Is it possible to run programs that are installed on a different HDD?

Hey guys,

I had XP running on my computer and I had installed all my programs on that Harddrive.

So I went out and bought a new Harddrive and Installed Win7 on it. Now I can see the files of the programs that were installed on my Xp harddrive. I just tried running photoshop and it gave me an error saying I should reinstall that program.

Now is there any way around this? Can I somehow run all the programs that are installed on my other HDD?

Thanks

 

Wait a minute....you had installed all your programs on your computer's HDD. You then, went out and bought another HDD, installed Win. 7 on it, went to the Programs section in your Start menu and saw Photoshop there? How can you see the programs on the XP drive? Are you Dual Booting or something?

If you're Dual Booting and you're trying to run the program(s) in question under Win. 7 via browsing the XP HDD then that might be the problem right there. The program was installed under XP and registry files were written for the XP OS. not the Win. 7 OS so if you receive an error like that then you will either need to run the program under XP as it was designed for or reinstall it under 7.

 

he didnt make any mention of the start menu
im guessing he just went into his old hard drive and tried to open the .exe from there...

for most applications, i don't think thats going to work (only working thing that came to mind is warcraft3)
i think you'd be best off just reinstalling all of your programs

 

In order for a program to actually work, you need to run the installer on W7. Having the files there, and being able to run the files (which often requires registry entries and whatnot) are two entirely different things.

 

Right, I was just trying to understand what the OP was saying. Either way it still boils down to what I eventually said...The program(s) in question on the XP drive was written to system directories and the registry for the XP OS not the Win. 7 OS, so in that case that's the problem. Photoshop or whatever other programs that don't run (cause some might); will need to be reinstalled under 7.

This should give a better understanding of what happens during an installation process. Not all programs, such as Photoshop in this case can just be executed between various OSes/HDDs etc.

 

Ok guys. I really appreciate the quick replies.

Well I guess I have to go install all the softwares on again..


Thanks again.