I recently discovered my granddaughters PC was upgraded to XP Pro with an
illegal license which I paid a technician to perform. I contacted Microsoft,
purchased an additional XP Pro license and they were kind enough to walk me
through the reinstallion. I have lost the additional software on her PC. I do
have Norton Ghost for XP backup of the entire PC. Can I restore only the lost
programs with this copy which consists of 6 discs. Help!!!!
Nope. A Ghost image will always completely replace the ENTIRE contents of
a hard drive. While it is possible to open the image file and extract
individual files this will not allow you to restore the lost programs
onto her new setup. This is for the same reason that you can't just copy
files from one computer to another to install the program on the second
computer. There is WAY more involved than just putting some program files
in a folder on a hard disk.
However, there are some other options available to you but they would
really require the services of an experienced technician. Just don't use
that same guy again.
Here is the basic gist:
1) Backup any new data your daughter has put on the newly configured PC.
Just new documents or pictures she has created or stored there. If she
installed new programs just make sure you have the install disks or burn
the install files to a CD or something. Remember, you can't just copy the
installed programs. If you have any questions ask your local technician.
2) Reapply the Ghost image to your daughter's PC. This will completely
overwrite everything on the hard disk.
3a) Use the procedure listed here
(
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/328874/) to change the CD-Key to the
legitimate one. I have no information as to whether this method will work
with Service Pack 2. Fortunately, you have an image file so if you have
SP-2 and this doesn't work you can reapply the image and move on to
option 3b.
3b) Use this only if 3a doesn't work. Reapply the image as in step 2 then
do what is called a Recovery Install using your new, legitimate CD. If
your technician doesn't already know what this is then choose a different
technician. It is not for the faint of heart so I don't recommend you do
it yourself unless you already know what it is.
