What happens if.....

  • Thread starter Thread starter Newfdog
  • Start date Start date
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Newfdog

Hi all...... Using windows xp home. I am wondering what will happen in
the following scenario. I have 4 harddrives in my system with
applications installed on all. If one of these harddrives fails and I
lose the use of those applications how will windows react? I assume that
the windows registry will believe that these programs are still
installed. If I go to uninstall them from windows what will happen? Will
they even show up in the add/remove programs area? Will the uninstall be
trouble free seeing that the apps are no longer present? Can I just
reinstall the apps again without getting any grief from windows? Maybe
all applications should be installed on the system drive with windows so
that all will be lost together. Just wondering.

Newfdog
 
Newfdog said:
Hi all...... Using windows xp home. I am wondering what will happen in
the following scenario. I have 4 harddrives in my system with
applications installed on all. If one of these harddrives fails and I
lose the use of those applications how will windows react? I assume that
the windows registry will believe that these programs are still
installed. If I go to uninstall them from windows what will happen? Will
they even show up in the add/remove programs area? Will the uninstall be
trouble free seeing that the apps are no longer present? Can I just
reinstall the apps again without getting any grief from windows? Maybe
all applications should be installed on the system drive with windows so
that all will be lost together. Just wondering.

Newfdog
Click to expand...

And the reason you think that programs should be installed on another
drive instead of C: is?

Alias

Use the Reply to Sender feature of your news reader program to email me.
Utiliza Responder al Remitente para mandarme un mail.
 
The way that I understand it is that if one of the four hard drives fail, the
apps will become unaccessable. That's it. But, if you try to uninstall the
program from Add/Remove Programs, you will not be able to. This is beacause
the uninstall program will not be avaliable, because it was on the hd with
the app itself. If you try to reinstall the program from the original media
(ex: CD, Internet Download, etc.) the wizard may prompt you about a version
of the same program is installed, or it will promptyou to add, change, or
remove certain parts of that program. But, if the hd that the app is on has
failed, it will not be able to reinstall.
 
Alias said:
And the reason you think that programs should be installed on another
drive instead of C: is?

Alias
Click to expand...

Perhaps C: drive has limited space. BTW thank you for a useless reply

Newfdog
 
Newfdog said:
Hi all...... Using windows xp home. I am wondering what will happen
in the following scenario. I have 4 harddrives in my system with
applications installed on all. If one of these harddrives fails and I
lose the use of those applications how will windows react? I assume
that the windows registry will believe that these programs are still
installed. If I go to uninstall them from windows what will happen?
Will they even show up in the add/remove programs area? Will the
uninstall be trouble free seeing that the apps are no longer present?
Can I just reinstall the apps again without getting any grief from
windows? Maybe all applications should be installed on the system
drive with windows so that all will be lost together. Just wondering.

Newfdog
Click to expand...

Use a drive imaging program to image all of the drives. When one fails
replace it and restore the image. You will only lose any changes since your
last image.

Alternatively do nothing. When one of the drives fails some or all
applications and possibly Windows will have to be reinstalled. Depending on
where your data is stored you may lose it as well.

Kerry
 
You can't uninstall what is no longer there. Yes, you will have uninstall
problems.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Kerry said:
Use a drive imaging program to image all of the drives. When one fails
replace it and restore the image. You will only lose any changes since your
last image.

Alternatively do nothing. When one of the drives fails some or all
applications and possibly Windows will have to be reinstalled. Depending on
where your data is stored you may lose it as well.

Kerry
Click to expand...
Thanks Kerry... I have already done this. I was just wondering what
would happen in the other scenario where a reinstall of apps would be
necessary. I am the family computer guru and often have to rescue family
members who fail to follow safe practices.

Newfdog

Newfdog
 
Richard said:
You can't uninstall what is no longer there. Yes, you will have uninstall
problems.
Click to expand...
Ok Richard... I understand this, it makes perfect sense and I thought
that this would be the case. I am more concerned with any problems that
may arise during a reinstall of an app that windows may see as still
installed.

Newfdog
 
lighntingbolt465 said:
The way that I understand it is that if one of the four hard drives fail, the
apps will become unaccessable. That's it. But, if you try to uninstall the
program from Add/Remove Programs, you will not be able to. This is beacause
the uninstall program will not be avaliable, because it was on the hd with
the app itself. If you try to reinstall the program from the original media
(ex: CD, Internet Download, etc.) the wizard may prompt you about a version
of the same program is installed, or it will promptyou to add, change, or
remove certain parts of that program. But, if the hd that the app is on has
failed, it will not be able to reinstall.
Click to expand...
Thanks.... I am not quite clear on your last sentence. Are you saying
that I will not be able to reinstall this application on another drive?

Newfdog
 
If you reinstall the program to the original location (same drive/partition
and folder) after you replace the drive, you should have no problems. If you
install the program to another location you may have problems.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Richard said:
If you reinstall the program to the original location (same drive/partition
and folder) after you replace the drive, you should have no problems. If you
install the program to another location you may have problems.
Click to expand...
Really.... windows is not too forgiving is it.

Newfdog
 
Newfdog said:
Really.... windows is not too forgiving is it.

