Read registry of dead computer

[Jack B. Pollack]

Looking for a way to read values out of a non working computers registry
from within a working copy of Windows.
(load a hive from a non booting XP machine).

I know it can be done from the RC, but it is so slow to boot to RC just to
quickly compare a few values.

Is there any 3rd party software. I used to have a program for Win98 that
would do this )cant remember name).

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Looking for a way to read values out of a non working computers registry
from within a working copy of Windows.
(load a hive from a non booting XP machine).

I know it can be done from the RC, but it is so slow to boot to RC just to
quickly compare a few values.

Is there any 3rd party software. I used to have a program for Win98 that
would do this )cant remember name).

Regedit.exe will do it - just load the hive you're interested in.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Looking for a way to read values out of a non working computers
registry from within a working copy of Windows.
(load a hive from a non booting XP machine).

I know it can be done from the RC, but it is so slow to boot to RC
just to quickly compare a few values.

Is there any 3rd party software. I used to have a program for Win98
that would do this )cant remember name).

Until you said that Recovery Console was slow to boot - I was going to
suggest using a BartPE based boot CD/DVD. But theose are not going to be
quick either. Without something that allows you to read NTFS format,
Windows 98 boots will be worthless in many cases (hopefully.) Why do you
need to *quickly* read registry values from non-working Windows computers?
Make an image of the disk and replace what needs to be replaced (new
hardware, install clean, etc) and then take what you need from the image.

 

[VanguardLH]

Looking for a way to read values out of a non working computers registry
from within a working copy of Windows.
(load a hive from a non booting XP machine).

I know it can be done from the RC, but it is so slow to boot to RC just to
quickly compare a few values.

Is there any 3rd party software. I used to have a program for Win98 that
would do this )cant remember name).

Open the registry editor. Select (highlight) a hive in the current host
that is the same one you want to load from the defunct host. Use the File
-> Load Hive menu. Now go browse to the .dat file for the registry on the
defunct host. Presumably you moved the dead host's hard disk over to your
working host (since you can't use networking to get at the dead host's
drives), or you are using a bootable CD to load a different instance of
Windows (Bart PE, for example) that can then access the files in the
partitions on the hard disks.

If the File -> Load Hive menu is disabled, you have not selected a real
hive. There are 2 real hives: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS. The
others are pseudo hives in that they are a composite made from the real
hives.

The users' hive (ntuser.dat) will be under their %userprofile% path. The
machine hive will be under %windir%\system32\config. You can find the list
of system hive files at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry (they
don't have a filename extension).

It's been only about twice in longer than an decade that I had to access the
registry files from another host using "load hive" in regedit. Some
articles below might help in figuring out what to do:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/146050
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/168646
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759303(WS.10).aspx
http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-offline-registry-edit.html
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

 

[Jose]

Looking for a way to read values out of a non working computers registry
from within a working copy of Windows.
(load a hive from a non booting XP machine).

I know it can be done from the RC, but it is so slow to boot to RC just to
quickly compare a few values.

Is there any 3rd party software. I used to have a program for Win98 that
would do this )cant remember name).

Does RC mean Recovery Console?

I would like to know how read values from registry using the RC.

 

[Jack B. Pollack]

Open the registry editor. Select (highlight) a hive in the current host
that is the same one you want to load from the defunct host. Use the File
-> Load Hive menu. Now go browse to the .dat file for the registry on the
defunct host. Presumably you moved the dead host's hard disk over to your
working host (since you can't use networking to get at the dead host's
drives), or you are using a bootable CD to load a different instance of
Windows (Bart PE, for example) that can then access the files in the
partitions on the hard disks.

If the File -> Load Hive menu is disabled, you have not selected a real
hive. There are 2 real hives: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and HKEY_USERS. The
others are pseudo hives in that they are a composite made from the real
hives.

The users' hive (ntuser.dat) will be under their %userprofile% path. The
machine hive will be under %windir%\system32\config. You can find the
list
of system hive files at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Registry
(they
don't have a filename extension).

It's been only about twice in longer than an decade that I had to access
the
registry files from another host using "load hive" in regedit. Some
articles below might help in figuring out what to do:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/146050
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/168646
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759303(WS.10).aspx
http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-offline-registry-edit.html
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

cool. thanks

 

[Jack B. Pollack]

RC = Recovery Console

.. Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive, and then restart the
computer.
2. Click to select any options that are required to start the computer from
the CD-ROM drive if you are prompted to do so.
3. When the "Welcome to Setup" screen appears, press "R" to start the
Recovery Console.
4. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, choose the
installation that you need to access from the Recovery Console.
5. When you are prompted to do so, type the Administrator password.

Note: This password for the default Administrator account is set when
installing Windows XP. If you have not set a password for it, press Enter.

Step 2: In the command mode, type the following commands and press Enter at
the end of each one. Please connect a USB drive to the non booting XP
machine. I assume the USB drive is H:
-------------------------------
CD system32
Copy config H:\

Step 3: Connect the USB drive to a known working XP machine. On the working
XP machine, perform the following steps.

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. In the registry tree (on the left), click either the HKEY_USERS or
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE keys.
3. On the File menu, click Load Hive.
4. In Look in, click the drive, folder, or network computer and folder that
contains the hive you want to load. The hive is the files such as System,
Software, default and etc in the folder H:\Config
5. Click Open.
6. In Key Name, type the name that you want to assign to the hive, and then
click OK.

Looking for a way to read values out of a non working computers registry
from within a working copy of Windows.
(load a hive from a non booting XP machine).

I know it can be done from the RC, but it is so slow to boot to RC just to
quickly compare a few values.

Is there any 3rd party software. I used to have a program for Win98 that
would do this )cant remember name).

Does RC mean Recovery Console?

I would like to know how read values from registry using the RC.