New build and upgraded to Win7 but kept old HD- do I need to re-install all games?

EdwardTeach · 22 Apr 2010 at 22:39

As the title says - I have build a totally new build running windows 7 replacing my old PC running XP.

The only thing that carried over was my hard drive which contains some old games, though is now kept just for storage and I am using and SSD as a boot drive.

Is it best to re-install my old games? or should they run fine from my old drive?

I have tested a few and some seem to work. The reason I ask is that I presume that because they havent been freshly installed windows wont "know" they are on my system - e.g none will appear on the start menu.

EdwardTeach · 22 Apr 2010 at 23:01

e.g I just had a go at palying Broken crescent (a medieval total war mod) the game loaded ok but I could save - it said something like game cannot save to disk.

stooeh · 22 Apr 2010 at 23:01

It depends on the game really, some games such as wow will run no problem and others such as GH3 will complain about the missing paths/dlls/registry entries etc and a re-install will be needed.

Lum · 23 Apr 2010 at 04:18

Generally if the game uses certain kinds of copy protection, mainly the ones that get installed separately on your system (eg. the version of SecuRom that comes with BioShock) then you'll need to reinstall.
Games that no not require copy protection for whatever reason almost always work without a reinstall.

MeMeMeMe · 23 Apr 2010 at 10:07

In WinXP, you could play most games without reinstalling (unless they had some kind of DRM, as Lum mentions) - if you used a NoCD patch, they'd usually work fine though.

Win7 introduces new access protections to the computer's file system, which means games often need to be reinstalled to gain the rights to - for instance - write saved games to the disk. Especially for more modern games, where the saved games are stored in your my documents or appdata folders - locations protected by Win7.

What I do is try each game, load it up and try to save a game. If it doesn't work, I need to reinstall.

If you have steam, you'll need to reinstall the steam app - you can do this just be installing over the current folder. The next time you load it, it will pick up your games - though most will probably need to be started up once to work properly.

Killerkebab · 23 Apr 2010 at 13:46

Eurgh. Save yourself hassle and effort and just reinstall the games.
Trust me, five minutes reinstalling each game is much better than playing for an hour and then realising it can't save to disk.

PapaLazaru · 23 Apr 2010 at 17:23

I recently did the same. All my games not on Steam needed a reinstall.

All my Steam games just sorted themselves out. I love Steam. :cool:

Lum · 23 Apr 2010 at 17:37

MeMeMeMe said:
In WinXP, you could play most games without reinstalling (unless they had some kind of DRM, as Lum mentions) - if you used a NoCD patch, they'd usually work fine though.

Didn't want to explicitly mention NoCD patches as I thought it'd be against the rules.

Win7 introduces new access protections to the computer's file system, which means games often need to be reinstalled to gain the rights to - for instance - write saved games to the disk. Especially for more modern games, where the saved games are stored in your my documents or appdata folders - locations protected by Win7.

That's only an issue if you install the games to C:\Program Files rather than a sensible place (like D:\Games). This also stops UAC from screwing up your older games.
The OP is moving his HD from his old machine into a new Win7 machine so will not run into this issue.

Killerkebab said:
Eurgh. Save yourself hassle and effort and just reinstall the games.
Trust me, five minutes reinstalling each game is much better than playing for an hour and then realising it can't save to disk.

My games have gone through several reinstalls over the last few months. There are some games on there that been dragged along from my Windows 95 days and still work fine (eg. Unreal Tournament). Install them right, ie not in Program Files, preferably on a separate partition or drive and with their DRM bypassed, and they'll outlast your PC.

EdwardTeach · 23 Apr 2010 at 18:34

as some people have mentioned I have found that with some games i was unable to save - so i am going about re-installing my old games.

Why does it make a difference what folder you install your games in?

e.g on my old hard drive the games were in C:\Program files

(is this why i have been have save game issues)

On my new build I have an SSD which is my boot drive = C: drive

I have a new HD which I am installing the games on =D: drive

I have been installing the games in D:\ Program Files (x86)

is this a bad thing? would it have been better installing in D;\ games as LAM said?

if so If I just copied and pasted to a new folder on D would they still run fine or would that now "confuse" windows?

MeMeMeMe · 23 Apr 2010 at 18:37

Win7 and Vista treat certain folders differently - limiting access, monitoring changes, etc. C:\program Files, the Application Data folders, and others are among those affected. Folders you create on other drives - even if you use the same name - are not affected.

So you can safely use whatever name you want.

Edit: missed this question.

EdwardTeach said:
if so If I just copied and pasted to a new folder on D would they still run fine or would that now "confuse" windows?

I've done that quite happily before - most games will work fine. Just remember to update any shortcuts.

If you plan to uninstall them at a later date through control panel, though, that won't work unless you reinstall. I never do that, so it's not a problem for me.

MeMeMeMe · 23 Apr 2010 at 18:41

Lum said:
That's only an issue if you install the games to C:\Program Files rather than a sensible place (like D:\Games). This also stops UAC from screwing up your older games.
The OP is moving his HD from his old machine into a new Win7 machine so will not run into this issue.

I did the same as the OP. I have a hard disk full of games, that I have transported between builds. I did have problems with one game which placed its save files in my documents or appdata (can't remember which) - it wouldn't save till I reinstalled. Thus my advice above.

My games have gone through several reinstalls over the last few months. There are some games on there that been dragged along from my Windows 95 days and still work fine (eg. Unreal Tournament). Install them right, ie not in Program Files, preferably on a separate partition or drive and with their DRM bypassed, and they'll outlast your PC.

Yes, I'm the same. But I did find some interesting glitches cropped up with Win7, that hadn't happened with various reinstalls on XP.

Lum · 23 Apr 2010 at 19:35

I'm quite fussy about keeping my PCs clean, so these days, thanks to DRM becoming ever more invasive, I am installing them while in VM that has it's D: drive mapped up to \\tsclient\D (ie. the D: drive on the host machine). I install to D:\Games but you can call it whatever your like really. I then apply the appropriate NoCD patches and test them from the host machine.

This keeps all the dodgy services, such as the Bioshock rootkit, off the main machine which is always a bonus.

Not once have I had a game have issues with doing this and having a game unable to run or unable to save (unless it's due to a faulty patch) and you're guaranteed that your game install is totally portable. I can then put the original boxes and games safely away and not have to worry about them again. Works fine for Bioshock 2, Crysis etc. etc. I've also never had to call EA and beg them for activations.

When the official patch inevitably comes out I just remove the NoCD and put the original .exe back, install the official patch from the VM where all the DRM crud is installed and then apply an updated NoCD.

Kinda makes me wonder why I even bother to buy non-Steam games any more.

On a related note, it's worth checking where the games do save to though. Newer ones have started saving to various locations in %UserProfile%, such as Documents, Documents\My Games AppData (both roaming and local variants) and some even use bloody %ProgramData%. Just need to keep track and back up your saves before a reinstall, or just copy both those folders to the D: drive before you do so.

Out of interest, MeMeMeMe, which games did you have issues with. The only issues I've ever seen are cases where the game is just incompatible with Win7 (or needs workarounds) regardless of where/how it's installed, for example NecroVision needs you to set Cfg.RenderDevice = 2 in bin\config.ini or it will not start on Win 7.