Moving to a new Windows machine and keeping apps.

[orangeusa]

Not a spring chicken here, but have a few programs (Engineering tools) which are either dongle or tied to a MAC address.

Yes, data is a piece of cake. Apps, not so - options are :

1. Do a full backup and buy a very similar machine.
2. Pc mover app - I have tried PC Mover in the past, bit it didn't work properly.
3. Buy a similiar machine, and do an (Acronis, Norton Ghost) recovery to that machine.

Thanks..

[skunkbad]

As I understand it, the MAC address is only derived from the network interface card or device. If it's a mobo based NIC, you're out of luck. I've never heard of an app/program registering itself to a MAC address. Seems like total BS to me. Knowing that, you should spoof your MAC before you buy an app/program like that again. At least that way you'd always be able to spoof it for a future install.

[Abu Riyah]

I would clone the old drive to the drive in the new machine using Ghost or Acronis. You'll need to update the drivers for the new hardware, but this usually works just fine. Get your dongles installed and verify that everything is working. If SW is actually tied to a NIC MAC address, you'll need to deal with that, but I've never encountered that myself.

Now that you have your system up and running on new hardware, you'll need to decide if you want to upgrade to a newer version of Windows. Some of that engineering SW will not run on later versions of Windows without paying for a new version. Some of it will run fine in XP emulation mode/ legacy mode.

If you decide to try the upgrade, I would image the working (old) system that you now have up and running on the new hardware before trying the upgrade. That way, you can simply restore from your latest image if it gets hosed or just doesn't work the way you need it too. You may end up stuck with an older version of Windows, but it will be running on new HW and your business will continue to run.

I have a relative with a machine shop in this exact situation and I have gone through all of this with him a few times over the years (minus the NIC MAC address thing). He has some SW that isn't even made anymore and only runs on XP, plus some other stuff that he would have to shell out thousands of dollars for to upgrade for Win 7 versions, so I just keep his old stuff running on newer HW and he is happy. I'm actually redoing a system for him tonight.

[orangeusa]

I would clone the old drive to the drive in the new machine using Ghost or Acronis. You'll need to update the drivers for the new hardware, but this usually works just fine. Get your dongles installed and verify that everything is working. If SW is actually tied to a NIC MAC address, you'll need to deal with that, but I've never encountered that myself.

Now that you have your system up and running on new hardware, you'll need to decide if you want to upgrade to a newer version of Windows. Some of that engineering SW will not run on later versions of Windows without paying for a new version. Some of it will run fine in XP emulation mode/ legacy mode.

If you decide to try the upgrade, I would image the working (old) system that you now have up and running on the new hardware before trying the upgrade. That way, you can simply restore from your latest image if it gets hosed or just doesn't work the way you need it too. You may end up stuck with an older version of Windows, but it will be running on new HW and your business will continue to run.

I have a relative with a machine shop in this exact situation and I have gone through all of this with him a few times over the years (minus the NIC MAC address thing). He has some SW that isn't even made anymore and only runs on XP, plus some other stuff that he would have to shell out thousands of dollars for to upgrade for Win 7 versions, so I just keep his old stuff running on newer HW and he is happy. I'm actually redoing a system for him tonight.

I am agreeing 100% with your input. Backed up the new machine, need to partitian drive into 2 and I think Acronis will shovel everything across like I want. The software locked to NIC I can live without. And if it doesn't work, I just restore back to stock.

Thanks.

EDIT : I totally forgot about XP Emulation mode. I have not used it, but that is another option.

How stupid is it that using a new PC is so hard to transfer a lot of stuff. Granted there is a tool for transferring your Windows settings and such.. but Apps are so hit and miss.

.

[happy.thoughts]

If you get a machine level image like Symantec System Recovery, it is hardware agnostic. Ive used Acronis and Ghost and imo system recovery worked much better.

[stilly]

Not a spring chicken here, but have a few programs (Engineering tools) which are either dongle or tied to a MAC address.

Yes, data is a piece of cake. Apps, not so - options are :

1. Do a full backup and buy a very similar machine.
2. Pc mover app - I have tried PC Mover in the past, bit it didn't work properly.
3. Buy a similiar machine, and do an (Acronis, Norton Ghost) recovery to that machine.

Thanks..

They still do that ****? Time to get a crack for it... I wonder if it is possible to virtualize the machine with the dongle. I dunno how the MAC address would play out, but that could be kinda neat.

There was once an awesome program called App mover or something and I think it even came with a special cable for doing such tasks, but If it is still the same OS then I have come to like Migration wizard more and more. It comes with winblows 7 and newer I think.


Yeah I got a Windows XP x32 machine that I need to convert toWin7 X64 but damn, I am afraid that I will not be able to reinstall some of my stuff... My HD should be toast very soon though...

[orangeusa]

They still do that ****? Time to get a crack for it... I wonder if it is possible to virtualize the machine with the dongle. I dunno how the MAC address would play out, but that could be kinda neat.

There was once an awesome program called App mover or something and I think it even came with a special cable for doing such tasks, but If it is still the same OS then I have come to like Migration wizard more and more. It comes with winblows 7 and newer I think.


Yeah I got a Windows XP x32 machine that I need to convert toWin7 X64 but damn, I am afraid that I will not be able to reinstall some of my stuff... My HD should be toast very soon though...

I actually think I have a copy of the same program that's not locked to the NIC. the expensive program has a dongle, so I am good there.

The company doesn't pay for hardware tools, and they lavish software tools. Buncha ****ers.