Transfering programs

[LDaveM]

I have a client who I sold a new PC to and ghosted her exsisting hard drive to a new one. She had been getting "blue screens" and not thinking right, I thought that they may go away. HA HA!!, they didn't.
Now she doesn't have the CDs or disk for some programs, so is there a way to copy the programs from the old hard drive to the new one?
Thanks,
Dave

 

[bygeek]

Two programs that I know of will do this. Alohabob PC Relocator, and V-com's PC Upgrade Commander. Alohabob will let you chose the applications you want to transfer via parallel cable, network connection, or USB. The new version comes with the USB transfer cable.

 

[Wezzer]

Partition Magic by Power Quest will work also. The only downfall is that the two drives need to be in the same computer.........No Network Drive copying.

 

[TigerFlight]

Copying programs from one computer to another is not as easy as it sounds. There is alot to take into consideration. The biggest problem is the registry. You have to know every key to export to put into the new computer. What other files where placed in other folders, like dll's. Did the program write to the win.ini or the system.ini? This can be a major task. Take for instance Clone CD. There is a key in the registry called MAGNACARTA. This key contains info about illeagal serial numbers. Without this key the program will not run. It also writes to the win.ini as does winzip. So if you did not know the key existed. You would not be able to get the program to operate on the new computer. Not all of the files placed on a computer during an install goto the install directory. Some go into the system directory and some even go to the default directory. So you really have to know what you are looking for to be able to get a program off of one computer and put it on another. It is not impossible. I have done it many times. Just a lot of work. Cloning a drive is the easiest way outside of breaking down and purchasing the software. [sup]Tiger[/sup][sub]Flight[/sub]
Everyone has their two cents worth. Lets all try to donate our two cents and maybe we all can come up with a Dollars worth of advice!!!!!

 

[james33]

Dear LDaveM,
There are several programs that can do this (fairly succesfully) and one of them is Cybermedia Uninstaller.
What it does is create a compressed backup of the program and all the ###.dll's that go with it together with the relevant registry entries.
You might have to do a bit of research into how to get the product keys/registration no. out of the registry...
Some registration numbers will be reinstalled when you uncompresss the program onto the new computer, others, as I said, will have to be supplied with the product keys/registration no.
It, Cybermedia Uninstaller was available on a 30 day trial several times over the last few years (and on magazine coverdiscs) and if you can't get hold of that program there are many others that do the same thing. Regards Jim

 

[TigerFlight]

I'll have to check that one out myself. [sup]Tiger[/sup][sub]Flight[/sub]
Everyone has their two cents worth. Lets all try to donate our two cents and maybe we all can come up with a Dollars worth of advice!!!!!

 

[davidelnormal]

Ther is a very usefull program called Nortons Ghost which will transfer a mirror image of one hard drive to another.Set the new hard drive up as a primary slave or secondary master and make sure it is recognised as such in the BIOS and transfer the contents of the primary Master to it. I hate to sound confused but won't that transfer the problems as well. Sounds as if a format and reload would be the answer and if she loses the programs for which she has no discs then perhaps they will have to be replaced.

 

[TigerFlight]

Not Asking to do entire HD. Just certain Programs. [sup]Tiger[/sup][sub]Flight[/sub]
Everyone has their two cents worth. Lets all try to donate our two cents and maybe we all can come up with a Dollars worth of advice!!!!!