Restored computer to factory default, now programs not working

I have a friend's computer (Dell Dimension E510 with Windows Media Center) trying to fix it. It crashed and someone restored it back to factory default.

He has 2 hard drives in his system doing the shadow stuff. I am looking at it right now. I am seeing what looks like the factory default programs on the C drive and on the D drive has what looks like all the programs that were installed before it failed. But I am not getting them to work (the stuff on the D drive). Any guess? How do I get to boot from the D drive instead so I can use those programs? Or some other way to get the programs working.

What I really want to know is the possibility of getting his programs to work again. (He does not have the programs cd to reinstall)

I am willing to learn, just tell me what to do. Thanks much for your help.

 

The rule of thumb is: If you wipe/reload Windows on a computer (or restore to factory defaults, same thing), the old programs from the old installation of Windows will not work. You have to re-install them on the new installation of Windows.

The only way to get the old programs to work is to boot from the old installation of Windows, but from what you said it seems like the old installation of Windows does not work.