Help Transfering data from old hard drive to new one.

Hi,

I recently got windows 7 and installed it onto an empty hard drive in my pc.
I now have my old hard drive with vista on and my new hard drive with windows 7 on.

The only problem is i have hundreds of programs and updates etc on my old hard drive that i really want to use with windows 7 on my new hard drive.

Does anyone know how i can transfer over all the programs and data from my old hard drive to my new hard drive? I tryed just copying the files over but i dont have the registry settings on my new hard drive with windows 7, so none of the programs work.

Any help with this problem would be great thanks.

Sorry but for 99% of programs a reinstall is required

isnt there a way to backup my old system and restore it onto my new windows 7 hard drive or somethnig? maybe create an iso image, im not sure i just wondered if any of these ideas will work

Yes, you can clone your hard drive:

Ghost, Ximage, Acronis

Or Brink suggests

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/99709-backup-complete-computer.html

and

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/99718-restore-complete-computer.html

the only problem is, at the moment on my old hard drive i just have windows vista home premium, so i cant backup all my program files and stuff, i have windows 7 ultimate on my other hard drive, so i can use the restore programs, is there a free way to backup all my programs and data (apart from the old vista operating system)

backup all my programs and data (apart from the old vista operating system)

Click to expand...

You can use windows easy transfer - use the one in 7 - to get data and settings transferred from Vista to 7.

Not programs - some may run as executables - many will need to be installed on 7.