How do I get my software/games on new PC without reinstalling them?

miker1 · 3 Jan 2012 at 14:38

I believe that if I was to do a straight disk copy it would take ALL the registry stuff, which includes motherboard and other details.

My understanding is that this is BAD and can lead to problems.

Win7 64.

Any ideas or help will be MUCH appreciated.

panyan · 3 Jan 2012 at 14:43

just reinstall them, creates least long-term problems

edscdk · 3 Jan 2012 at 14:47

to do it without reinstalling everything? easy... reinstall almost everyhting...

thats your only option... unless you are really stuck you can try and make windows boot from the old drive on the new hardware... GL on that... it might work... with a bit of pain... not a route I would use unless there was a business app that I had lost the disks too ( or it was an identical setup)

Adam_101 · 3 Jan 2012 at 14:49

best to re-install saves a lot of problems.

ThePengu1n · 3 Jan 2012 at 15:27

If you use Steam for your games, copy the Steamapps to another drive then unistall Steam. Once you have reinstalled your OS, reinstall Steam then copy your Steamapps folder back into the Steam directory. You will then have to launch Steam and probably change all the "keep my games updated" options.

moody89 · 3 Jan 2012 at 16:21

Agree with the others, it's almost always easier just to reinstall them for the time it takes. Unless of course you can transfer them via steam as mentioned above.

miker1 · 4 Jan 2012 at 00:25

Curses! No cunning [read lazy] way then........

Thanks for all the replies folks.

skyripper · 4 Jan 2012 at 10:38

What are you trying to keep hold of here.. the installation files / updates etc. or things like SavedGames etc.? Or the hassle of installing all those games and then having to go off and repatch them or keep cycling thru autoupdaters.

Savegames - You'll find a lot of them are stashed away in %APPDATA% and other stupid places rather than in My Documents. Some games stash them in Program Files (x86) as well... Each developer seems to have a different 'standard'.

A lot of installation keys can be got from using Belarc Advisor.

I have this headache every year or so when I have to rebuild my lads machine...

Deception · 4 Jan 2012 at 10:51

You want to look at Game Save manager; It will allow you to back up all game saves etc for when you do a reinstall. Most of my games are on a different partition and still work when just reinstalling the OS.

olivier renault · 4 Jan 2012 at 11:55

miker1 said:
Curses! No cunning [read lazy] way then........

Thanks for all the replies folks.

It depends on the software / game. You can do it with Steam and some of its games, and I found, Guild Wars don't mind being moved about. But 99% of the time, re-install.

saintdefender · 4 Jan 2012 at 14:23

This may sound crazy, but I use steam now for all my purchases. Even PC games I have on disk I have rebought because the ease of use and the convincence that steam brings trumps owning hard copies

Deception · 4 Jan 2012 at 14:59

saintdefender said:
This may sound crazy, but I use steam now for all my purchases. Even PC games I have on disk I have rebought because the ease of use and the convincence that steam brings trumps owning hard copies

Does make it a lot easier backing them up, as they're all in one spot