[Tomo8281]

Hi guys and gals,
I got my dad a new dell pc (very cheapo one, but fine for what he needs) a few months ago. The problem is, he has a lot of old programs on his PC (he uses windows XP) that we cant find anymore, a lot of it is for his buisness (he runs a shop) and he doesnt want to risk moving to a new harddrive if he cant easily find his programs! The solution to this of course, is to move the old harddrive into the new PC with the new hardware. I'm just wondering what do I need to do before hand to make this smooth? Obviously there is new hardware, so do I need to uninstall all the drivers (how do I do that safely), or are there other things I did to do?

Thanks a lot,
Tom

[TerryNet]

Do you mean to replace the new Dell's hard drive with the old one? Not likely you'll be able to boot, even in Safe Mode, but if you can then install the latest Dell drivers starting with the chipset.

[Elvandil]

For starters, it's illegal. The version of Windows that came with the original Dell is licensed for use and installation on that machine alone. They are married.

Secondly, it won't work. XP needs to be installed to the machine that will use it, and it already being a Dell OEM version, the probabilities become even slimmer. It won't accept the product key on a different hardware profile.

The programs need to be reinstalled on the new machine with the new OS. If the programs are too old for that, then it is about time to update those, anyway, or find alternatives.

[TerryNet]

For starters, it's illegal.

I must be too sleepy. I forgot to say that. Good night.

[Elvandil]

Originally Posted by TerryNet

I must be too sleepy. I forgot to say that. Good night.

Understandable. The first impulse is always to help the poster achieve the goal they are aiming for.

To the poster:

There are ways around some of these problems, such as programs that can move a program installed on one PC to another. But those, too, are limited and only tranbsfer certain programs. And again, licensing becomes an issue because some programs are licensed for a single installation which has already been used on the first machine.

Some programs will still run when moved directly, though most install files all over the system and create registry entries that cannot be duplicated without an actual installation.

But, if you tell us what programs are involved, there is an ocean of talent on this site that can almost certainly help you get things set up in a useful way and help find alternatives.