HD swap problems

[IronMan Mike Curtis]

I have a Sony Vaio PCV-RX651. My old C: drive partition no longer boots
("missing hal.dll" - I've tried the various suggestions - it was failing
chkdsk for a couple of years). I installed a new drive as C:, and installed
xp home on it. My old programs (formerly on C and D partirtions, now on G
and H) no longer run. Is there any way to make them work, move them to the
new C:, or otherwise salvage them? Some have lost serials; some have damaged
install CD's.

Thanks very much in advance for your help.

 

[Big_Al]

IronMan Mike Curtis said this on 1/21/2009 6:09 AM:

I have a Sony Vaio PCV-RX651. My old C: drive partition no longer boots
("missing hal.dll" - I've tried the various suggestions - it was failing
chkdsk for a couple of years). I installed a new drive as C:, and installed
xp home on it. My old programs (formerly on C and D partirtions, now on G
and H) no longer run. Is there any way to make them work, move them to the
new C:, or otherwise salvage them? Some have lost serials; some have damaged
install CD's.

Thanks very much in advance for your help.

Applications as a rule cannot be copied and thus "re-installed". They
need to be installed. When properly installed they write entires in
the Windows folder and the registry. That's why you're getting errors
now, those entires are not there on your new system.

I can't give you specific directions but programs like Belarc Advisor
and specifically SIW (Software information for windows) will show you
the license #'s (serials if you wish) of software loaded. The only
issue is that they look in the current registry and you really want the
old registry. I'm sure there may be a way around this. Or now that you
have the PC working and the old drive connected maybe you can get that
hal.dll replaced and get it to reboot on the old drive again, then try
SIW on that drive and of course that registry.

Stick around, there are smarter people here than I am, you just might
get better ideas.

 

[sgopus]

You can try a repair install on the old drive, or you can attempt to copy
hal.dll from your new drive to the old one of course using the same
directorys.
if you manage to get a repair install working on the old drive, then image
it using Acronis True Image (clone the drive) and restore the clone to the
new drive and your set.