PCA Forums

Here is the deal:
I am helping a friend with his business computer. It was a bit outdated running windows 98. He has two programs installed on it: one bookkeeping program and the other is a scheduling program. These are specialized programs for his business and cannot be replaced with another type.

Well his computer died...details not necessary, but the HDD lived through the failure.

We took this opportunity to build a new and faster computer with XP installed on it.
I have the new computer and the old HDD. Now I need to get the programs off of the HDD and installed on the new computer. Obviously they do not work with the standard drag and drop. I’m sure they need registry settings and some .dlls.
He cannot find the original install discs.
This a legitimate deal here...I’m not trying to whore software from someone.
Is there a way I can find a way to do this?
Any help appreciated.
Thanks

I do a LOT of IT work for small businesses that use proprietary software and Ithe first thing I have to warn you about is that his programs may not work under XP. I'd contact the publisher and find out.

I assume you've tried dragging and dropping the folders to the other computer already and you're getting error messages?

Unless the authors of the software were smart (and most aren't) there's DLLs and registry entries scattered all over the place.

First of all, if he's a legitamate owner of the software he should call the publisher and get replacement CDs. I have a lot of busienss customers who use specialty software. It's usually no problem to get replacements. That's the only way to do this with full confidence that it will work. At the same tiem find out if this software works under XP.

Trying to find the registry entries and DLLs on your own is a pretty iffy proposition. The DLLs are going to be impossible to locate unless the program specifically tells you which DLL it can't find when it gives you an error message (you'll have to find them one by one and it's going to be tedious).

Additionally it's going to be impossible to recover any registry entries unless you get that drive up and running on another computer.

If you can't get copies of the installation disks (and honestly, if he's a legitamate owner of the software that shouldn't be a problem) then what I would recommend is that you copy the entire partition of the old drive to the new one and try to restore the old Windows installation. That's your best bet. I would copy the old drive to the new one, and don't use the old drive - keep that as a backup. Use Ghost or whatever utility came with the new drive.

Once you get the old 98 install running then IF the software is XP compliant, you can UPGRADE the computer to XP.


There's a few gotchas when you move a hard drive with an exist OS installed to a new motherboard. 98 usually handles the move flawlessly, but you need to take some precautions.

Before the switch, you need to do a few things so Windows won't be confused when you boot up with the new hardware:

- The first time boot into Safe Mode, run REGEDIT and delete the entire registry entry called HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\enum. This will essentially wipe your Device manager clean, forcing Windows to redetect all devices.

- When Win98 boots on the new motherboard for the first time, it won't have CD drivers installed yet and won't find the CD so you need to make sure the CAB files are on the hard drive. If you haven't done it already, copy all the CAB files from the Windows CD to the hard drive (just copy the whole Win98 folder on the CD to the root of drive C - in the future whenever Windows asks for the Win98 CD, just point it to the Win98 folder on the drive).

- If there's any special drivers for the motherboard (there may be one for the controller and if it's a VIA chipset there may be several), make sure it's ready to go on a floppy or unzipped into a folder you can easily find on the drive. Don't rely on a CD copy as the CD may not be detected when Windows needs the drivers.

- Have a copy of the video card drivers handy also as it may ask you for it on initial bootup.

- On first bootup into normal Windows ONLY install the video card. DO NOT install any other cards yet. This will go a LOT smoother if Windows doesn't have to detect a lot of new hardware in one go. Once all the motherboard devices are recognized you can install your cards.

When you startup with the new motherboard Windows will detect all the new motherboard devices and load drivers from the Windows CD (or the CAB files on the local drive if you copied them) as it sees fit. It will probably have to reboot several times to install everything - don't worry about it.

- Once it installs all the motherboard devices and reboots the last time, you MUST run the device installation wizard in "Add/Remove Hardware" in the Windows Control Panel. Windows does NOT automatically detect all motherboard devices on bootup (common mistake a LOT of people make and #1 reason why people have problems upgrading the motherboard).

- Sometimes Windows will have multiple keyboards and motherboard devices after a motherboard swap (one will probably have exclamation on it). If that happens, remove BOTH items (removing one never works) and reboot and let it detect it again. You may need to run the Add/Remove Hardware wizard again.

- This usually goes smoothly. If, however, things are not going well up to this point then try re-installing Windows over itself (a refresh install - you won't lose anything). This will force Windows to redetect all hardware. I strongly recommend you run the Windows installer from a copy of the CAB files on the hard drive (see above) instead of from the CD as Windows may "lose" the CD during installation.

- Once Windows is working fine you can start installing the other cards ONE BY ONE (not all at the same time!). If you run into a resource conflict, it's MUCH easier to track it down if you install your cards one by one.

Since it's a new motherboard, you may run into a common problem called PCI IRQ Channel sharing (NOT the same as an IRQ conflict). Go here for more details: http://www.soldcentralfl.com/quakecoop/glfaq5.htm#5_9

Good luck!

Well I have sent an email to the software people but it is a really old (2-3 years) program and I cant find them on the net anywhere. Easy Dental is the software, he is a dentist if you couldnt figure that out.
I was wanting to get him up and runing by monday since this is his business therefore getting the program discs might be that much harder.
I am holding off on restoring a ghost as the last resort....although I know that should work.
I have resotred some dlls when it told me what was missing...but now I dont get any errors and nothing runs.
-still trying

Is this the software: Easy Dental

Actually it is ... but it is version '98
I have tried to call to see if they could help me but they charge $2/minute with a 10 minute min.
Im gonna figure this bastard out on my own....it has become a challenged now.
I dont think I should pay $2/minute after spending $2,500 for the software.
Well not me but the dentist.

The dentists spent $2500 on the software? And then lost the disk? Well I guess when you make the money that they do you can afford to do dumb stuff like that.

Are you SURE about the support fee?

I deal with a LOT of small businesses using custom management software like that. Part of the reason it costs so much is because you're also paying for the support up front.

I've never run into a situation where a client had to pay for tech support for management software. I've no experience with EZ Dental but I've worked with several others (dental, medical, insurance, legal) and support is included (trust me - he didn't pay $2500 for just the software - there was a support package worked in there too).

Also, you shouldn't have to deal with tech support anyway. Call the sales department, tell them you've lost the installation disks and need them replaced.


Like I said previously, I think your best bet to get him up and running quickly is to copy the old drive partition and try and get it running with the old 98 installation.

If you want to be adventurous then fire up the old drive temporarily in the new machine and go directly to safe mode. Then run regedit and look for the registry entries and export them to floppy. If you're LUCKY the publisher clearly labelled the registry entires (usually under the publisher's name or the application's name).

The main registry entries will be located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software and/or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE.

The problem is that many of these office management program run in an SQL database, so there may be an installation of an SQL Server on that computer and there's NO WAY you'll be able to casually relocated that to another computer.

Well I have never been a fan of upgrading OS's.
I perfer to have a clean install of an operating system.
But this time I guess I didnt have a choice.
I ghosted the Drive to the new HDD...removed all hardware...booted back up...installed minimal hardware....upgraded to WINXP....

HOLLY COW THAT WAS EASY...! !
I mean it ... MS has come a long way in OS upgrade. I just have too many bad experiences from 95 upgrading to 98, NT, or 2000.
It works like a chram now.
I have a new "Backup" copy of the program coming. And yes it did cost that much, but it came with a computer. This will be his 3rd computer without updating his software. He is near retirement anyways. Yes they do actually charge $2/minute for support unless you pay EXTRA. I guess they have a corner in the market of Dental software.

Thanks for the advice everyone...He is good to go and Im happy.