Computer Guru's needed!

[Korr]

Hi guys i just had to re-install windows because my hard drive just stopped working. I am running vista 32. So i re-installed it onto the hard drive that stopped working and it works again how weird! Windows automatically saved my old installation under a file called "windows.old"

I can still access these files, but i was wondering if i could somehow make that folder the current windows folders? It has all my drivers and programs in it. Updating is going to suck.

[Bigfoot]

check this link. I think it is exactly what you need.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168

[cywelchjr]

check this link. I think it is exactly what you need.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933168

I would recommend getting and using a program called drivermax which will not only find the newest drivers for all your devices, but can save them to a zip file on an external drive and then can restore them if you have to reinstall. Best investment of $0 I ever made.

[wayneshrt]

update windows

No.
Vista and XP have many different drivers. Second you can't overwrite windows folder of it will stop working. On Vista you will have get install updated drivers for Vista from Microsoft and different companys which have made the hardware in your computer. For example: amd.com for ati and motherboard drivers, itel.com for itel based motherboards or video, Nvidia.com for video, etc. etc.
Vista also will not play many games that XP did.
The best thing is to just goto MyComputer and right click, select properties in one of Vista tabs or maybe it shows on window that opens up, check for items that aren't installed or have a question mark - these are the ones you will have to update.
Sorry if I mentioned stuff you may have already known, but I was just talking. Wayne

[Fix]

The next thing you'll want to do is back up everything. If that drive failed once, it can again.

Hard drives are very inexpensive, so a new one might not be a bad idea either. Especially since you've got to do the drivers and updates anyways. You can normally leave the old drive in as a secondary drive (If you have the room in the case and on the motherboard) to facilitate file transfer to the new drive. Also, when was the last time you did a good malware scan?

PS. I got everything I had running on XP to run on Vista. Some of it does take a bit of finagling but I haven't run across anything yet that can't be run.