Can you run programs installed on a different hard drive?

[ParanoidPenguin]

I recently bought a 120gb SSD and im running into multiple issues. First, i cant seem to run any programs that are installed on my HDD. I have seen that it is possible but i cant seem to do it. Windows is installed on the ssd and i can see the programs on the other drive but everytime i try to run something, some sort of error occurs. My second problem is that i have steam and upwards of 300gb of games on my HDD. I have steam installed on my SSD and i need it to recognize the games that are on the HDD due to the SSD not being big enough.

 

[getochkn]

Well you can't just run games or programs without installing them. Just because they are on the HD, the needed files, registry entries, etc are not included.

 

[Y0GI]

Have a look at THIS

Yogi

 

[USAFRet]

"Programs" will need to be reinstalled. Either on the SSD or on the HDD. As mentioned above, registry entries, etc.
Steam games? Probably no problem.

Create a folder on the HDD - call it SteamGames or similar.
Find the steamapps folder that exists on the HDD> This contains your games.
Move/copy that steamapps folder to the folder you created above.
Install Steam on your SSD.
In the Steam client, use that folder as a new location for games.
When you run one, it should pick up all the files and run the game without having to reinstall everything.

 

[Math Geek]

what he said ^^^^^^

you can install the programs to multiple drives no problem but they do have to be installed by that os. simply moving a drive from another pc and expecting the programs to still work is not how windows handles things.

there is a lot more going on than simply the "program files" there are registry entries, dll files and other stuff that need to work together. windows only knows where all this stuff is when it is the one that did the installation and made note of where all the parts are located.