Adding partitioned programs after fresh install.

Hi Everyone,

Apologies if this has already been discussed but i've searched the site and searched Google for hours and have not been able to find anything relevant or that helps the problem.

I have recently completed a fresh install of Win7 64bit on my laptop (Dell Studio 15) using the supplied Dell CD. The install went fine.

The Problem:

My drive is partitioned into various logical drives - i've installed the Operating System onto one (c), all my programs onto one, and games onto another etc.

Now, after the fresh install I no longer have any installed programs in Programs and Features or the Start Menu (however the programs are still installed on the logical drives). If i go to the programs' folder and open the shortcut they are not loading correctly, and i get various error messages or problems depending on the program.

How can i:

1) Get my programs to work correctly without manually finding all the uninstall folders and then re-installing them. 2) Add the programs back to the start menu and Programs and Features.

Many thanks in advance for any advice. I can normally problem solve them myself through experimenting or Google but this one has me stumped.

Cheers

Welcome to SevenForums REagal :)

Unfortunately, there really isn't any procedure to do what you want - it's not supposed to work this way. When you reinstall a fresh copy of Windows while you have programs installed on a different partition, you break all the ties between the programs and the OS.

Mostly this is because of registry entries, on which software tends to rely a lot, sometimes due to DLL or other system files that were installed into Windows' own system folders along with the program and are now missing.

You may be able to find that a few programs work fine if you just run them from their folders, but in most cases you'll have to completely reinstall them. There's no way around it.

For those apps that do still work, you can rightclick the executable and use Send To -> Desktop to create a shortcut on the desktop.

You can then move or copy such shortcuts from the desktop directly into your Start menu by rightclicking the icon and holding down the mouse button, then hovering over the Start orb until the menu opens on its own, then drop the icon into the start menu by releasing the mouse button. (At this point you'll be given a choice to copy or move the icon.)

Hope this helps - if you have further questions, please feel free to post back!

REagal said:

i've installed the Operating System onto one (c), all my programs onto one, and games onto another etc.

Is there a particular over-riding reason you have the OS, programs, and games on separate partitions?

Thanks for your reply Corazon. I thought it may have something to do with the registry being linked to the programs. Oh well, guess i'll just have to re-install them. At least i'll get to de-clutter :)

As the files are no longer linked to the registry and they are on their own partition could i just simply delete/format everything on that one partition rather than uninstalling them, to save time?

Ignatzatsonic > I find it easiest to organise my data that way. But i've also read it cuts down wear on the hard drive as it's not needing to search all over for the files (perhaps improving read speeds?), apparently it can be beneficial if you catch a virus as well. And lastly I can re-install the OS without loosing all my Docs/ media etc, and find backing up and sharing/networking specific file types easier.

Oh, and defragmenting/ virus scans etc on specific drives are alot quicker as well.

When I originally did the partitioning I had read that you could re-install the OS without affecting the installed programs - but I guess that's been proved wrong. Lol.

Thanks

Yes, you can simply delete whatever is on your non-Windows partition(s). Remember, there is no "uninstalling" anything since none of the programs on that partition are "installed" anymore. They're essentially floating free and disconnected from the system, hence all there is to do is delete them.

You might consider keeping your OS and installed programs together on the C: partition; there's no real benefit to keeping programs (rather than just data) separate.

Now that you're just reinstalled the OS, this is a good chance to set it up the way you like it, install your most-used applications (to C: ) and set them up as well, then simply image the system with something like Macrium Reflect Free. Then you'll be able to restore the image file whenever you feel the need for a fresh start, and never have to go through an actual reinstall of the OS and programs again.