App that backs up at the application level..

[slag]

Father in law has a laptop that the mainboard went out on. His farm auditing software is on the drive and wants to pull it off and install it elsewhere. I'm able to pull the hdd and slave it to my computer to see the files. Is there a way to "reverse engineer" the app to pull it off and reuse it. I don't think he has access to the install media.

 

[HOSED]

Short answer is yes, It depends on how old the application as to the procedure. If it is from the win 3 era, you probably need to copy the associated program files directory, and maybe lines in system.ini and/or win.ini. as well as entries in the registry.
What OS was the SW running on?

 

[xSauronx]

Father in law has a laptop that the mainboard went out on. His farm auditing software is on the drive and wants to pull it off and install it elsewhere. I'm able to pull the hdd and slave it to my computer to see the files. Is there a way to "reverse engineer" the app to pull it off and reuse it. I don't think he has access to the install media.

a lot of that sort of software, if its remotely recently, will require an account/serial # from the vendor to work. the software can sometimes be had for free as a trial, and the activation # makes it permanent.

if its not more than 4 or 5 years old he should contact the vendor and see if he can find a way to recover the serial/activation key so he can just install it

look for vendor help in making sur eyou back up the data files for the software

 

[stlcardinals]

From my experience with some Farm management software: most of them use SQL express to store information in a database. Your best bet is to try and find out what version it was and contact the vendor for help.

 

[cabri]

As others have stated:

Call vendor and ask for assistance.
How old is the software and the OS that is was running on?

If he had the S/W licenses, the vendor should have a record of it.
Maybe have to pay a $ for new media?

 

[slag]

Short answer is yes, It depends on how old the application as to the procedure. If it is from the win 3 era, you probably need to copy the associated program files directory, and maybe lines in system.ini and/or win.ini. as well as entries in the registry.
What OS was the SW running on?

Windows Vista or 7. I think its Vista. I can't find an executable anywhere either, but the default installation directory is c:/EASYFARM8

 

[slag]

a lot of that sort of software, if its remotely recently, will require an account/serial # from the vendor to work. the software can sometimes be had for free as a trial, and the activation # makes it permanent.

if its not more than 4 or 5 years old he should contact the vendor and see if he can find a way to recover the serial/activation key so he can just install it

look for vendor help in making sur eyou back up the data files for the software

I've reached out to him with these questions a few months ago. In short, if you don't have a paid, active support contract with this company, the $700 you paid for the software still doesn't give you the ability to redownload the software. I have the license key as I was able to find it in the application directory, but getting the software is going to be difficult if not impossible.

 

[akugami]

Virtualization might be an option...basically "transfer" the old system by virtualizing the physical machine. The only problem is copy protection might throw a fit. But if it does work, you should be able to virtualize the farm software onto a new machine. It's more of a pain in the backside to use since you have to boot your computer and then boot the virtual machine but it's doable and you'd have a backup of the system in case you need to transfer it again.

 

[slag]

Virtualization might be an option...basically "transfer" the old system by virtualizing the physical machine. The only problem is copy protection might throw a fit. But if it does work, you should be able to virtualize the farm software onto a new machine. It's more of a pain in the backside to use since you have to boot your computer and then boot the virtual machine but it's doable and you'd have a backup of the system in case you need to transfer it again.

I don't think I can use VMware workstation to virtualize another drive though. I'd have to have VMware server. I need to see if I can download that through a trial.

Thanks.

 

[cabri]

Windows Vista or 7. I think its Vista. I can't find an executable anywhere either, but the default installation directory is c:/EASYFARM8

The file may be in hidden mode or in a hidden folder

Ensure that you have the proper viewing rights for the folder/system

 

[Ketchup]

I don't think I can use VMware workstation to virtualize another drive though. I'd have to have VMware server. I need to see if I can download that through a trial.

Thanks.

vCenter Converter is still free, and then all you need to do it create a VM with player that uses the vmdk.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/