Transfer XP Programs to Win 7

[duncan]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

 

[Gordon]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

Not AFAIK. If you image a disk it will image the WHOLE disk, not just part
of it, which would negate the advantages of Windows 7!
Unfortunately there is nothing for it but to bite the bullet and re-install.
(I don't know whether you can convert a disk image to a vhd or not...)

 

[LouB]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

Copied? Perhaps. Lots of info on the net for that. Try google
Imaged? NO

 

[Pastor Dave]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

There was a program that used to claim to do that,
but meaning that it would copy the programs over
and take care of the registry entries for you.

But your problem is that you'd be trying to go from
XP to 7 and the registries are a bit different.

You can look into it and write to these people and
ask them, but I doubt it will do it from one OS to
another and I don't know if their "suite" does it
anymore.

You can see it here: http://tinyurl.com/yjueute

--

Pastor Dave

The following is part of my auto-rotating
sig file and not part of the message body.

"A man is too apt to forget that in this world
he cannot have everything. A choice is all
that is left him." - H. Mathews

 

[Bob Hatch]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

Maybe. Laplink Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant or Laplink PC Mover. You
usually have to install the software on both computers, but there's a
chance it will work if you have the old drive installed in an external
USB case. Go here and contact the folks at Laplink. They will tell you
if it will work or not.

http://www.laplink.com/contact/mychat.html

--
"To announce that there must be no criticism
of the President, or that we are to stand by
the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic
and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American public."
Theodore Roosevelt
http://www.bobhatch.com
http://www.tdsrvresort.com

 

[Jeff]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

Here's one option: http://www.zinstall.com/

I've not tried it but others who have say it works as in the video.

Jeff

 

[Jan Alter]

Here's one option: http://www.zinstall.com/

I've not tried it but others who have say it works as in the video.

Jeff

Haven't used it, think $89 is expensive to use it, but I did like the
review.


http://fix-email-problems.com/web-e...on-from-xp-to-windows-7-–-zinstall-xp7-review

 

[Pulse]

Not likely. A few programs that can run right out of their own folders will
run, but many programs 'install' e.g. make needed registry entries at
installation time - so simply copying them over is insufficient.

So, yes, you will have to install them on the new rig using their
installation routines. If your friend was thinking ahead, they might have
made sure to be running Windows 7 Professional (instead of Home) because
with Professional they can run XP mode for the few programs that refuse to
play nice natively on Windows 7. Every version of Windows 7 has a
compatibility mode already and you should try that before XP mode, but if
that doesn't work you can fire up the program in the XP mode virtual machine
(if you have Professional) and it should run.

Pulse

 

[Al Smith]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

It really doesn't take that much effort. Your neighbor should copy
all his data files, and if he can find them, all his program
setting files, to an external hard drive or thumb drive, so that
he can easily drag and drop them onto the hard drive of his new
laptop. He will need to reinstall the programs, some of which may
not run if he is using a 64-bit version of Windows 7. That's just
the way it is.

-Al-

 

[duncan]

Here's one option: http://www.zinstall.com/

I've not tried it but others who have say it works as in the video.

Jeff

Hi,

Thanks to all for your ideas. Laplink says it will do the job but it
HAS to be installed on both machines. Zinstall looks promising. I'm
waiting for a reply from their tech. dept. (On the neg. side - it
costs $89. I'm glad it's my neighbour's pronlem!

 

[Bill Bradshaw]

Some people will disagree with this but you should help him partition his
harddrive. I have three partitions. C for operating system, D for
programs, and E for data. That way when I move to a new computer all I have
to do is copy the contents of partition E over and I know I have all my data
on the new computer. I set up all my computers this way including my
laptops.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

No. He can copy them, but few if any of them will run.

Except for an occasional, typically small, program, all programs have
entries and references within the registry and elsewhere in \windows.
It can't be run under Windows unless it was installed in that copy of
Windows. So he will have to reinstall his programs from the original
media.

 

[Jeff]

Some people will disagree with this but you should help him partition his
harddrive. I have three partitions. C for operating system, D for
programs, and E for data. That way when I move to a new computer all I have
to do is copy the contents of partition E over and I know I have all my data
on the new computer. I set up all my computers this way including my
laptops.

