?? about creating ghost image

[rage4order]

My brother is having trouble when he boots up his laptop- he gets the "\windows\system32\config file is corrupt or missing" error. I've messed with it and decided the best thing would probably be just to do a fresh install. He's got a lot of data and programs on his hd so I want to save all that. My question is, if I create a ghost image and then put it all back onto the hd after the install, will I just wind up with the same problem I'm trying to fix?

[yamahaSHO]

If you're wanting to start fresh and you have a spare HDD, just use the spare to load the OS then pop in the HDD with your files and transfer them over. If you have another computer, just install the HDD and pull your files off from there.

[rage4order]

Don't have a spare HDD but what I did was pulled his HDD from the laptop and put it into an external case I have. Then, I was gonna save all his data to my pc and install the OS back onto his HDD. What I'm trying to avoid is him having to re-install all his software and thought I could do that by creating a ghost image.

[yamahaSHO]

If you image the drive, you're creating and exact image of what's there... You'll be stuck in the exact same spot as you are in now.

[rage4order]

If you image the drive, you're creating and exact image of what's there... You'll be stuck in the exact same spot as you are in now.
Ok, that's what I was afraid of. I guess I'll just have to go to my original plan and backup his data to my pc and then just move it back after the install.
Thanks for the help.

[enginurd]

Try a repair install first. Proceed as if it were a regular installation. Setup will ask you where to install to, and just give it the same partition with the existing OS. Setup should detect this old installation and ask if you'd like to repair it. Proceed by hitting "R" and see if that solves his problems. If so, then he won't have to reinstall any programs or reload all his backed up data from your system. However, perform the backup in case the repair doesn't work. ;)

[rage4order]

Try a repair install first. Proceed as if it were a regular installation. Setup will ask you where to install to, and just give it the same partition with the existing OS. Setup should detect this old installation and ask if you'd like to repair it. Proceed by hitting "R" and see if that solves his problems. If so, then he won't have to reinstall any programs or reload all his backed up data from your system. However, perform the backup in case the repair doesn't work. ;)
I'll try that. I'm just about done backing up his hard drive so I'll go ahead and try a repair on it next.

[DeaconFrost]

Yeah, the repair install should be the first thing to try. That usually fixes an issue like this.

[rage4order]

Try a repair install first. Proceed as if it were a regular installation. Setup will ask you where to install to, and just give it the same partition with the existing OS. Setup should detect this old installation and ask if you'd like to repair it. Proceed by hitting "R" and see if that solves his problems. If so, then he won't have to reinstall any programs or reload all his backed up data from your system. However, perform the backup in case the repair doesn't work. ;)
I tried this and when I go to install XP, it says that it can't find a previous version of Windows installed.

[DeaconFrost]

If your brother's laptop is using an SATA hard drive, and it is set to AHCI, instead of mative IDE mode, you may have to load drivers from a floppy.

[enginurd]

Does setup detect the HDD? If not, do what DeaconFrost mentioned. If it does, then either you didn't choose the right partition or the OS Installation is so screwed up Setup couldn't detect it. :p ... in which case you'll need a new install... for which I'd suggest formatting the system.