Reinstalling Vista vs. Existing Programs?

[Keebler Elf]

Scenario: You have 2 physical hard drives (not partitions), drive A and drive B. You want to reinstall Vista on drive A. You have programs directly installed on drive B.

If you reinstall Vista on drive A, will it impact the programs already installed on drive B?

e.g., will a reinstalled Vista not know "where to look" for programs or be unaware that programs have previously been installed on the other drive?

 

[Anynym]

I can't speak to Vista specifically, but just because the program files are on Drive B doesn't mean that the *registry* entries associated with those programs are on Drive B. And it's the Registry which Microsoft OSs care about the most.

Better to have a reasonably-sized "master" partition and a main "data" partition. Then, back up the "master" partition to a "recovery" partition after installing new programs, or a couple times a year, and back up the "data" partition on a weekly basis.

 

[Twister]

Scenario: You have 2 physical hard drives (not partitions), drive A and drive B. You want to reinstall Vista on drive A. You have programs directly installed on drive B.

If you reinstall Vista on drive A, will it impact the programs already installed on drive B?

e.g., will a reinstalled Vista not know "where to look" for programs or be unaware that programs have previously been installed on the other drive?

I don't think it will work because some of the programs on B install themself on windows of A

 

[AnimalMagnetism]

if the programs installed on drive B were already associated with vista installed on drive A they will still be associated if you simply do a "reinstall". if you do a fresh install none will still be associated

 

[Keebler Elf]

if the programs installed on drive B were already associated with vista installed on drive A they will still be associated if you simply do a "reinstall". if you do a fresh install none will still be associated

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I mean a fresh install (i.e., format the drive and install Vista again).

That's what I figured.