permissions on files after restore on fresh install

Last weeek, after a hard drive hardware failure, I fixed the hardware and
reinstalled win2K Pro and recreated the user accounts.
I then restored the entire backup to an "alternate location" and then
manually copied the files to their correct locations.
I didn't do anything with the backed up registry files since I was afraid to
screw up my new OS install.
All of my files now had incorrect security settings since the GUIDs on the
old and new installs were, obviously, different.

So the question is: is it safe to restore only the SAM registry file to
restore the old user accounts and passwords and thus retain correct security
attributes for the other restored files? If I can, how do the users folders
in Doc and Settings get recreated in this case?

Can I also restore the users' registry hives so that all of the user's
preferences can be restored?

Thanks,
Richard Otter