Flatland Shooter Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 (edited) Its not the end of the world, but its a piss poor way to begin the weekend. Computer #1 - Older XP Pro machine that decides to shut down every once in a while. Its a pain in the keister but as long as I save my data often, no harm no foul. I'm concerned that one of these shut-downs will be its last. (A friend says I have a partially fried mother board. I didn't even know you could fry just a portion of the MB.) Computer #2 - Newer XP Pro machine. Still not state of the art, but it runs circles around the old machine. Here's the problem. I have a program on the old machine that I use almost daily and the install disks are long gone (probably lost in my last move). The small software company appears to be defunct. There are other programs that may do the same thing, but it will take time to find them, learn them, and then trust them. I'd really rather stay with my old "tried and true" program. (Old dog, new tricks comes to mind.) The down time would be worse than the expense of a new program. Can I pull the hard-drive out of the old machine, install it into some whiz bang super case, and run the program on the new machine with this as an external hard-drive? Or can it be put into the case of the new machine as a second hard-drive and still run the program. Oh, its so sad to be a techno-weenie in this day and age, but what can I say. I'm an antique. All suggestions are appreciated other than hire some pimply faced junior high kid to save my butt. (No offense intended to those pimply faced school students out there.) Bill Edited March 20, 2009 by Flatland Shooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Santiago Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Can I pull the hard-drive out of the old machine, install it into some whiz bang super case, and run the program on the new machine with this as an external hard-drive?Or can it be put into the case of the new machine as a second hard-drive and still run the program. Oh, its so sad to be a techno-weenie in this day and age, but what can I say. I'm an antique. All suggestions are appreciated other than hire some pimply faced junior high kid to save my butt. (No offense intended to those pimply faced school students out there.) Bill Yes and Yes. YOu can either get an external case (about 20-40.00). and plug it into a usb port on your good computer. The best solution is to install as a second drive in your good pc. The USB-external drive can be dicey if you have an older version (1.1) of the USB drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatland Shooter Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 Can I pull the hard-drive out of the old machine, install it into some whiz bang super case, and run the program on the new machine with this as an external hard-drive?Or can it be put into the case of the new machine as a second hard-drive and still run the program. Oh, its so sad to be a techno-weenie in this day and age, but what can I say. I'm an antique. All suggestions are appreciated other than hire some pimply faced junior high kid to save my butt. (No offense intended to those pimply faced school students out there.) Bill Yes and Yes. YOu can either get an external case (about 20-40.00). and plug it into a usb port on your good computer. The best solution is to install as a second drive in your good pc. The USB-external drive can be dicey if you have an older version (1.1) of the USB drivers. Dang, that was fast. Thanks Paul. The newer computer is only a year old and probably has a newer version USB. I check around for one of those cases. Its just a plug and play thing after that, right? Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChuckS Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 I would have to say maybe and maybe. If you have the software on a drive other than your "C:" drive, the program could possibly expect to be on the "C:" drive. Or there may be some .ini files you will have to modify. Or some path and environment variables that need to be set. Or there may be some registry entries that will have to be added. Or there may be some drivers that need to be added to some place other than the directroy where the application lives. If none of this makes any sense to you, bring in the kid Best of luck, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatland Shooter Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 (edited) I would have to say maybe and maybe. If you have the software on a drive other than your "C:" drive, the program could possibly expect to be on the "C:" drive. Or there may be some .ini files you will have to modify. Or some path and environment variables that need to be set. Or there may be some registry entries that will have to be added. Or there may be some drivers that need to be added to some place other than the directroy where the application lives. If none of this makes any sense to you, bring in the kid Best of luck, Chuck I'm gonna call you "downer" Chuck. The program is on the "C:" drive. That's good. The stuff after that, where's that neighborhood kid? Bill Edited March 20, 2009 by Flatland Shooter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Santiago Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Yes, essentially it's plug and play with the external drive. And I agree with Chuck, there could be paths andsetups that may need to be tweeked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nuke Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Unfortunately, the odds are that Chuck is right... Most programs make multiple changes to the registry when they're installed...tracking them all down can be near impossible...you can definitiely install the hard drive into the new machine, but it's unlikely that the program will run... On the bright side, there is software that can help you out...a guy I work with has had good luck with PCmover (http://www.laplink.com/), but there are other programs, too...they're designed for copying everything from one machine to another (basically cloning an existing machine), but they might work for just one program... With all of that said...there are programs that are truly self contained and will run anywhere...you could try just copying the program folder to the new machine and try running the program...if it runs, you're good to go...if not, see above Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norbs007 Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 If it's a simple program like a DOS program that has all the required files in one folder then it can be as easy as copying the folder to the new computer or running it from the old drive. But normally programs copy some files outside the Program Files folder like the Windows\System folder and like what Chuck said, some registry entries too. What's the program? You might be able to download it somewhere; but might still need some sort of product key to make it work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flatland Shooter Posted March 21, 2009 Author Share Posted March 21, 2009 Thanks to all for your replies. Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLM Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 What program? Maybe somebody has is lying around and isn't using it anymore or could help you out with it. And give it a shot from the old drive. I've run a bunch of programs from drives out of other systems like you are talking about. I've had way more work than not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CenTX Posted March 21, 2009 Share Posted March 21, 2009 (edited) ...you can definitiely install the hard drive into the new machine... Might not be that simple. The new machine probably uses SATA drives and the one in the old computer is probably an IDE/EIDE, those connections are different. Some motherboards have both connectors, some don't. There may be an adapter available. edit to clean post Edited March 21, 2009 by CenTX Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LJE Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Manually installing a program is possible, but usually requires a significant amount of manipulation. If it is an older program that does not rely on the registry, and all necessary files are contained in the program folder, you can simple copy it from machine 1 and paste it almost anywhere on the HD of machine 2. If it uses the registry, copy the program folder from machine 1 and paste it into the programs folder of machine 2. Now you need to hack the registry. On machine 1, export all the registry keys you find and then import those keys into the registry of machine 2. Now try running the program. If you receive an error stating a certain file cannot be found (you most likely will encounter this), go to machine 1 and search for that file. Now copy that file and paste it into the same location on machine 2. Keep trying until you have found all the missing files. If you are successful with this hack, navigate to the program folder and located the exe file that starts the program and send a shortcut to your desktop. The program will not appear in your start menu, and also will not appear in add/remove programs in control panel. If this is too deep, get the kid down the block to try it for you. Good luck. Larry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Boudrie Posted March 22, 2009 Share Posted March 22, 2009 Might not be that simple. The new machine probably uses SATA drives and the one in the old computer is probably an IDE/EIDE, those connections are different. Some motherboards have both connectors, some don't. There may be an adapter available. From what I've seen, new SATA based MOBOS more often than not have at least one dual channel IDE connector (the one I just assembled came with 2 SAS, 6 SATA and 1 IDE). If not, you can put the IDE drive in a case that has USB or ESATA output (Rosewill makes a nice case with both), an plug that into a USB port on your system to access the drive. I've never used one, but it appears the IDE to SATA adapters do exist for a fraction of the cost of a box of primers: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822998008 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822998001 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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