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How to access Windows 10 apps stored on a former boot drive that has the files still intact?

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Aug 2, 2010
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How to access Windows 10 apps stored on a former boot drive that has the files still intact?

My Windows 10 SSD boot drive would no longer boot and the boot issue could not be repaired. I installed a new one and the boot drive is now H: drive with all of the files intact.

Does anyone know how I can access the apps on that H: drive so I don't have to reinstall them all and also preserve the data they had?
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Aug 16, 2010
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If the old drive still has the file system intact and accessible, why not clone it onto the new drive using a disk management tool like Acronis? The tool should have a self boot option so you don't already need to have Windows on the new drive in order to run disk management tool.
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Dec 6, 2020
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eonibm wrote: Does anyone know how I can access the apps on that H: drive so I don't have to reinstall them all and also preserve the data they had?
By design, Microsoft makes transporting software between Windows installations extremely difficult or impossible. You'll have to re-install everything.

You might be able to find the data and settings somewhere in the %APPDATA% and/or %PROGRAMDATA% folders.
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Jul 4, 2004
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middleofnowhere wrote: By design, Microsoft makes transporting software between Windows installations extremely difficult or impossible. You'll have to re-install everything.

You might be able to find the data and settings somewhere in the %APPDATA% and/or %PROGRAMDATA% folders.
Yup. An almost impossible feat as there are also registry entries and some apps place files all over the place. And then there are permissions that you have to deal with as well.

There are however some programs out there that purportably report that they can do this for you. My preference would be to do new installs but if you feel inclined, checkout:

https://www.easeus.com/pc-transfer/safe ... ws-10.html
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eonibm wrote: My Windows 10 SSD boot drive would no longer boot and the boot issue could not be repaired. I installed a new one and the boot drive is now H: drive with all of the files intact.

Does anyone know how I can access the apps on that H: drive so I don't have to reinstall them all and also preserve the data they had?
While this is possible to do, it can be a very long process no matter how you go about it.

If you can access the data on the drive, why can't you repair the start up environment?
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Canuck_TO wrote: While this is possible to do, it can be a very long process no matter how you go about it.

If you can access the data on the drive, why can't you repair the start up environment?
I have no idea. I have tried many times. The boot sector is so corrupted I guess that it is beyond repair. I tried everything that Microsoft and other websites suggested. Nothing works.
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Frankie3s wrote: Yup. An almost impossible feat as there are also registry entries and some apps place files all over the place. And then there are permissions that you have to deal with as well.

There are however some programs out there that purportably report that they can do this for you. My preference would be to do new installs but if you feel inclined, checkout:

https://www.easeus.com/pc-transfer/safe ... ws-10.html
Thanks. I have decided to reinstall the programs as it is much less work. I have all of my passwords for programs and the data is acccessible so very little has been lost. It's just a lot of work to reconfigure.

Microsoft allows you to install programs on drives other than the C: boot drive. However, However am I correct that even if you do that and the C: boot drive dies and you reinstall windows those programs will not be accessible automatically?
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Jul 4, 2004
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eonibm wrote: Thanks. I have decided to reinstall the programs as it is much less work. I have all of my passwords for programs and the data is acccessible so very little has been lost. It's just a lot of work to reconfigure.

Microsoft allows you to install programs on drives other than the C: boot drive. However, However am I correct that even if you do that and the C: boot drive dies and you reinstall windows those programs will not be accessible automatically?
It is possible while using NTFS as your file system (which is the default and most efficient, plus supports large drives) and with permissions that this could happen. You would need to be an "admin" or a user assigned "admin" rights and change the permissions on the drive that you can't access.

The steps can be found here: https://www.easeus.com/storage-media-re ... enied.html

Where this would get really tricky and would require more investigation is if you have encryption enabled, like bitlocker, on the old drive and it would be more advantageous to first remove it before replacing the drive or to copy the content of that drive to another one, unencrypted.
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eonibm wrote: I have no idea. I have tried many times. The boot sector is so corrupted I guess that it is beyond repair. I tried everything that Microsoft and other websites suggested. Nothing works.
Take a look at the Easeus software. I've used this software in the past for repair and recovery. Start with Method 2. If that doesn't work then try Method 1.
I'd rather use the built-in tools before I use a third party tool.

https://www.easeus.com/partition-manage ... maged.html

Also, it wouldn't hurt to make a copy of your data or clone of the defective drive before starting this.
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Sep 1, 2004
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If you can run your mission critical apps under a VM, I suggest you do that. Then just make sure you VHD is backed up somewhere.

So in case of hardware failure, you won't stop a beat or waste time reinstalling stuff.

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