Newfdog
Click to expand...

It's not Windows so much as the application itself. Most applications will
rewrite regsitry settings etc when re-installed. Some will not.

Kerry
 
It is the application that determines this some will be ok, others may
object .There are tools that can check the registry for problems, they
should be able to find such problems and clean the registry for you.
 
Alan said:
It is the application that determines this some will be ok, others may
object .There are tools that can check the registry for problems, they
should be able to find such problems and clean the registry for you.
Click to expand...
Thanks Alan...... I quess it is a hit and miss proposition. I do use
Registry Mechanic on a regular basis and have had no problems with it.

Newfdog
 
Hi all...... Using windows xp home. I am wondering what will happen in
the following scenario. I have 4 harddrives in my system with
applications installed on all. If one of these harddrives fails and I
lose the use of those applications how will windows react? I assume that
the windows registry will believe that these programs are still
installed. If I go to uninstall them from windows what will happen? Will
they even show up in the add/remove programs area? Will the uninstall be
trouble free seeing that the apps are no longer present? Can I just
reinstall the apps again without getting any grief from windows? Maybe
all applications should be installed on the system drive with windows so
that all will be lost together. Just wondering.

Newfdog
Click to expand...


I've had the same question myself.

I installed some 20 games on my E drive.

(tiny C drive, which I decided to dedicate to system stuff)

Worked just fine, but I don't recall crashing.

I DID turn e off (external drive), and the computer didn't
seem to notice. IIRC, the only issue I had was when I tried
to play a game with the drive turned off, I got an error.

No problemo. Turned the drive back on, gave it a couple of
minutes to "reinstall and --- whatever external drives do---
settle itself", and it ran fine.

Hope that helps.


Tallahassee
 
Thanks.... I am not quite clear on your last sentence. Are you saying
that I will not be able to reinstall this application on another drive?
Click to expand...

I believe he's saying that if the app itself fails, you
won't be able to reinstall the app over the app that failed.
He is also saying that the "uninstall" routines are on the
same drive as the app is on, so if the drive the app is on
fails, the "uninstall" routines will no longer be available,
either.

Basically, if the drive the app is on fails, you will be
back to square one, and you'll likely have to reformat that
drive.

The other option that comes to mind is that there are a
number of programs ( Crap Cleaner is one) that search your
hard drives and remove stuff that no longer functions.

If that particular app dies, and you remove the VISIBLE
files from that folder, and the folder, likely the system
cleaner will do the rest.

Be sure to use a registry cleaner to get the stuff out of
the registry so you can reinstall.


Good luck


Tallahassee
 
Newfdog said:
Perhaps C: drive has limited space. BTW thank you for a useless reply

Newfdog
Click to expand...

Get a bigger drive. You said you have four of them. Are they all small?
My reply wasn't useless. Other than space, do you have a good reason for
not installing the programs on the same partition/drive as your OS?

Alias

Use the Reply to Sender feature of your news reader program to email me.
Utiliza Responder al Remitente para mandarme un mail.
 
Newfdog said:
Hi all...... Using windows xp home. I am wondering what will happen in
the following scenario. I have 4 harddrives in my system with
applications installed on all. If one of these harddrives fails and I
lose the use of those applications how will windows react? I assume that
the windows registry will believe that these programs are still
installed. If I go to uninstall them from windows what will happen? Will
they even show up in the add/remove programs area? Will the uninstall be
trouble free seeing that the apps are no longer present? Can I just
reinstall the apps again without getting any grief from windows? Maybe
all applications should be installed on the system drive with windows so
that all will be lost together. Just wondering.

Newfdog
Click to expand...


Been there. Done that.

You can't uninstall the applications that were on the failed drive,
and you will be left with a lot of registry entries that refer to
non-existant items which can cause some problems.

Reinstalling the applications onto another drive should sort out the
registry issues etc. but that is not guaranteed.

When this happened to me about 2 years ago when I had Microsoft Visual
Studio on another drive that died I did not have enough space
available to reinstall onto the remaining drive and was not in a
position to replace the failed drive, at least not for a while.

So I ended up having to clean up the registry in order to get my
Windows functioning properly. I used RegSeeker (free) from
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html and it worked perfectly.
Cleaned out over 10 thousand registry entries relating to Visual
Studio and left the machine still functioning properly.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."
 
Ron said:
Been there. Done that.

You can't uninstall the applications that were on the failed drive,
and you will be left with a lot of registry entries that refer to
non-existant items which can cause some problems.

Reinstalling the applications onto another drive should sort out the
registry issues etc. but that is not guaranteed.

When this happened to me about 2 years ago when I had Microsoft Visual
Studio on another drive that died I did not have enough space
available to reinstall onto the remaining drive and was not in a
position to replace the failed drive, at least not for a while.

So I ended up having to clean up the registry in order to get my
Windows functioning properly. I used RegSeeker (free) from
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/regseeker.html and it worked perfectly.
Cleaned out over 10 thousand registry entries relating to Visual
Studio and left the machine still functioning properly.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Ron. I'll check out RegSeeker. And hey... hello
from the other end of this country.

Newfdog
 
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