Installation question

I'm posting on behalf of my sister. Her hard drive was giving her problems, and I've shown her a thing or two about computers in the past so she felt confident in buying a new one, installing it, and putting windows 7 on it herself. The drive works fine, but it's spammed and virused to heck and back. I can tackle that, but I've been on her to upgrade to 7 for awhile, and she finally did. The main issue we're having now is the path targets for her programs on her old hard drive (which ran/runs xp). The new drive now has an activated copy of 7 home premium 64-bit on it (drive C). I'm pretty sure the problem is that her old programs on the old drive (now drive E) are looking for their .exe files on the new hard drive because it's now C:.

Normally, what I'd do is clone the drive and slap it on the new one, then upgrade xp to 7. I'm a bit afraid to wipe out the activated copy of 7 now for fear of invalidating the product key and being out another $100+ (whatever she paid). She purchased a full version, not an upgrade. What's the easiest way to get her programs on the old drive (drive E) to run now without manually redirecting or reinstalling everything? I've tackled this problem before for one of my old computers, but it's been awhile (first day of vista). I want to say Acronis was able to fix all this for me, but I'm not as into computers as I once was.

I'm sure this has been covered before, so if there's already a tutorial or a post covering this I apologize. Googling hasn't given me anything.

Thanks!

Ztruker said:

You can't upgrade from XP to Windows 7. You have to do a clean install so that's not an option.

The best thing to do is to reinstall the software she was using on XP under Windows 7.

You can try copying the folders the programs are installed to into a folder on the new C: drive but in my experience that is never a good option as there is to much installation data, mostly in the registry, that is lost in doing so.

Reinstall the software is the right way to go, painful as it may be.

I would also be concerned about contamination from the XP drive to the new Win 7 C: drive. Unless you are absolutely sure there is no residual malware left I would not use it at all other than personal data and even there you have to be very careful.

Thanks for the reply. I wasn't aware that you can't go from xp to 7, so that's good to know. The "data drive" is going to get taken to the tool shed with malwarebytes and other assorted virus removal tools. I may end up backing up her art files to an external drive and then wiping it if we can't get the programs to work. She's got 200 gb of photoshop files. She's got a million art related programs, and tracking down the CDs in her house is going to be difficult (anyone else got a sister like this?). Is there any other tried and true method for fixing path issues for the .exe's?

You cannot invalidate the Product Key which is yours to reinstall as many times as you wish and wherever you want for life. MS only wants to know that it isn't on more than one machine at a time, so the activation process determines that in the easiest way possible - almost always without having to use phone activation.

You have to reinstall the programs anyway, so I'd keep the XP HD unplugged except to copy the data over after scanning all drives (While separately plugged in) with Malwarebytes.

You'll need to make sure Win7 has it's System Active Boot flags in Disk Management before removing the XP HD. If not, mark Win7 Active then unplug the XP HD, set Win7 HD as first HD to boot in BIOS setup (after DVD drive) then boot the WIn7 DVD Repair console to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Win7 starts on its own.

Try installing balky XP programs in Win7 Compatibility Mode

Thanks much gang. We'll start downloading installation programs and scouring the closets for CDs.

Gregrocker, she's got the new drive with 7 up and running already, so it looks like we should be good on flagging it as boot drive. Would you mind expanding a little on this line?

"You cannot invalidate the Product Key which is yours to reinstall as many times as you wish and wherever you want for life."

What scenarios WOULD force us to buy a new copy of 7? I've never hung around computer specific forums, but I am aware of Microsoft's reputation for being somewhat aggressive about piracy. I'm always a little afraid of the unknown when it comes to a new installation in weird situations that I'll screw myself out of a brand new product key during troubleshooting.

You'd only need to buy a new copy of 7 if you have need for a second installation, or if you lose the Product key - so keep a copy in a safe place for life.

Type "Disk Management" in start search box, click on result, maximize window, open Snipping Tool in Start Menu and draw a rectangular box around the drive map and listings, Save File, attach to post reply with paper clip.

Sorry. I don't exactly understand the second sentence. What are you going for?

ceri23 said:

Sorry. I don't exactly understand the second sentence. What are you going for?

What gregrocker is asking for is a screenshot of your expanded Disk Management layout.

Navigate to Start>Control Panel>System & Security>Create & Format Hard Disk Partitions.

Then use the Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of the whole DM layout window and upload it to this thread.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

No offense intended, and I appreciate the help thusfar, but I guess what I'm asking is why? I'm not at her house, so it's a bit of an effort to get that.

Edit: It was easier than I expected. Disk 1 is the new drive (500 gb). Disk 0 is the old drive (1000 gb).

Here it is: