flyercan said:
I am no expert, but I am pretty sure programs installed on the old hard drive
will never run on a new machine unless they get installed on the new windows.
The old drive is now just storage unless you install programs to it using
your now new windows platform. All you can do with the files on that drive
now is browse and recover doc, jpg, mpg etc files that are whole when alone.
Anything that had to be installed to be used are gone. Unless you have the
file that can be ran to install it to vista. Confused yet. It gets worse. LOL
Actually, there's nothing confusing about Flyercan's post. S/He is
absolutely correct. Programs need to be reinstalled from the
installation media - CD, DVD, installable executable downloaded from the
Internet. If Ryan wants to dual-boot with XP to use those programs, it's
going to be a difficult task. Because XP was installed on different
hardware, at the very least a Repair Install would need to be run; often
a Clean Install is necessary. Then Ryan would need to follow
instructions for installing XP after Vista (normally in a multiple-boot
scenario you install the older operating systems first and this would
not be the case here).
Install Windows XP On A Machine Already Running Windows Vista (MVP John
Barnett) -
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm
Unless the programs installed under XP will not run under Vista and are
crucial, the best thing for Ryan to do is exactly what Flyercan says -
retrieve any desired data and move it to his user account under Vista
and then format the second drive and use for storage.
Malke
