Installing new hard drive confuses Microsoft Office

[Opinicus]

Using Office XP Professional.

I installed a new hard drive on my system today. Using the manufacturer's
(Seagate) installation program, I made it my boot drive and had all my
programs and settings moved over to it. Everything went off without a
hitch... EXCEPT for Office XP. When I try and run an Office program like
Word or Excel something tries to install it from the CD (which is available
to the system). If I open a Word or Excel document I get a message about the
hardware having been changed and reactivation is needed etc. Other messages
say a repair install is needed.

I tried doing a repair installation, a new installation, and even an
uninstallation (from the Control Panel for example) but when I do I get this
message:

<quote>
Windows Installer

This patch package could not be opened. Verify that the patch package exists
and that you can access it or contact the application vendor to verify that
this is a valid Windows Installer patch package.
</quote>

I even tried renaming the Office folders and attempted to uninstall Office
through the Control Panel but got the same message as above.

Where do I go from here?

 

[Howard Kaikow]

You don't say how you moved your programs and settings.
The re-activation message means you need to call MSFT.

 

[Opinicus]

[xposted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general in the hopes that this might
be of some use there as well]

You don't say how you moved your programs and settings.
The re-activation message means you need to call MSFT.

I believe I said:

The moving in other words was done by the Seagate installation program and a
very efficient move it was indeed. The only setup to stumble--notice how I
refrain from saying "crash and burn"-- was that of Office XP.

After posting my original message I thought of hitting the Office support
site and eventually fetched up this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=290301
"Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility"

The symptoms described were exactly the ones I was suffering from. I
downloaded and installed the utility and have cleared up the problem. (I did
have to reinstall the two updates to Office XP but fortunately I had the
foresight to download and save them so I didn't have to download them again.
Am I becoming savvy in my advancing years or what?)