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Thread ID: 37703 2003-09-15 14:35:00 Moving Programmes From One Drive to Another willbry (1555) Press F1
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175544 2003-09-15 14:35:00 I have an increasing number of images and albums on my main "C" drive and have recently had a second "D" drive installed. The original drive is getting pretty full of heavy consuming photographic stuff so I want to free it up a bit by moving all the photo albums and photo editing programme material as well as a game or two to the new drive.
I have two questions. 1. Can I simply Drag & Drop any programme Folder on the W.Explorer tree from its present position on to the new Drive icon ? Or is the process of drive relocating more complex than that ?
If I can do the simple drag and drop: Q2 Could I be in trouble if I move some programmes to another drive that share files with other programmes that are NOT being moved ? Or is that only a problem if you remove programmes with shared files completely from your PC?
willbry (1555)
175545 2003-09-15 15:28:00 You may run into problems with changing programs onto the other hard drive because some of the data is in the registry, and if you change its location then windows won't know where to look for it. Just uninstall and reinstall the aps.

The files etc, you can copy them anywhere and they will still work
kiki (762)
175546 2003-09-15 16:08:00 Leave your Program files alone its extremely dangerous to toucjh those or windows files
you can move all your personal data files such as jpgs bmps and mp3s etc into your new drive by simply right clicking then cutting and pasting .
kiwibeat (304)
175547 2003-09-16 00:39:00 Thanks a lot kiki and kiwibeat for your advice and warning. I have a programme that came with my Canon Camera in which I have downloaded zillions of images into various albums which are part of the Canon Zoom Browser programme. If I uninstall the photographic programme and do a fresh installation on the larger capacity "D" drive will I lose all the images that are currently stored in the programme ? I'm holding my breath as I don't relish the idea of a laborious job pasting them all into temporary files until I have the reinstallation job done.
Thanks willbry
willbry (1555)
175548 2003-09-16 00:53:00 Willbry,

Usually the uninstallation program will not touch files it did not create in the installation, they usually store a log somewhere for this, it depends on the installer, sometimes they want to remove the folder as well.

80% of the time it'll not touch files it didn't create. You could however make a copy of that drive and move it to D: first, then uninstall... see how it works, if it stuffs up just move the folder back to it's place.
Kame (312)
175549 2003-09-16 03:12:00 Uninstallers will try to delete directories they created, but the programme probably asked for a place to put data files the first time it was run, so the uninstaller won't know about them.

But since you will be copying the data files to the D: drive, do it first, to a "safe" named directory. Then uninstall the programmes on C: install then on D:. If the data files are still on C: that's fine. You can delete them after you have moved the copies on the D: drive to a sensibly named directory on D:. (A "move" just changes directory entries, so is much faster than copying, but it only works in a drive/partition, not between drives).
Graham L (2)
175550 2003-09-16 03:19:00 Just add a few more words to my advice.

Reinstall back into where the program use to be, then move from D: to C: as you would have lost the uninstaller for that program as well as the registry entries.
Kame (312)
175551 2003-09-16 06:30:00 To Kame and Graham L . Appreciate your help guys. I followed your advice and the uninstall - reinstallation has gone without hitch but just as well I backed up all the photos. [I put them into Folders on to a CD-RW ] as the new installation resulted in me losing the lot . However I was able to drag them all from the CD back into the new installation without any problems. Thanks again to you both and to Kiwibeat and kiki willbry :-) willbry (1555)
175552 2003-09-16 12:43:00 A couple of points here:
1] I have often moved programs from one drive to another, if you run Norton utes Win Doctor it will repair all the registry entries & icons.
2] If you wish to transfer a whole partition use "Norton Ghost"
3] You can copy a partition with "Partition Magic"
4] You can drag files across then run "Norton Utes"

Another thing is, if you have 2 x OS you can install programs to the same directory on both systems, this way you don't waste disc space, they just have 'double handles'.
Mzee (158)
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