New HDD copying programs help please!!

zorber

Hi I have bough a new PC with Vista as the opperating system.
Now i know from reading other threads on here all documments can be copied over but programs cannot.
If i put the old hard disc drive as a slave can i put icons relating to the programs on the slave drive onto the desktop and get them to work from there. This would hopefully save me having to reinstall lots of programs. If this is possible is it also possible to add the program on the dslave drive to All programs list located under the start menu??

superscaper

No, because the programs would be referencing a registry and changes to an OS that wasn't in use etc. You need to reinstall the applications on the OS you are actually booting up and using. The alternative would be to boot from the 2nd hard drive but then you'd need to repair the installation at least to get it working with the new motherboard/hardware etc and you wouldn't be working within the OS that came with the pc.

ianian99

zorber wrote: »

Hi I have bough a new PC with Vista as the opperating system.
Now i know from reading other threads on here all documments can be copied over but programs cannot.
If i put the old hard disc drive as a slave can i put icons relating to the programs on the slave drive onto the desktop and get them to work from there. This would hopefully save me having to reinstall lots of programs. If this is possible is it also possible to add the program on the dslave drive to All programs list located under the start menu??

why dont you just clone the old hdd onto new one

superscaper

ianian99 wrote: »

why dont you just clone the old hdd onto new one

Presumably it's not the same OS (so Vista would be completely overwritten) and it'd still need to be repaired to enable it to work on a different pc.

sho_me_da_money

No it wont work.

Most applications need registry settings which are going to be completely different on the Vista system.

Im afraid the easy option is to re-install them again, remove all the !!!!!! you want.

Then use a program like Acronis TruImage to make a restore CD/image of the way your new system looks with all the programs installed.

This way whenever you upgrade or need to reformat the new PC, you have a good restore CD with all the proggys you need.

The idea of attaching the slave is good to just trasfer any other data you need.

ianian99

oh its a new pc, soz I read it as a new hdd

superscaper

ianian99 wrote: »

oh its a new pc, soz I read it as a new hdd

That'll teach you for reading too quickly. Done it myself numerous times.

zorber

ianian99 wrote: »

why dont you just clone the old hdd onto new one

Different opperating systems so wouldnt work

ianian99

zorber wrote: »

Different opperating systems so wouldnt work

yes i know i read the op wrong see couple post up.

fwor

Something that might help is to set up the old and new HDDs so that you can dual-boot into either Vista or the old OS (prob. XP?).

A lot depends on how often you will need the older applications, though. I used this method while making the transition from Windows to Linux, and initially thought it would be a real pain, but actually found that most of the stuff I do is just email and web browsing plus a bit of WP - none of which need the old OS.

One potential issue though: You should be able to see all of your data on the old (XP) HDD from Vista, but I'm not sure you will be able to access the contents of the new HDD from XP - I confess I've never tried it...

zorber

fwor wrote: »

Something that might help is to set up the old and new HDDs so that you can dual-boot into either Vista or the old OS (prob. XP?).

A lot depends on how often you will need the older applications, though. I used this method while making the transition from Windows to Linux, and initially thought it would be a real pain, but actually found that most of the stuff I do is just email and web browsing plus a bit of WP - none of which need the old OS.

One potential issue though: You should be able to see all of your data on the old (XP) HDD from Vista, but I'm not sure you will be able to access the contents of the new HDD from XP - I confess I've never tried it...

intresting how do you set it to dual boot? is that just by pressing F2 and sellecting which drive to boot from??