I have a pretty shoddy old eMachines PC running Win 10 Home edition 32-bit. I had decided to replace it with something newer and quicker but before I could get around to doing so the machine has crashed and won't boot. When I boot the box I get nothing on the monitor no matter what I do - the monitor is just blank and I don't see the cursor mark (I have previously had the Win 10 black screen issue with this PC and this doesn't appear to be that). I can't get it to boot from media and I can't get into the bios settings or safe mode. If I physically disconnect the monitor cable the monitor does pick up that it has been disconnected - this scenario is the same with different monitors and different cables.
I've had the HDD out and I can read it OK so what I would like to do is just buy a new machine as planned and if possible clone the configuration from the old HDD to the new. However the replacement machine will be Win 10 pro 64-bit so I'm not sure what will be possible? I'm happy to buy and license anything I need but there are applications and application data on the existing PC which I may not be able to reinstall and I would like to port all of these over. Does anybody know what my options are either for fixing the existing PC and transferring the config over to a new one or doing it directly from the HDD from the existing PC?
Thanks
What do you mean by the system config? You can't just clone the existing installation and expect to have a working authorised W10 installation! You will need to install W10 & programs on the new PC to ensure all the correct drivers are installed and configured and the PC correctly licensed.
You can the connect the old HDD and copy over your user files required for the new PC.
It's the non Windows applications which I'm concerned about. I have all the application data but there are programmes installed which are so old that I no longer have installation media for and which are no longer supported by the vendors due to the age of the software. My ideal is to have a new, fully licensed, clean Win 10 pro 64-bit environment with all of these installed but I'm not going to be able to go through the installation process for some of them. I know it's a long shot but I'm wondering what the art of the possible is
You will still need to run the installers for those programs unless you have a very basic .exe program file which can be run directly
Transferring an installed application from one OS to another is so difficult that it is rarely even attempted. And the fact that you would be going from a 32 bit to a 64 bit OS further complicates things. The problem is that an application installation is often a complex thing with many supporting files in multiple locations with an even larger number of registry entries in equally diverse locations. There are no firm standards for this, only recommendations which are often ignored. The details of this are rarely documented and generally known only to the application developer and installer.
There are applications that claim to be able to do this but I have never used one would not trust them. There are all kinds of ways things could go wrong. And you may not discover a problem until long after the transfer.
Agreed, most Windows-based programs have to be installed so as to create their Folders, create the icons in the Start menu, copy support files to the Windows Folder/subFolders and create the Registry entries necessary for Windows to know how to run the programs.
Oh well, worth an ask
Thanks folks
