If I pull the hard drive from my Compaq Presario (windows 98)
and put it in an external hard drive case, will my Dell
laptop (windows xp pro sp2) be able to read the info and run the programs on
it?
without reformatting the drive?

Thanks,
jojo

jojo wrote:
you should have no problem reading the drive...
but the applications will not work...
they need to be *installed* on your machine
(unless they are something very simple and don't require resgistry
entries etc)

that being the case, I should just clear off the applications (simply delete
them) and use it for extra space?

jojo


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try them before you delete them...
there *might* be some that will work

Some of the programs will run and some will not. Just run them and try.

Programs that typically won't run (you have to reinstall them):
*Security programs (antivirus, firewall, etc)
*MS office and programs which is dependent on it.
*Programs for emulating an extra cd -drive (daemon tools, alcohol, etc...)
*Drivers and programs for communication with scanners, printers, cameras,
etc.
*Games (battlefield f.ex which i use to play quite often)


Programs that probably will run (but probably you have to change all
settings over again)
*Graphic programs.
*Smaller text programs
*Winamp
*winrar, winzip

There are many applications that must be installed in to the Windows
operating system in order to be able to run. If you run such an application,
it will either abort, or may be even lock your system up. In this case it
will force you to re-start the computer.

You should however, be able to run Windows supported DOS applications, and
also run any programs that do not have to be installed as part of the
Windows operating system. The only acceptation to this, is if any of these
programs are written to be disk drive specific from running on your main
drive "C".

If I pull the hard drive from my Compaq Presario (windows 98)
and put it in an external hard drive case, will my Dell
laptop (windows xp pro sp2) be able to read the info and run the programs on
it?
without reformatting the drive?

Thanks,
jojo

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