---------- > From: Nick Arnett <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Ugh. I just had a laptop fail and I've copied its drive onto a different > machine, so I'm facing some of the same ugliness. > > There's no good way to fix the registry, in my experience (and I have far > too much). If you don't have very many things installed (unlikely), you > could go through the painful and tedious process of copying the application > keys from the old registry (if you can open it) into the new one, then > swapping as you suggest. But without the application keys, swapping it will > just make your life miserable. And it won't know where the correct Windows > directory is, so you'd have to fix that in the registry. > > You could try and find a registry tool that would tell you the differences > between your new one and the old one, so you could decide what to copy.
He would be lost trying to do that. The only important keys in this case anyway would be under hkey_current_user.software and hkey_local_machine.software, avoiding the mircrosoft subkey. Even then it would be painful, things wouldn't be right, and would still be simpler to just reinstall all the programs from scratch. The real problem is that some programs like to install stealth GUIDs that are hard to pin down. > You can export a whole registry tree at a time, so it's not really, really > horrible. Just really. > > It probably can't find drivers because there's an incorrect registry key > telling it where to look for them. The registry is an abomination, by the > way. No. The new install / registry would have no information about non-default microsoft supplied drivers. These are ussually contained in the windows/inf directory, AND some bits in the registry. > > You're certain you don't have the registry backed up somewhere? > > Nick > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > > Behalf Of Ronn Blankenship > > Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 2:31 PM > > To: Brin-L > > Subject: Irregulars Question -- Win 98 Registry Problem > > > > > > Hi, you experts . . . > > > > Over the weekend, my Win 98 machine refused to boot. It reported a > > registry problem, and SCANREG did not fix it. A friend of mine > > locally who > > does this kind of thing for a living said I needed to reinstall Win 98 to > > correct the problem. Numerous attempts to reinstall it from the > > .CAB files > > in the C:\WIN98 directory to the C:\WINDOWS directory all resulted in the > > message: > > > > "Message SU995028 > > Setup encountered an error while creating registry keys. If the problem > > persists, you will not be able to upgrade but should install > > Windows 98 to > > a new directory. (0x13a4)" > > > > Finally, I took its advice and created a new directory and installed it > > there. Not only does that mean that I will have to reinstall all the > > software before it can work, but for some reason it cannot find > > any of the > > proper drivers: for example, it refuses to let the monitor show anything > > but 16 colors, 640x480 resolution. > > > > What I would like to do, of course, is to get back to where I was > > last week > > or so, without the impending registry problem. I have exhausted my store > > of ideas on what to try (and my friend is not currently available and I > > don't want to keep bothering him for free advice, anyway), so I > > got my old > > Win 95 machine running (or at least walking) so I could ask for help. > > > > Is there some way I can do something like copy the registry file from the > > new directory into the old C:\WINDOWS directory, then try reinstalling > > there again with any hope of success? Or is there something else > > I can try? > > > > Thanks,
