Windows Registry

[Guest]

Due to a problem with my hard disk, I have had to reinstall Windows on a
brand new hdd. This has, of course, made all my registered programs not work.
In some cases, this is not a problem, as they can be easily reinstalled, but
in others I would either need to repurchase them, or would lose adding
faicities etc. As I still have my old hdd, is there anyway of transferring
registry entries from the old install to the new install?

Also, if I new where Outlook stored its' emails, this would help solve
matters.

 

[Guest]

you could probably connect the failing harddrive as a slave and configure a
dual boot.ini -- you didn't mention how the hd failed, but could you
have tried to do a "windows repair" with your setup cd, leaving everything
else intakc and usuable or was it unbootable because it may have been
missing the ntldr,...?

 

[Guest]

The HD has, apparently, an error where Windows was located. It would seem to
be unusable as a boot disk now, although it is connected as a slave.

I tried recovering the install; up until that point I could at least get
Windows to start in Safe Mode; after that it wouldn't work at all.

 

[Guest]

when you were in safe mode did you try doing a recover, using the recovery
menu? you can run this %SystemRoot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe to access the
recovery console if you are able to log into the slave's safe mode.

Also, did you try to do a "repair installation" on the slave via your
windows setup cd?

If so, the it could simply be some bad and unreadiable sectors on the failed
hd. if you can boot to the good windows you may be able to perform some disk
maintenance on that slave. i don't remember all the commands available. but
a thorough check disk can be done on the slave and mark the bad sectors as
unusable. then see if you can use your windows cd to setup > new install >
repair installation on the slave drive.

I havn't used these tricks but 1) you could try to make a new partition on
the new drive and copy to contents of the slave onto it. then do a repair on
it so that windows syncronizes the vital files to the new partition. 2) the
other might be to use a backup program and backup the contents of the slave.
then restore the backup onto the new hard drive's main partition. then
proceed with a repair of the installation again if windows fails to start.
3) in either case it is a good idea to create another partition on the new
harddrive where you can make and store a backup of your newly
installed/working windows. just in case you need to

Here is some steps to take on the slave drive that might help before
proceeding with the above steps. It is from a white paper I have stored on
my pc. And you will have to "log into the installation on the slave drive"
via the recovery console....
______________
You can use the Recovery Console to restore a missing or damaged copy
of ntldr or the NTDETECT.COM startup file.

To enter a command into the Recovery Console, type the command
at the D:\WINDOWS> prompt. Press the ENTER key at the end of each
command to send it to the computer.

To replace ntldr, enter
copy drive :i386 \ntldr
In place of drive , use the drive letter for the CD drive.

To replace NTDETECT.COM, enter
copy drive :i386 \ntdetect.com
In place of drive , use the drive letter for the CD drive.

 

[Guest]

No, I didn't try a System Restore in Safe Mode. I rang up tech support for my
computer manufacturer, and they recommended trying a repair installation,
which I attempted using the provided cd, which just made things worse. The
other alternative they suggested was reformatting the hard drive. (Is there
any way of complaining about the OEM support provided by a manufacturer?)

I can access the original hd from my computer now as a slave, so I'll see if
there are any repairs that could be made.