Backing up apps, is this ok?

I recently did a fresh install of my OS, prior to this I used my external hard drive to back up my data etc. But i also backed up some of my apps, such as Office 2003. To do this i simply opened up my Applications folder on my Mac HD and dragged it onto the hard drive.

When i had installed I then simply dragged it back from the HDD into my apps folder. It copied it across and it worked as normal. It didnt ask for my serial number etc.

My question is, should it work like this, is it meant to or is it a workaround? Will it work in the same way if i do a fresh install of Leopard when i get it tomorrow?

If i also lent the HDD to a friend and he did the same would it simply copy onto his computer with no problems? Seems a bit strange in the way it works.

BUT, i am relatively new to Macs so i may just be naive.

everything you said works as its suppose to... just don't give your friend your drive to copy your back up to their computer, its illegal.

I don't know about Office, but with Photoshop 7, the version I use, there are all kinds of smaller files, without which Photoshop demands a reinstall from the disk. Some of these may be invisible and will not copy.

Likely as not, you hadn't trashed the small files that Office plants in various places, so the application ran as it would normally.

If i also lent the HDD to a friend and he did the same would it simply copy onto his computer with no problems?

Click to expand...

Any invisible files probably wouldn't copy, so it likely wouldn't work. In any case, copying an app for this purpose would be illegal in your jurisdiction (as well as Mac-Forums'), so further discussion of it, even hypothetically, is off-limits (check this site's rules).

OK, so no talk of lending it to a friend, that was purely hypothetical anyway.

I copied it onto the drive, completely erased and reinstalled os x on my mac and then dragged it across, so i would imagine that any invisible files still on my mac would have been erased, leading me to think that it did have all the files backed up?

Its not illegal to back it up in this way on tiger, do a fresh install of leopard and reinstall from HDD is it? As i have already paid for it.