2 hard drives - help please!

I have a new computer and added my old hard drive to it - all works OK so I just really want to know how you would go about accessing all the info on the second (old) drive. I would normally use shortcuts on the start menu but for the life of me I can't figure out what to do.
Some of the software I have transferred over but some won't move.
I know there must be an easy solution but ....

Thanks

Jenny

 

Hi Jenny, welcome to MajorGeeks

I'm not sure I completely understand what you're saying. If you've transferred files over from the old drive to the new, then you are able to access both drives in the new PC. The new drive is C: and the old one is now D: (or something else) right? Correct me if I'm wrong. What is it that won't move and what happens when you try to move it?

If new drive = C: and old drive = D: and if what you want to do is run existing programs from D: then it won't work - for one thing Windows can't find them on D: because it's looking for them on C:. There are a couple of ways to deal with this.

1) You can reinstall those programs, pointing them to D: as you install.

2) You can copy the programs' folders from D: to C:, and then reinstall them, pointing to C: as you install.

Both ways will tell Windows where the programs are, create new shortcuts on your Start Menu that point to the right place, and copy needed files to the Windows folders on C:. I would prefer method #2, because your new drive is most likely much faster than the old one, and once you get everything installed on C:, you're free to reformat D: and use it for secondary storage - music and image files, whatever you want.

If I'm not understanding your question correctly, please set me straight.

 

More info...

Hi,

Yes everything is working OK and I can access both the new C drive and the old D drive but.. when I open up the D drive I have all the folders in front of me - not the start menu or shortcuts as I would normally have. (Obviously I can't have 2 start menus - that would be the solution otherwise!!!)

I have transferred some programmes over by copying them to the C drive but some now won't work and I'm unsure of what to do.


When you say copy them over and reinstall do you mean run the setup file that is in the folder?

I feel as if I am having a blonde moment and I'm not even blonde!

Thanks for your help, I am most grateful

Jenny

 

Hi Jenny,
When you install applications, information regarding the installation and configuration of the software is stored in the registry. When you copy programs from one location to another, they will typically need to be reinstalled so the registry information can be created otherwise they will most likely not function.

If you have the setup files on CD's, floppies etc then run them and install your programs once again.

Good luck!

 

OK. I get what you're saying now..

The problem is a mainly a conceptial one... its ok - its easy to make

When you "install" a program, or, are able to access to program from the start menu, what happens is that program typically creates a new folder, copies files to it, and (and this is the problem) copies files (and alters some) in your windows directory.

So, yes - as alanc said, you will need to re-install all the programs that you previously had installed.

If you had settings or preferences that you wanted to keep from your old hard-drive, then you might want to install into the old directories (so, normally you can do this by replacing the letter "C" with "D" when it asks where you would like to install. So, for example, if the default path is "C:\program files\Your Program", then replace that with "D:\program files\Your Program".

To re-install, you will need to go through the same process as you did to install them in the first place, eg. if it came on a cd: insert the cd, and run the setup program (or let autorun run)... etc.

 

blast you kodo.... always one step ahead!!!