Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Am I missing something?

Sep 11, 2018 5:08PM PDT

I have a sort of urgent dilema I need some help with, I recently upgraded to new laptop and since I had all my old software on the other hd, I got a transfer cable to be able to have access to all my old files. There is one piece of sign making software that I use quite a bit that is giving me issues. Now Ive made a complete copy of the hard drive and stored in a folder on my desktop name "local disk" when i try to open this particular application it starts to open for maybe a spilt second and then dissapears. but if I access the program when the old hard drive is plugged in from the original folder in the old hard drive the application opens up fine. Now Ive tried the compatibility work around and it solved nothing, Is there something I am missing I really hate to have to plug this old hard drive in every time I need to use this application. ANY Help is appreciated

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
Not unexpected.
Sep 11, 2018 5:14PM PDT

About 1995 the registry appeared along with other changes that meant the end of casually copying some app folder and running on your other PC. So the answer here is to reinstall this app.

There's a long workaround and that's to convert that old HDD into a VHD (google "convert HDD to VHD") then boot that old system in Virtual Box. That is a bit of work, written about enough that I'll stop writing about it here.

So annoying as it is, reinstall this app and hopefully that will get it working.

PS. Long ago I did help out some vinyl cutting sign makers. It was at the time tied to a hardware key on the Parallel port. Glad I haven't seen that system in over a decade, but yes, I know a little about sign maker software if it's the usual vinyl cutting stuff.

- Collapse -
thanks
Sep 11, 2018 5:34PM PDT

Thanks for the answer, but its not easy as reinstall as I lost the key that goes with the software, and sai is impossible to give me the key that the previous shop owner purchased. Looks like im gonna try the VHD thing hope it isn't to complicated..

- Collapse -
Ah, that complicates matters.
Sep 11, 2018 7:22PM PDT

It sounds like the license is not in your name. Awful but not unheard of. Can be costly.

Maybe this app gets to stay on the old PC?

- Collapse -
still have issues
Sep 11, 2018 7:28PM PDT

true, license is not in my name It does but I need to be able to use it without constantly lugging around the ripped out hdd from the old computer

- Collapse -
Found a Handy Program
Sep 11, 2018 7:48PM PDT

Downloaded disk2vhd hope it work will update

- Collapse -
Perhaps a key finder
Sep 11, 2018 7:28PM PDT