FUBAR'd XP, can i save registry/settings?

F

frag85

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 31, 2004
Messages
354
recently, i was getting dx9 errors, the same problem i've had 3x in the past, so i go about reinstalling dx9 like i did... 3x before. i used the dx 8.1 installler, and then run the DX9 installer, problem fixed. i have also done this on many other computers other than my own, and it has always worked.

after trying this, i found that you cannot do this when SP2 is installed. when i went to reinstall dx9, it says its installed, and after some searching around google, i found that sp2 does not allow you to do this. i backed up C, uninstalle sp2 and now windows and safemode wont boot, i've heard that you aren't supposed to uninstall sp2(b/c of the headache if it doesn't work), but this is what many websites said to do for reinstalling dx9 on a SP2 machine. i tried restoring drive C (appears drive D in the computer i put the drive in to restore C) and nothing... any suggestions?

i just don't want to have to reconfigure everything, i keep all my other non-OS files on other drives, but its a pain to reinstall a few dozen gigs of programs and reconfiguring xp the way i had it before. from the backed up C drive, is there a way i can get the registry, drivers ect...?
 
Yes and no. In this case you wouldn't want to restore the entire FUBAR'ed registry, so manually picking and choosing which keys that you would want to restore would be a fool's errand. It is possible, but to get it right you'll need a lot more time, knowledge, and luck than you, I, or anyone here likely has. I'd focus more on preserving the user profile information. It's possible that your user settings and user registry are both just fine. But in any event I'd say that short of a miracle you're going to have to do some reinstalling of applications if you find that you must reinstall Windows.

Of course that's not to say that you've exhausted all possible ways of recovering from your current situation without reinstalling the OS. If you can revive the existing installation somehow and roll forward to SP2 again then you might be in the clear. I have no good suggestions on how to do that however.
 
i'm managed to extract the backup, but i cannot get it to boot to the restored data. but with the drive in another machine, i can see all the data just fine, what about just reinstall windows, and moving over the whole registry, wouldn't that work if just some system file was currupted/lost when uninstalling sp2 before?
 
frag85 said:
i'm managed to extract the backup, but i cannot get it to boot to the restored data. but with the drive in another machine, i can see all the data just fine, what about just reinstall windows, and moving over the whole registry, wouldn't that work if just some system file was currupted/lost when uninstalling sp2 before?
Click to expand...

That would work if the only problem is file versions. I am making the assumption that the registry itself is suspect after having been rolled forward and back unsuccsessfully. What the hell though? Might as well give it a shot.
 
ya, anythings better than nothing, its just going to end up taking days to reformat this computer. i did it a year ago, took most of 2 days one weekend, and most of the day i had off the following week, then it took more hours than i'd like to count to reconfigure everything to the way i had it before... i hate reformats.
 
Do a repair install. Slipstream SP2 into your XP CD, and do a repair install. It will replace all the files and the pertitant registry keys so your machine will be like new again.
 
i ened up just reinstalling (whiping C drive). since i had most if not all of my programs on drive F: all i have to do is instert the cd's, and the install only takes about 30 seconds since the files are already on the HDD. the only thing that sucked was gettingthe new install to where my original install was for settings, apperence ect...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top