possible to recover programs after HDD crash?
 

I have a bit of an older machine that I was fixing up for a relative who cant really afford to buy a new computer. Here and there I was putting in some time, removing a lot of files, etc., and then *POOF* computer reset.

Looks like the HDD went and no way to recover it. I was able to recover a files and applications, but does not look like it can be repaired and a new OS needs to be installed (on a new HDD of course).

Anyway, there are a few programs that the family wanted to use, like M$ Office, Photo album software, etc. Nothing fancy, but a pain in the butt to have to go through to get again... plus the M$ Office is from 2007.

Without registry files, I'm basically screwed right?

Yes, this is another issue with non-free software. The registry is really nothing more than a set of files and there are multiple copies of it stored along with various backups. You might try doing some research to identify where they are all stored and then attempt to recover them. After that you might be able to find product/license keys stored in the registry which you may use later. One option is to use torrents to get the actual programs, then use your legit keys.

Time to convert them to things like Open Office.

Does the old HDD still work at all? I've had some success using this program http://www.easeus.com/

You can try it for free to see if you can get at anything on the HDD... However, I seriously doubt you could restore the OS itself. You'd have to reinstall that and then go from there.

The bad sectors are effecting the windows OS files, which cause it not to load. I've been able to extract everything I could ever think of off the drive, but no luck with registry files... argh! :mad: