Salvaging An Old Registry...


Loubear

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Ok. I get it, I'm lazy as hell... Thus I decided to go ask for help here... So it turns out that somehow, zonealarm fubared my chkdsk and gave me this repeating loop of chkdsk then bsod, the chkdsk and so on. Now, I installed a new installation of windows, and I want to get the old program registry entries back. Is that possible from a parallel installation? If it's not, screw it all, from experience, I know how to pass file permissions through safe mode...
 
Loubear posted on Aug 18 2006 at 03:43 AM said:
Ok. I get it, I'm lazy as hell... Thus I decided to go ask for help here... So it turns out that somehow, zonealarm fubared my chkdsk and gave me this repeating loop of chkdsk then bsod, the chkdsk and so on. Now, I installed a new installation of windows, and I want to get the old program registry entries back. Is that possible from a parallel installation? If it's not, screw it all, from experience, I know how to pass file permissions through safe mode...
Okay yes it may possible, but not sure if it will work 100%. I am taking no responsibility for your system here, if you screw it up, it's your fault.

I'm assuming you are running Windows XP Pro here, so here goes:

First of all you will need to show all files and protected system files. To do this, open My Computer, click the Tools tab then select Folder options. Click the View tab and click the Show hidden files and folders radio button. Then untick the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) option. After you have finished, you can hide the protected OS files again. While you are in this section, you should scroll down to the bottom of this list, and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended). If you don't do this, you will not be able to gain access to change NTFS Permissions, and we need to do this on some things later.....

By the way, if you don't see the Use Simple File sharing option, then you are probably running XP Home, and you might just as well forget it. It is possible to do this in a command prompt using subinacl, but I'm really not going to go into all that.

Assuming you have XP Pro and have just done all the above, please continue.

Your current registry is held in a folder called c:\windows\system32\config, the reg file you are interested in is called software. Firstly I would back this file up to another location so you can copy it back if you mess up.

You now need to locate a good copy of you original registry. Windows backs up your reg files automatically to a folder called c:\System Volume Information. But in your instance it will be on another drive, i.e. your parallel installation. I'm going to assume this is drive D: but you should replace D: with your parallel drive letter. Because of NT permissions you will not be allowed to gain access to the System Volume Information folder until you have taken ownership. To do this, right click D:\System Volume Information and click Sharing and Security. Click the Security tab then Advanced, and then Owner. check the Replace owner on subcontainer and objects option, and then click Apply, and then Yes. You should now have ownership of the System Volume Information folder on your parallel installation. All you got to do now is locate the correct old reg file. Read on...

Within the System Volume Information folder there will be one or more folders called something like:
_restore{C734E4CB-0141-429A-9AA0-AC0ED4F3C31E}
Open the newest dated folder, to see the folder dates click the View drop down list and select Details.

You will probably see a multitude of folders starting with RP, these are all the restore points, you can recover the software file from the one of these folders, chose the one dated before your system screwed up. The same as before, view the folder in Details mode.

Open the SNAPSHOT folder.

Copy the file _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE from the SNAPSHOT folder to the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder. Then rename the _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE file in the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder to SOFTWARE.

If you did all the above, you should now have copied the old software section of registry into the new XP build. Reboot and good luck :).
 
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I think the XP install disc gives you the option of doing an "Upgrade Install". It reinstalls Windows but keeps your old configuration and software.
 
Blah posted on Aug 18 2006 at 11:29 PM said:
I think the XP install disc gives you the option of doing an "Upgrade Install". It reinstalls Windows but keeps your old configuration and software.
You are indeed correct, but it also has a tendency for keeping bad bits of the system registry and corrupted software, so it doesn't always work. :(
 
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WarmFluffyUK posted on Aug 19 2006 at 09:31 AM said:
Blah posted on Aug 18 2006 at 11:29 PM said:
I think the XP install disc gives you the option of doing an "Upgrade Install". It reinstalls Windows but keeps your old configuration and software.
You are indeed correct, but it also has a tendency for keeping bad bits of the system registry and corrupted software, so it doesn't always work. :(
Yeah, I have had some really screwed up things happening to me with stuff like that. I once ended up with loads of stuff duplicated and pointing to the wrong locations etc...
 
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