Replacing fresh install with backup system files

[vanessa]

Hi all, here is my situation :

I have a damage disk ( partition table ) which I managed to recover all the
files on it including system files.
It can be said that the recovery gave me back all the files and directory
structures exactly as they were stored on the damage partition perfectly.

After successful recovery, I installed Windows back on it ( fresh install ).
But then I realize I need to install, update and customize a lot of things
in it.
Assuming that all my recovery files are valid, can I just copy ( replace
existing ) these recovery files to the new installation.
I mean, system files will be included too.
I will make the disk as secondary disk and do the "copying back" from
another healthy system.

Will it be ok? Will my fresh installation be back as the way it used to?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Hi all, here is my situation :

I have a damage disk ( partition table ) which I managed to recover all
the
files on it including system files.
It can be said that the recovery gave me back all the files and directory
structures exactly as they were stored on the damage partition perfectly.

After successful recovery, I installed Windows back on it ( fresh
install ).
But then I realize I need to install, update and customize a lot of things
in it.
Assuming that all my recovery files are valid, can I just copy ( replace
existing ) these recovery files to the new installation.
I mean, system files will be included too.
I will make the disk as secondary disk and do the "copying back" from
another healthy system.

Will it be ok? Will my fresh installation be back as the way it used to?

Yes, this will work. However, you will have to perform the copy operation in
one of two modes:
- Connect both disks as slave disks to some other WinXP PC, or
- Boot your machine with a Bart PE boot CD.
In either case you must use a tool such as robocopy.exe in order to copy all
hidden and system files. Post again if you need more detailed instructions.

 

[vanessa]

Yes, this will work. However, you will have to perform the copy operation in
one of two modes:
- Connect both disks as slave disks to some other WinXP PC, or
- Boot your machine with a Bart PE boot CD.
In either case you must use a tool such as robocopy.exe in order to copy all
hidden and system files. Post again if you need more detailed instructions.

Thank you.
Will give it a try

 

[vanessa]

Thank you.
Will give it a try

I did it. Got an error about XP can read the system hive becuase it's
corrupt or unreadable.
But managed to fix it by replacing with system hive from the repair directory.

Thx for the help

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

I did it. Got an error about XP can read the system hive becuase it's
corrupt or unreadable.
But managed to fix it by replacing with system hive from the repair
directory.

Thx for the help

Congratulations, and thanks for the feedback.