(Edit: Apologies if this is a crossover between forum subject areas, I couldn't really decide which one it fitted into best)
I have an old Dell desktop which I'm going to be upgrading shortly. I've got some software installed which I got through a student licensing system which I would like to have on my new machine. The problem I have is that I don't have access to the install disks or the money to pay for a full licensed version.
Possible solutions I've been thinking of:
1) Physically remove the hard drive from the old machine and install it on the new one (far beyond my previous hardware hacking experience which is limited to installing new RAM)
2) Physically remove the hard drive from the old machine and set it up as an external drive.
3) Clone the old hard drive (OS and all) and install it as a partition (or virtual drive?) on the new machine.
A possible problem with the first solution is that it would restrict me to a desktop afaik (not that this is a definite deal breaker, but I'd like to keep my options open). A second problem is that I assume I'd have to boot into that drive and use its OS (Windows XP) if I wanted to access software on it.
A problem with the second option is that its messy - I'd prefer not to have an external unit.
Option 3 is the one I know least about.
Can anyone give me advice on the following:
1) Options 1 & 2 - if I have use the old disk as a second physical drive (internal or external) am I correct in thinking that I'd have to boot into it to use software installed on that drive?
2) What are my options regarding cloning the old drive and installing it as partition on the new system? Would I be able to boot into the primary partition containing my new OS and documents etc and still be able to run the software on the clone whenever I wanted without having to reboot into the second partition containing the clone?
3) Is there some way I could set up a virtual machine using the clone and something like VMWare?
I have an old Dell desktop which I'm going to be upgrading shortly. I've got some software installed which I got through a student licensing system which I would like to have on my new machine. The problem I have is that I don't have access to the install disks or the money to pay for a full licensed version.
Possible solutions I've been thinking of:
1) Physically remove the hard drive from the old machine and install it on the new one (far beyond my previous hardware hacking experience which is limited to installing new RAM)
2) Physically remove the hard drive from the old machine and set it up as an external drive.
3) Clone the old hard drive (OS and all) and install it as a partition (or virtual drive?) on the new machine.
A possible problem with the first solution is that it would restrict me to a desktop afaik (not that this is a definite deal breaker, but I'd like to keep my options open). A second problem is that I assume I'd have to boot into that drive and use its OS (Windows XP) if I wanted to access software on it.
A problem with the second option is that its messy - I'd prefer not to have an external unit.
Option 3 is the one I know least about.
Can anyone give me advice on the following:
1) Options 1 & 2 - if I have use the old disk as a second physical drive (internal or external) am I correct in thinking that I'd have to boot into it to use software installed on that drive?
2) What are my options regarding cloning the old drive and installing it as partition on the new system? Would I be able to boot into the primary partition containing my new OS and documents etc and still be able to run the software on the clone whenever I wanted without having to reboot into the second partition containing the clone?
3) Is there some way I could set up a virtual machine using the clone and something like VMWare?