How can I transfer programs from one hard drive to another on my computer?

Question

My old computer died. My hard drive was ok. I have another computer that has a hard drive also. Now, I have 2 hard drives. My programs won't run though from my old hard drive? Can I transfer them using the file transfer wizard? Or how can I get my programs to run from my old drive? Like office etc... And, how can I get my favourites back, & yahootoolbar etc.. without downloading again.

I was just looking at partioning in my computer. It sounds like I have to do a partion, is this right? Would this work? Make one drive logical and the other primary extended. Not sure which is which though and how to do it.

I don't know what you mean by slave?

or jumper details?

Answer 1

A partition will not work. Forget it.

Manually copying programs will not work - the registry and control files will all be wrong.

If you dont know about jumpers masters slaves and IDE channels heres the deal. There are 2 ide sockets on the motherboard. a cable comes out of each one and runs to 2 drives - one Master and one Slave. Usually only one IDE socket has a cable and it runs to your CD and to your hard drive - the other slot is often vacant. ((find your CD drive, follow the wide cable at the back - thats 1 of the 2 IDE cables)) Remove the identical IDE cable and hard drive from your old PC, plug the cable into the empty IDE slot on the mother board and into the old disk drive. Find a spare power connector ((probably hanging on the end of a wire somewhere)) and plug it in the back of the disk. Your old drive was probably a master and will likely work right off the bat. Power up the PC and you should see your old drive as a D or E drive. Now you can copy documents, images excel spreadsheets. BUT NOT programs or settings.

Perhaps there is a way to merge your old computer settings with your new PC but I don't know of one.

You are in for a Loooong weekend reloading everything.

Answer 2

I guess this does not really count as an answer here: I have encountered the same problem you have. I never found a way to resolve it, and was actually hoping one of these guys would answer it, but none of these answers actually do what I know you want; that is, allow you to place this hard drive in your new PC and use it as if it was your old PC, running programs directly from it.
Your best bet is to try to find or borrow the old program CDs so you can reinstall them to your new PC. I am not advocating software piracy at all, many programs save the CD key in a text file, if you can find those files on the old drive, then use that CD key to install the program on your new PC.
Add/Remove programs will not allow you to delete the programs on your slave drive, but you can gradually find (at least) the main program folder for each program and delete it. That way you make more space on the slave, and you may somewhat adhere to the rules of having software on only one PC.

Answer 3

The jumpers on the harddrive are the small pins things on the back. Usually, they will be set to automatic. You shouldn't very much difficulty simply going to a computer store and telling them you want a "cable select hard drive cable". If they stare at you blankly, they shouldn't be working there.

If that doesn't work, then the jumpers would have to be fiddled with, which will require you to look at the brand name and numbers of each harddrive, find the manuals or look them up on the net, find the jumper settings for each, and manually set up the master - slave cables.

Answer 4

Reinstall your programs from the original cds. There are transfer programs available but even the best doesn't guarantee all your programs will come across.

You can retrieve your files by installing the older hard drives one at a time as slaves. they will then show up in your Windows Explorer and you can transfer the files.

Good Luck

Answer 5

CHANGE JUMPER SETTING IN BOTH.
MASRET IN NEW, SLAVE IN OLD
SIMPLE THIS