Well personally I hate Windows 8 with a vengeance, Microsoft has done it again and screwed things up, however that is of no consequence.
Get yourself a new Windows 7 desktop and a Windows 7 laptop for the Mrs and use the old hard drives in either an enclosure or use a device like this to get all your personal stuff off the drives to your new main machines.
As an aside she could install her program to the new laptop.
http://www.amazon.co...e/dp/B001A5SK56
Yeah....not hearing good things about 8.
I'm looking at your link and trying to understand.
Is this just a device to get transfer information off a drive....or is it something you can run a operating system off of?
She can't install the program onto a new laptop with a 64 bit windows operating system because the program will only run on 32 bit unless we fork over 600 bucks to upgrade it. I understand why I can't clone the Vista drive and use it on a new machine...but do you think I could:
1.) take a new laptop with 64 bit Windows 7 on it.
2.) Buy a new external hard drive and plug it into the USB port.
3.) instal a fresh copy of XP 32 bit or Vista 32 bit on the external drive.
4.) When done...reboot and hit F12 at start up and have the option of booting to Windows 7 64 bit or Windows XP/VISTA 32 bit?
If I could do that then I would not have to spend 600 more dollars to upgrade the program.