Installing Programs 2nd Hard Drive?

[einstein_314]

Ok, so I was thinking today...

If I were to install all of my programs on a separate hard drive from my boot one, what would happen if I reinstalled windows? Would they still work? I wouldn't think so because the registry wouldn't have any of them in it...But what if I made a backup of the registry, then reinstalled windows, then restore the registry from the backup? Would that work?

[Son Goku]

It depends on a number of things, and the answer isn't a simple yes/no. BTW, the registry is only one possible issue. Shared .dll files that a program installs can also be an issue, as .dll files can be installed into the OS directory itself. Without those libraries (aka .dll dynamic link library), the program won't have portions of executable code it needs to run. There is also a shared files folder, which for instance if you install something like MS Office into, various components like the spell checker get installed there. Now the thing about that, install Visio lets say latter on, and then Visio can use Word's spell checker by accessing it from the shared folder...

Even with a registry backup, it might not work... However, I had in the past run into a few games even that could run under winNT 4.0 (back when I was gaming in NT 4) but wouldn't install there. Installing them in win95 and then writting down the registry entries for the game, and manually created them in regedt32 (registry editor) did allow me to play the game in NT 4.

However, some programs will work, and I do have a handful of older programs in a "Program Files" directory, stored under my own users directory that gets backed up/restored accross installs. Those progs worked without doing anything to the registry.

The short of it is it depends, and there is no one size fits all suggestion. In cases where it installs .dll files in the system directory, those will have to be reinstalled, if you need to load those .dlls onto your OS. There is little way around that...

[john19055]

IMO I doubt that it will work because of the regedit and even if you copy it ,it still more then likely want work because of files that where in other folders like some save gave and other system files.

[einstein_314]

It depends on a number of things, and the answer isn't a simple yes/no. BTW, the registry is only one possible issue. Shared .dll files that a program installs can also be an issue, as .dll files can be installed into the OS directory itself. Without those libraries (aka .dll dynamic link library), the program won't have portions of executable code it needs to run. There is also a shared files folder, which for instance if you install something like MS Office into, various components like the spell checker get installed there. Now the thing about that, install Visio lets say latter on, and then Visio can use Word's spell checker by accessing it from the shared folder...

Even with a registry backup, it might not work... However, I had in the past run into a few games even that could run under winNT 4.0 (back when I was gaming in NT 4) but wouldn't install there. Installing them in win95 and then writting down the registry entries for the game, and manually created them in regedt32 (registry editor) did allow me to play the game in NT 4.

However, some programs will work, and I do have a handful of older programs in a "Program Files" directory, stored under my own users directory that gets backed up/restored accross installs. Those progs worked without doing anything to the registry.

The short of it is it depends, and there is no one size fits all suggestion. In cases where it installs .dll files in the system directory, those will have to be reinstalled, if you need to load those .dlls onto your OS. There is little way around that...
That's kind of what I figured. It's just so much of a pain reinstalling all my programs when I reformat. Oh well. I guess I'll have to live with it. Thanks for the replies guys.