Files" folder to the new Drive C:, and then add
the entire contents of the old Registry to the new one....

Or is there another way ? Say to "APPEND" Drive O: to Drive C: ???

Yes, I could simply re-install all the programs - IF I could find the CDs...

"There must be a better way" ???

Unfortunately, there is no "better way". You must reinstall all your
programs.


Malke

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Greetings !

The motherboard on my computer died, so I have bought a new computer.

I have installed the hard drive from the old computer, seen as Drive
O: by the new computer.

How can I address the programs stored on Drive O: ?

i.e. in the Registry file on Drive O:, the references are all to
Drive C:

Thought:
Copy the entire "O:\Program Files" folder to the new Drive C:, and
then add the entire contents of the old Registry to the new one....

Or is there another way ? Say to "APPEND" Drive O: to Drive C: ???

Yes, I could simply re-install all the programs - IF I could find the
CDs...

"There must be a better way" ???

Sorry, you're out of luck. There is no better way, and you have to reinstall
the programs.

This is the reason why backing up programs is useless (unless it is as part
of an image or clone of the entire drive, including Windows).

The same problem exists in how some people plan their partitions; they
separate their installed programs on a separate partition from Windows so
they won't lose their programs if they install Windows, but they are wrong.
If Windows is reinstalled, the programs have to be reinstalled too.

 

[Frank Saunders, MS-MVP OE/WM]

Greetings !

The motherboard on my computer died, so I have bought a new computer.

I have installed the hard drive from the old computer, seen as Drive O: by
the new computer.

How can I address the programs stored on Drive O: ?

i.e. in the Registry file on Drive O:, the references are all to Drive C:

Thought:
Copy the entire "O:\Program Files" folder to the new Drive C:, and then
add
the entire contents of the old Registry to the new one....

Or is there another way ? Say to "APPEND" Drive O: to Drive C: ???

Yes, I could simply re-install all the programs - IF I could find the
CDs...

"There must be a better way" ???

You must reinstall the programs, but if they offer you a chance to change
where to install them and you choose the location where they already are it
will go a lot faster.

 

[Guest]

The motherboard on my computer died, so I have bought a new computer.
How can I address the programs stored on Drive O: ?
"There must be a better way" ???

Thank you, Malke, Ken and Frank for responding.

Of perhaps more importance is the fact that many of the programs have been
updated, and the updates are THERE on Drive O:

One program in particular, that I HAVE re-loaded from CD, is now asking to
fetch upgrades that will take TEN HOURS to download - and yet I HAVE those
upgrades already installed on my Drive O: !

WINDOWS is another such - it hasn't told me just how much it wants to fetch,
but I guess it will be ENORMOUS....

Meanwhile, of course, my computer is at risk everytime I connect to the
internet....

"There must be a better way" ???

Regards

Robin

 

[Malke]

Thank you, Malke, Ken and Frank for responding.

Of perhaps more importance is the fact that many of the programs have been
updated, and the updates are THERE on Drive O:

One program in particular, that I HAVE re-loaded from CD, is now asking to
fetch upgrades that will take TEN HOURS to download - and yet I HAVE those
upgrades already installed on my Drive O: !

WINDOWS is another such - it hasn't told me just how much it wants to fetch,
but I guess it will be ENORMOUS....

Meanwhile, of course, my computer is at risk everytime I connect to the
internet....

Most updates can be downloaded separately and then applied to target
computers. Updates already installed on the machine aren't usable for
this purpose anyway. For Windows Updates, see:

How to download updates and drivers from the Windows Update Catalog or
from the Microsoft Update Catalog:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;323166

Store Windows Updates locally for subsequent installations -
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/saveupdates.htm

You'd have to check with the third-party program mftrs. for their update
downloads.


Malke