I notice that you have not received any replies to your post. I really 
am not too sure what is causing your problem, but I will try to help. 
The installation of XP SP2 should have installed the driver for your DVD 
drive (reading the data on DVD's seems to confirm this, but not seeing a 
blank disk is confusing). Are you using Windows Explorer to locate and 
read the DVD? The installation of XP SP2 (plus updates since SP2) should 
have included the latest version of Windows Media Player which should 
play the movies. You may need to open the Media Player and then select 
the file to be played due to a loss of your previous settings during the 
change in hard drives. OR the movie file could be in a format not 
recognized by the Windows Media Player. What program did you use to 
create the movie files and what is the extension (.xxx) of the files? 
You may need to reinstall whatever the program was, if any, to play back 
the movies.

As to extracting programs from the old drive, you can do it by 
temporarily installing the old drive in the PC (does not have to be 
physically installed, just attached to the power supply and the data 
cable). Than you can copy files between the hard drives. However, unless 
programs are stand alone they install files in various places and also 
registry entries and consequently need to be "installed" and not just 
copied. Data and save type files can normally be copied to the locations 
that each program uses for this data storage.

I hope this helps. Hopefully, more knowledgeable members will also respond.

Tom

Joyce A wrote:
> Was Win XP Home, SP 3; now is Win XP Home, SP 2 restoration after 
> installation of a new 160-gig hard drive.  I used to be able to play, 
> edit, and copy my home movie DVDs on this machine, but now I can't.  
> And it doesn't recognize a blank DVD as even being there.  So two 
> questions:  can I somehow extract the appropriate software from the 
> old, failing 100-gig hard drive?   Or is there a free download 
> somewhere that I can use?
>
> The software I have does recognize a data DVD, just not my movies or 
> blanks...  TIA!
>
> Joyce in SE Ohio
>
>              

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