Preparation for Reformat, and ?'s about afterwards...

[kisk]

I'm fixing to reformat and reinstall WindowsXP SP1...

The way I have it setup now is I have two drives -- the first drive is a 90gb used for the OS and misc program files. The second drive is 120gb and for downloads/backup purposes.

Instead of erasing my main OS drive (the 90gb), I plan to erase my backup drive and us it as the new main drive... I'll wipe the backup drive (the 120gb), then reinstall XP onto it and setup the old main drive (the 90gb) as my secondary so I can pull program data from it onto the newly installed OS drive.

My question is:
Once I switch the drives and have the new OS running from the new drive, are there any programs out there I can use to access the registry from the original drive (the 90gb)? Obviously I'll need to pull a good bit of data, including keys from within the old registry, from the old drive. What's available?

Any other suggestions or cautions I should consider before I start the switch?

Thanks much!
kisk

 

[bcastner]

Two thoughts:

. You want to clean the second drive, and then clone the first drive to it. Then change jumpers, etc. so that all references to the original drive C now are aimed at the "new" boot and system drive. Nearly all of the drive manufacturers offer a utility/diagnostic download that allows you to create a boot floppy. This will include usually among other things a utility to image your first drive to the second. It will also allow you to clean and prepare the second drive for the image of your first drive. There are excellent third-party tools as well, from Symantec and Acronis to name two.

. There are utilities available to pull the registry information from what was your first drive, and is now your second drive. But if you image the drive you have no need to use anything like this. I can think of lots of reasons to forget about the old registry images on the original "first" hard disk drive. It is not a backup for you in any practical sense. Use:

http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/

when all is sorted.

. But yes there are third-party tools that would allow access to the registry hives on the non-active, non-boot, non-system volume. google "windows registry repair utilities" I use this, and it does what it claims to, but there are other options:

http://www.registrytool.com/features.htm

 

[kisk]

One thought I had would be to setup a dual boot... one for the new drive and one for the old, and keep my old OS and drive untouched. Now I know you can setup dual boots from separate partitions on the same master drive, but can you have a dual boot from two separate drives, master & slave?

If I could do this then if I needed anything from the old drive I could simply restart, reboot to the old OS, and easily find data I need like program keys and such.

 

[bcastner]

The preferred method is to have the dual boot on two different partitions, or two different hard disk drives. You should have no problems.