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How to boot an old Win7 drive


My old computer died but I was able to read the old drive with my new computer using Win10.
I would like to be able to boot the old drive using my new computer with Win10 or set up a partition on my new computer to run programs written that uses Office Cal 2003 on the old drive.. I can't get Office 2003to run on the new Win10. It won't except the Product Key from my Pro Office 2003 Disk.

I did get Win10 to except my Product Key but had to do a reinstall of Win10 and now it won't except the key.. This is the reason of getting the old drive to boot so I can run my old Office 2003 programs. I prefer to be able to run my Office 2003 program on Win10 . I did run them using the Office 365 that came with the new computer but after the month trial was up I wasn't able to go back to Office 2003. Don't know if this is the reason Win10 will not allow me to enter my Key. There may be a program looking for the key from the expired Office 365 ??? I tried a second reinstall thinking I could get rid of a possible program stop but it didn't work. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I need the programs I spent many hours writing.

Hi:

Until someone more expert comes along to answer your specific question...

Office 2003 is EOS/EOL and insecure.
If you do not wish to purchase an Office 365 subscription or pursue another means to run a supported version of MS Office, perhaps you might consider a free alternative, such as LibreOffice???

Just a thought,
MM

I am now using Open Office to run some of my programs but there are things I can not do that uses VB6 as part on the Office 2003 programs. One program uses daily weather data that I can't find a way to access using Open office. Getting Office 2003 to run would be a lot easier than finding all the work-a-rounds to possible get my programs to work

Thanks for the clarification.

At the risk of flagellating a deceased equine, Office 2003 is extremely vulnerable (especially since VB scripting is a common means of malware transmission these days). There are free and paid realtime anti-exploit security software options to help mitigate the risk for internet-facing applications, such as MS Office. But they are not 100% foolproof.

Personally, I would not risk it. But it's certainly your choice, of course.

I will defer to others who are more expert in helping you with your original plan.
I'm sorry I could not help.

Cheers,
MM

Connect the Windows 7 hard drive as a second hard drive in the new computer. Windows 10 should assign the Windows 7 partition a drive letter, let's say E: for example.

Right click on the start menu icon, select Command Prompt (Admin). In the elevated command prompt window that opens run:

BCDBOOT E:Windows/d /addlast

The path in red, especially the drive letter, needs to be what Windows 10 assigned to the Windows 7 partition. If that completed successfully, reboot your computer and Windows 7 will have been added to your boot menu.

You could also run Windows 7 in a virtual machine. You would need a separate Windows 7 product key for that.

It seems so odd to me that you can not get the product key to work. Microsoft released a Fix it Tool to completely remove Office 365 from your computer. Try running the tool, then try installing Office 2003 again.

Uninstall Office 2016, Office 2013, or Office 365 from a PC - Office Support.

There are more detailed instructions on how to use the Fix it Tool on Dell's website. I'm sure it's same for HP computers.

How to uninstall Microsoft Office 365 from your Dell PC | Dell US

Using Trustme advice I was able to get my Product Key to work. Apparently there were still some of Office 2007 on my HD that stopped me from using my Key
Thanks again to Trustme.....

You're welcome, I'm glad it worked.

How to boot an old Win7 drive