Old pc being scrapped, have drives AND Win Backup, xfer old apps

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I sent an old laptop for repairs and they couldn’t get a part (not even a critical part) and they plan to scrap it and give me cash to buy a new laptop and give me my SDD and HDD back.  Plus I backed it all up to Windows Backup.  Lots of old apps that would be a [pain] to try to get and reinstall if indeed I could.

So the 2 choices I know – Laplink, and EASUS ToDO PC Trans.  I’ve not used Laplink in many years, while it seems clunky it does look like it is well capable of reinstalling the old apps by what it reads off my drives.  EASUS has been invaluable for drive migrations (like large HDD to smaller SSD boot drives).  I do have a double external SATA to USB drive box I can hook up to the new PC, or I could hookup the external drive with the Windows (7) backup to the new PC once I have it ready.

I’m not aware of any other viable ways to do this.  What do you suggest?
Thanks!

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I’d install everything from scratch and read the settings from the old disks if you need them.

Nirsoft OfflineRegistryView will do what you need.

You may need a USB to SATA adapter.

cheers, Paul

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Got the adapter.  Install disks from as much as 10 years ago?  Not likely.  Plus huge issues in getting software back up to date and running.

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Install the old HDD in the new PC. Boot and fix/update what needed to be fixed/updated.
When the PC works as intended, run a full image backup.
Install the new SSD/HDD and restore from your backup.

Transferring software never works as it should usually scramble the registry, user data…

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1. Both the old and new laptops have SSD Boot, HDD data.  So the apps themselves are mainly on the SSD.  But I don’t want to boot the new laptop off the old laptop’s SSD.
2. Needless to say, the new laptop has a fair amount of support apps from the manufacturer mostly worth keeping or absolutely needed.
3. If I image backup the old SSD (which I did before I sent the laptop out), I’ll destroy piles of software and be missing lots of drivers when I restore that image to the new SSD.
4. The ‘old’ SSD is maybe a year old, a Samsung 860.

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[Alex5723]

WSpbug56 wrote:

Needless to say, the new laptop has a fair amount of support apps from the manufacturer mostly worth keeping or absolutely needed.

Years upon years of using PCs I have never found any manufacturer apps worth keeping. There is always the option to download if needed.

Usually manufacturers load bloat like office demo, A/V demo…software.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 6 months ago by Alex5723.

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Wherever I can I’ll get up to date software.  For instance, I don’t think I need tax software from 10 years ago, and only need current accounting software.  MS Office is easy – just disconnect the old PC, connect the new.  I’m not even sure yet how many apps I need to get the old installations for.

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I’m with Alex about *not* transferring the old apps to the new installation. In 2018 I switched from Windows 7 to Windows 10 using Laplink and their cross-over cable. The data transfer went OK, but importing the old apps had all sorts of problems. I wouldn’t even want to try importing the apps from one Win 10 box to another because Windows 10 is not as reliable an OS as was Windows 7.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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I’m not sure yet how much there is to do.  It’s mainly about old apps I can’t replace and don’t have installers for.  I’ll restore data directly from Win Backup and Restore, or if I get them back soon the original drives in an external 2 bays.  Paid products should not be an issue to re-download and install if they can use the current software.  I made extra copies of critical data, too.

Overall, I’d like to avoid repurchasing my Pro upgrade, get all apps I really need going again.  Also buying an external BD writer (for an extra way to backup things and watch movies at times).  It’s the beginning of tax season (pre end of year issues to deal with).  And I don’t have massive amount of time to get this up and running – I’ve been without the old one about a month now.  So I don’t want to mess with rebuilding the new system’s drives, hunting drivers.    But since I know that there will be some apps here and there that I can’t normally reinstall, I want to have one of these tools – Laplink or EaeseUS to chase after those strays.

If anyone has an opinion on which, I’d ask for that now.  Laplink’s been doing this a long time, and I generally trust EaseUS for their disk management tools (used them to swap slow HDD system drives into smaller SDD’s, with huge improvements in system performance as a result.

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For apps that you can’t install on the new system, convert the old hard disk to a Virtual Hard Disk and install it in a Virtual Machine. You will have licensing issues but should be able to get the old app(s) to work.

cheers, Paul

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So far, I’ve been very lucky.  I’ve been able one way or another (including buying new versions where applicable) of every app I needed, which is a nice surprise.  Having the old drives helped a lot because I try very hard to keep installers (I also had backup sets).

Another success: years ago on a system I bought in 2002, I’d upgraded it to Win 7 Pro (from Home Premium).  Several years ago I downgraded it back, put it’s Pro license on the laptop I’d just gotten, now just scrapped, and now that license is on the new.

Only for sure lesson so far;; where appropriate, keep the installers safe.  SOME will still work many years later even on a new OS version (some won’t).  Some vendors are smart enough so that if you buy new software from them, it will read the old data and convert it for the modern software.
 
I’ll revive this if anything new comes up, but thanks everyone!

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