J
John John
No way to do that.
John
John
T
That guy.
I'm re-installing Win2000 and want to format so I have a fresh clean
install. But I sure don't look forward to spending hours setting up all my
programs (Microsoft and non-Microsoft) to look and function the same as I'm
used to. Is there a way of saving those settings without re-installing
possible problems that might have slowed/clogged the system before like
spyware, etc?
install. But I sure don't look forward to spending hours setting up all my
programs (Microsoft and non-Microsoft) to look and function the same as I'm
used to. Is there a way of saving those settings without re-installing
possible problems that might have slowed/clogged the system before like
spyware, etc?
T
That guy.
Can I at least save some of them? That response was discouraging!
G
Gary Smith
No, you can't. A "fresh, clean install" means that you start over from
scratch. The installation process builds a frash, clean registry -- the
place where all of the system and program settings are stored. You could
in theory export the application-related parts of the registry and import
them after the reinstallation, but unless you're extremely knowledgeable
and extremely careful, you'll miss important bits or pick up stuff that's
not compatible with the new install. You'd probably wind up reinstalling
the applications anyway to fix the problems that caused.
If you must format and reinstall, reinstalling and reconfiguring your
applications will be faster and more reliable than trying to preserve
existing settings. That's why I'll do most anything to avoid the
nuke-and-rebuild approach to system cleanup.
scratch. The installation process builds a frash, clean registry -- the
place where all of the system and program settings are stored. You could
in theory export the application-related parts of the registry and import
them after the reinstallation, but unless you're extremely knowledgeable
and extremely careful, you'll miss important bits or pick up stuff that's
not compatible with the new install. You'd probably wind up reinstalling
the applications anyway to fix the problems that caused.
If you must format and reinstall, reinstalling and reconfiguring your
applications will be faster and more reliable than trying to preserve
existing settings. That's why I'll do most anything to avoid the
nuke-and-rebuild approach to system cleanup.
J
John John
No there is nothing that can be saved as you will be formatting the
drive and erasing everything that is on it. These settings that you
want to save are stored in the registry and the registry will be gone,
that is what you want isn't it, a fresh clean start? Trying to fit
these bits and pieces back in the registry is unfeasible and too risky
an operation to try on a clean new installation, even the most seasoned
of pros wouldn't think of trying that, it would take more time than
doing the actual installation and tweaking after and could leave you
with a bigger mess than before you started, like trying to fix Humpty
Dumpty after he fell off the wall, it'll be all cracked.
The only thing that I can suggest to make your job easier is to make
sure that you have all your software AND LICENSE KEYS lined up. Examine
what you have now and make notes of what you want to reinstall. Make
sure to save any data that is important, that can easily be restored
once your programs are reinstalled, things like email messages and
bookmark files and other archives. Make sure that you have all the
latest available drivers for your devices, look in the device manager
and see what is there as well as what drivers are installed. Some
things can be cryptic and difficult to troubleshoot if you don't know
your pc well, unusual things like Dell Meticulous Button (or whatever
it's called). If your motherboard had a chipset driver that will be the
FIRST driver to update/install after you install the OS. Pay attention
to your modem and drivers, do you have the disk that came with it? That
can be a VERY difficult thing to get going properly without the proper
drivers. If you do your homework first things will or should go well.
It makes things easier if you have the big items saved on a cd,
separate partition or other, things like SP4, IE6 SP1 and the other big
downloads. Try installing the important OS stuff first, SP4 & IE for
example.
DON'T FORGET THIS! After you install your new W2K DO NOT PLUG THE
INSTALLATION TO THE NET UNLESS YOU HAVE PATCHED THE INSTALLATION WITH
THE MSBLAST PATCH AND HAVE A FIREWALL UP AND RUNNING! The msblast patch
can be downloaded from Microsoft. If you don't heed this advice you
will most likely be infected with a virus within 30 seconds. Once you
are sure that the box is protected go to the Windows Update site and get
the necessary security patches.
John
drive and erasing everything that is on it. These settings that you
want to save are stored in the registry and the registry will be gone,
that is what you want isn't it, a fresh clean start? Trying to fit
these bits and pieces back in the registry is unfeasible and too risky
an operation to try on a clean new installation, even the most seasoned
of pros wouldn't think of trying that, it would take more time than
doing the actual installation and tweaking after and could leave you
with a bigger mess than before you started, like trying to fix Humpty
Dumpty after he fell off the wall, it'll be all cracked.
The only thing that I can suggest to make your job easier is to make
sure that you have all your software AND LICENSE KEYS lined up. Examine
what you have now and make notes of what you want to reinstall. Make
sure to save any data that is important, that can easily be restored
once your programs are reinstalled, things like email messages and
bookmark files and other archives. Make sure that you have all the
latest available drivers for your devices, look in the device manager
and see what is there as well as what drivers are installed. Some
things can be cryptic and difficult to troubleshoot if you don't know
your pc well, unusual things like Dell Meticulous Button (or whatever
it's called). If your motherboard had a chipset driver that will be the
FIRST driver to update/install after you install the OS. Pay attention
to your modem and drivers, do you have the disk that came with it? That
can be a VERY difficult thing to get going properly without the proper
drivers. If you do your homework first things will or should go well.
It makes things easier if you have the big items saved on a cd,
separate partition or other, things like SP4, IE6 SP1 and the other big
downloads. Try installing the important OS stuff first, SP4 & IE for
example.
DON'T FORGET THIS! After you install your new W2K DO NOT PLUG THE
INSTALLATION TO THE NET UNLESS YOU HAVE PATCHED THE INSTALLATION WITH
THE MSBLAST PATCH AND HAVE A FIREWALL UP AND RUNNING! The msblast patch
can be downloaded from Microsoft. If you don't heed this advice you
will most likely be infected with a virus within 30 seconds. Once you
are sure that the box is protected go to the Windows Update site and get
the necessary security patches.
John
N
nesredep egrob
Yes. Make your C: drive (being the OS drive) just 8GB or so - keep it
backed up - I do one per week and keep just 3 weeks worth.
Run your setup for 2000 and then before you do anything else you run
Service Pack 4 which I am sure you must have on CD.
But most of all make sure that you include 'System State' in your
backups. You will then have a nice clean drive and all the connections
you had before the troubles started.
For your information, my stats are:
Win 2000, Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz
1 Gb memory,ADSL
200+200 GB disks partitioned C
:E;as 7.81,80.84.97.65F: G: as 88.65,97.66 for data
Borge Pedersen
Perth, Australia
mailto:[email protected]
remove SPAM and underlines for email
L
Leythos
Here's how I do it. I have many workstations with all versions of
Windows on them. When I install a virgin system and all the normal apps
I use, I ghost an image to a spare hard drive (an Image file) and then I
burn that image file (or 2 or 3) to CD's so that I can restore that
system to its virgin state with that OS later. On the average I wipe my
systems once a year to regain slack-space and clean them up.