Find out what has been installed on harddrive

Question

I have a computer where I need to find out if a specific set of software have been installed on it before.

But the very first problem is the user of the computer has changed in a new hard drive. And the old one is gone.

Is it still possible to find out what software have been installed previously?

Answer 1

If that drive was the only hard drive, and a full new install was performed on the replacement then no. If full-backups were made and kept, those would reveal what software had been previously installed.

If the user's data files had already been restored, you might infer what software might have previously produced those files and therefore which software might have been present.

If the computer had two drives, C and D, with some software installed on D, then D was replaced without un-installing software, then if the operating system was Windows, the registry on C would reveal what software had been installed on D.

Summary: You should give more details!