Reformat--Start Menu--Programs

[ray4389]

First off I have 2 160gb ahrdrives and everything will fit on one or at least eveyrhting I care aobut will.

Ok when I go to upgrad my comp I will of course reformat. However When I got to do that I will have programs on my HD but the registries and crap will be goena nd they will no longer be in the start up menu. How do I put them back in the start menu thing where they are put automatically when installed. I knwo this sounds noobish but I never had to worry about this b/c my info always got earsed b/c of only aving 1 HD.

 

[4keatimj]

The only way to do that is to re-install the programs. When you reformat the Windows drive, you lose all of the registry settings as you mentioned, so the programs won't run properly in the first place.

The Start Menu items are actually shortcuts stoed in the folder C:\Documents and Settings\(your user name)\Start Menu\Programs. Just create new folders and new shortcuts for the programs in that directory and you will have your menu items back... but again, reformatting the Windows drive will lose your registry entries, so you will need to re-install the programs (to put their registry keys in) once Windows has been installed anyway to allow your programs to work.