Re: Unable to install Operating System--RESOLVED!

G'day all;

"wayfarrer" <dontbother@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OjFWxIOQFHA.3336@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I assume you're saying you have the old and new HDDs installed on the same
>box.
Yep.

> If so, are they setup as dual-boot? If so, boot to the old HDD, snap a
> picture,
No. But that's an interesting thought. What I have is my old "E:"
drive--as the "E:" drive in this newly rebuilt system. I used it as a
repository for source files, backups, copies of things I want to be certain
to preserve and so on. The C: drive is new and clean.

But you've given me a good idea. When all of this is finally done and
finished, I think I'm going to setup the current "E:" drive as the default
boot drive, and load XP on it as well. Then I'll set it back to being my
"E:" drive (which I use compressed as a backup repository) again. Then,
should this ever happen again, I'll have a ready to use drive that I can
simply pop-in and go...

Just before the mobo blew up, I made a couple of backups: a full backup via
the built-in BU routine, a backup of OE using "Tomsterdam's" 'Freebie OE
BU", and a direct bit-for-bit copy of the "Documents and Settings" folder.
I burned the fullBU onto CD as well.

The problem is, I deleted a lot of things that I'd installed over the
previous years. So just blindly reinstalling the desktop will yield a
truck-load of broken links. Besides, I started this process because
something had snuck in and was stretching my boot sequence. And I can't
think of a good reason to intentionally reinstall the possibility of
"finding" that little "feature" straight off a BU again...(:-o)!

It was during the pursuit of that little monster that the built-in IDE
control logic on my mobo went south--that was what ended up giving me the
"Drive read error". I suspect some timing aspect changed as some component
in the drive logic on the mobo "aged". In the process of troubleshooting
*that*, I took ever more drastic actions on my HDD until finally it was
wiped and formatted. So getting anything off of it is impossible. Since I
don't backup program files (and sadly neglected to keep installation modules
of some of the various tools I've acquired over the years), I have a lot of
links and data chunks that go to software that probably no longer
exists--not to mention a wealth of registry entries. And I'm loath to put
that back onto my system.

I got my eMail across, but am still knee-deep in recreating new accounts and
rules. What a tedious and shitty job! I wish MS would make some way to
hard save that kind of info...

> burn it to a CD disc, etc....well, you can figure out the rest.
>
> If no dual boot....swap 'um and go from there.
>
> To successfully make the transfers that you're asking for, you'll have to
> extract from an active drive, since some of these settings are from the
> registry. Refer to the supplemental link that I cited previously. It
> contains
Yeah. I know. OE is pretty well done, my documents have been copied over,
my various web sites have been copied, and by this PM my desktop s/b done as
well. Like I said, a tedious and crappy job...<big sigh!>

L8r all,
DustyB
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