What is needed to copy games from 1 computer hard drive to another computer hard

I am retiring an old computer, but would like to transfer games on it to a new computer. How can this be done? Reason I want to transfer is I no longer have the game keys for a reinstall.

Well, it probably won't work. The game installation made entries into the Windows registry and may have written files to the /windows directory tree. So if you just copy the directories with the games, nothing will run.

If you have lots of free time, are bored, and don't mind the risk of ruining your new machine (you do have OS backups, right), you could try exporting all of the registry keys that seem to be associated with a given game on the old machine and loading them into the new machine's registry, then seeing if the games will run.

Personally, I recommend contacting tech support at the various game companies. If they are still in business, they may be able to help you.

Good luck.

Worst case: Make a complete image backup of the hard drive to a newer drive. Keep the old one in a drawer as a backup. Boot to the new copy when you want to play those games.

Otherwise, you could look for utilities to migrate games from one install to another. If you find one or more that work, you could educate us all.