Hi all Sorry if this has been said before, but i would like to use my programs and data that i have installed on my win XP HDD, instead of re installing them on my Win 7 HDD. Most programs i will happily re install, but things like Steam, with 25 gig worth of data and Windows live mail, i would like to use the program/data installed on my XP HDD. Any thoughts on how to do that???Cheers

Hi pwatt01 Your best solution would be to install Windows 7 as a dual boot. Simply create another partition on your hard drive, if there is enough space, or use a second hard drive. Install Windows 7 clean on that separate drive. Windows 7 will automatically set up a dual boot. When you boot the system, you will be able to select which OS you want to use. This allows you to still use XP and all opf your applications and games and bot to Windows 7 when you want to test or evaluate the new OS. Hope this helps. Ronnie Vernon MVP

yeah, i can do that, but i was hping for a way to use the email and game data that is installed on XP so i can use them in 7, and not have lots of data which i dont have the space for.

Hi I have successfully (I know it's a pain) reinstalled MS Outlook in Win7 and have the email data files on a separate 3rd partition so I can use outlook anytime with whichever OS I have going at that time. It does take a little tweaking, but it's possible. You'd think MS would make it a LITTLE easier. So far, after two weeks, it still works. Best of luck!

Using the data from a separate HDD shouldn't be a problem. You will just need to point the apps to the location of the data (provided the individual apps support a non-default location for their data). I would suggest trying to run the applications by browsing to the programs executable file in the Program Files\ProgramName directory and seeing if it will run successfully. You will likely have to install the apps on 7 however. This is because most applications require data to be written into the Windows registry, but it is worth trying them first. Many games, in my experience, write little into the registry. This makes them easier to port between OSes.