I would support that. I too have 3 partitions: one for the operating
system _and_ programs, one for my data and a third one for certain other
files I need. This facilitates backing up because I can bnackup all
three just once and then only if important new program changes, but I
can back up the data partition frequently to keep my data safe. When I
moved from XP to W 7 all my data files were on my data partition and
easy to move over.
Jeff

 

[Char Jackson]

I would support that. I too have 3 partitions: one for the operating
system _and_ programs, one for my data and a third one for certain other
files I need. This facilitates backing up because I can bnackup all
three just once and then only if important new program changes, but I
can back up the data partition frequently to keep my data safe. When I
moved from XP to W 7 all my data files were on my data partition and
easy to move over.
Jeff

You guys with multiple partitions are fine in my book. Where some of
my customers get into trouble is when they partition their main drive,
creating a C: and D: partition for example, and then back up C: onto
D:, not fully realizing that those two "drives" are the same physical
drive. When the drive fails, and in my line I see that quite often,
they are then shocked to find that their backup is sometimes lost
along with everything else. Sometimes I get lucky and am able to
recover enough data to make them happy, and sometimes not.

Moral: backups should go to a separate physical drive, either internal
or external, or to removable media of some kind.

 

[Frederick]

Hi,

My neighbour has a laptop running XP whose MB has just failed. He has
just purchased a new laptop with Win 7.

The HD on the old machine is OK. He has lots of programs on this drive
which will take forever to reinstall on the new machine.

Is there any way that these programs can be copied (ghosted / imaged)
across to the new comp. so they will run? I'm thinking maybe under a
VM although I have no experience of this.

TIA for any assistance.

Duncan.

Have a look at this -
http://www.oo-software.com/home/en/products/migrationkit/index.html?id=h0267e

 

[Gordon]

Some people will disagree with this but you should help him partition his
harddrive. I have three partitions. C for operating system, D for
programs,

Absolutely NO point in that whatsoever. Separate partition for data yes. Why
for programs? If you have to re-install the OS then you have to reinstall
the programs. Period.
Waste of time and effort...

 

[Gordon]

I would support that. I too have 3 partitions: one for the operating
system _and_ programs, one for my data and a third one for certain other
files I need. This facilitates backing up because I can bnackup all three
just once and then only if important new program changes, but I can back
up the data partition frequently to keep my data safe. When I moved from
XP to W 7 all my data files were on my data partition and easy to move
over.
Jeff

Again - waste of time and effort. Partition for data yes, but why programs?
You can't "backup" installed programs, and if you have to re-install the OS
you HAVE to re-install the programs.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Moral: backups should go to a separate physical drive, either internal
or external, or to removable media of some kind.

I strongly disagree. I don't recommend backup to a second internal
non-removable hard drive because it leaves you susceptible to
simultaneous loss of the original and backup to many of the most
common dangers: severe power glitches, nearby lightning strikes, virus
attacks, even theft of the computer.

In my view, secure backup needs to be on removable media, and not kept
in the computer. For really secure backup (needed, for example, if the
life of your business depends on your data) you should have multiple
generations of backup, and at least one of those generations should be
stored off-site.

 

[Jeff]

You guys with multiple partitions are fine in my book. Where some of
my customers get into trouble is when they partition their main drive,
creating a C: and D: partition for example, and then back up C: onto
D:, not fully realizing that those two "drives" are the same physical
drive. When the drive fails, and in my line I see that quite often,
they are then shocked to find that their backup is sometimes lost
along with everything else. Sometimes I get lucky and am able to
recover enough data to make them happy, and sometimes not.

Moral: backups should go to a separate physical drive, either internal
or external, or to removable media of some kind.

I'm with you 100%. I backup to an external USB Hard drive. It makes no
sense to backup to any hard drive on the same PC.

 

[Jeff]

Again - waste of time and effort. Partition for data yes, but why
programs? You can't "backup" installed programs, and if you have to
re-install the OS you HAVE to re-install the programs.

You misunderstand me. I use the same partition for both system and
programs (for the reasons you gave) and another 2 for data (for
organization reasons) but these 2 could easily be one.