Recover software from harddrive

I am working on a laptop for a friend and just in case I cannot repair the laptop there are some programs he needed off it. The hard drive is fully functional, I can set it as an external and view everything on it. My question is, is there any way to recover software from the drive (ie. C:\Program Files, or where ever the program was installed) to be moved to a new computer and reused?

Example: How could I take an install of MS Office installed to drive C, and move it to drive D and have it function perfectly without directly installing it from the disk?

Unfortunately, you will need to use installation media to reinstall the programs. There are programs out there that say they will move programs from drive to drive but it doesn't work for all programs installed.

Whats wrong with the laptop?

I've narrowed the problem down to the motherboard, its either the cpu housing, or the gpu chipset. It powers on for about 10 seconds and shuts off. Screen does not come on, and power light blinks.

Made a post about this a few days ago. http://www.computerforum.com/234706-anyway-back-up-software-external-drive.html#post1971780

Agent Smith said:

Made a post about this a few days ago. http://www.computerforum.com/234706-anyway-back-up-software-external-drive.html#post1971780

Click to expand...

Thank you! I am looking at the guide now. So far it seems as if this is speaking from pushing a program from one drive to another not pulling (ie. moving a file from the booted drive, not the slave drive). Can it do both? Mainly, does it work if the program you want to backup or relocate is on the slave drive, not the booted one?

Sometimes you can move the installed folder and be fine, it really depends on the product. A lot of applications install dependencies into Windows as well as registry entries where the application won't function (or will exhibit errors) if those dependencies aren't available. In that case you'd need to reinstall from the installation media/medium.

beers said:

Sometimes you can move the installed folder and be fine, it really depends on the product. A lot of applications install dependencies into Windows as well as registry entries where the application won't function (or will exhibit errors) if those dependencies aren't available. In that case you'd need to reinstall from the installation media/medium.

Click to expand...

This is the issue I am running into. I am getting an error because it's looking for something.

Is there a way I can load the HDD into another computer? My dad is under the impression that he used to be able to do that with our old computers (pre xp OS). Basically is there a way I can load drivers and whatever else is necessary onto Drive B (a drive already loaded with an operating system from computer B) and put it into computer A and have that work without formatting or reinstalling windows?

No you cant transfer a drive with an OS installed from one computer into a different one. Hardware is different and license for OS wouldnt work.

burnm3w1thf1r3 said:

Thank you! I am looking at the guide now. So far it seems as if this is speaking from pushing a program from one drive to another not pulling (ie. moving a file from the booted drive, not the slave drive). Can it do both? Mainly, does it work if the program you want to backup or relocate is on the slave drive, not the booted one?

Click to expand...

Does the slave drive have an OS? Boot that and use the methods I linked to.

Agent Smith said:

Does the slave drive have an OS? Boot that and use the methods I linked to.

Click to expand...

Well laptop only has one drive. I can take the drive that i need the software from and set that as a slave. Which I did but the program didn't work in recovering it. I got the program but still got error's while trying to run it. The other method I didn't try. And at the moment the owner has the laptop back. If he wishes me to continue attempting procedures to recover I will try the other method you linked me.

As for loading the drive into another computer. The license isn't an issue, its getting the drive to be recognized that I cannot figure out. Which, there is no way to do? Like, I can't just load drivers to the drive from the computer that it will be going into?