Booting from one HDD and using programs from another HDD

[derpdragon]

So I have 2 HDDs, one is from my old Compaq which just burnt out on me, and the other is the stock HD from an old E-machine. The one from my Compaq has all the programs and things still on it while the E-machine is basically fresh. For what ever reason I can't boot the OS from my Compaq HD but I can boot from the E-machine HD. I can however still us the Compaq HD as a storage device, so it still works fine.

Now my question is, can I run the programs that are installed onto my old Compaq HD if I use the same OS on the E-machine? (The Compaq HD has Windows 7 while the e-machine HD has Vista)

 

[noidea_77]

No! What you see in the program folder is only one part of the installation. In addition every program has it's registry entries and in most cases additional files under "shared components"and so on.

 

[derpdragon]

Ahh right, I had completely forgotten about the registries. Well thanks for the answer.

 

[derpdragon]

Best answer selected by derpdragon.