Jump to content

Apps on second HDD after reinstall of OS


arpharazon

Recommended Posts

Don't know if this is anywhere else, I apologize if it's been covered.

Currently my machine has 3 HDD's with one (G:) generally used for testing Win7 or testing slipstreamed installation of XPx64.

Otherwise, C: has the main OS and drivers, and D: has most non-driver applications including Office 2007, PhotoShop, Corel apps as well as My Documents.

Whenever I have had to reinstall XP, the least of what I need to do is repair the installations of most of the major apps on D:, if not complete reinstallations of them. Most of these apps don't seem capable of automatically updating in the new registry of the reinstalled OS.

Is there anything that can be done before I do an OS reinstallation or after to avoid having to repair/reinstall these apps.

I've seen it mentioned, regarding slipstreaming, to use the "current" installation, but haven't figured out how to do that, even if it's possible. I had some luck creating it from scratch, with a lot of help. But is there any way to reference the "current" registry during a slipstream creation, so the new OS will know about the apps on that other HDD?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


To install programs to D: and have to repair every single one still makes no sense to me.

Even to reimport registry entries is a hard way to go, still needs a lot of luck, seems "unclean" to me.

A better idea for me is to create Silent-Setups of your programs and reinstall them with XP.

A lot of settings can be set with regtweaks, and you`ve got a "real" fresh install.

I never install anything to my other partitions - your problem is the reason, why.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well if doing unattended XP you can also move the entire Program Files and Common Program Files to another partition using WINNT.SIF

[Unattended]
CommonProgramFilesDir="D:\Program Files\Common Files"
ProgramFilesDir="D:\Program Files"

Some apps, I've only seen it with AOL, still have "C" hard coded and will install there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You should be able to just run them from the run box or make shortcuts for them. My computer used to dual boot XP and Server 2003 (back when it was called .net) Enterprise RC2. 2003 was installed on the D: and I had installed programs on there that were not on XP. After I removed 2003, I did not delete the Program Files folder. And I now have icons in my quick launch that run those programs installed on the other drive. They don't seem to have any problems running, but each program is different. You'd have to try them out and see what does what.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mainly it's the latest (or almost latest) versions of these apps. Office 2007, PhotoShop CS3, etc. I was thinking it might be an intended thing to prevent "abuse" by installation to multiple computers or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...