registry problem.

Well what can I say. It has been a long hard road to recovery. I am not quite
back to the beginning to were I started but I am close. I seem to have a
corrupt DBX file so emails are a bit of a mess. Not sure of the rational of DBX
files. The seem to be more of a land mine for users then a convenice. From what
I gather there doesn't seem to be easy ways to migrate to a new hard drive. In
general I am am disapointed as the backup systems that I relied on seem to have
failed with ME. SCAREG could not be run which was a shock. I could not copy
over a registry from one drive to another.

Jack said it best "system restore" is not a backup tool. It is a sad comment
but true. In general best practises are not obvious or accessable. I am back to
the beginning having learned very little about prevention. If this were to
happen again I am not sure that I could do any better the next time around. In
fact I feel I would most likely be in the same boat.

I am surprised that most if not all who posted here assumed that restoring the
old drive and the installation of a new drive were mutually exclusive. I did
not look at it that way. In fact the restoration of the old drive was
instrumental in my installaation of the new drive. I could not figure out how I
could have gotten everything on the new drive without the old drive.

Mark

Jack E Martinelli wrote:

Mark, I suggest you take at least two days off, to recover emotionally, to
review the many links we have suggested, and to mull your several options.
I suggest you schedule Sunday for your decision, and begin the recovery on
Monday, or later, when we, the unwashed, are most available to aid you
.
You have clear recommendations from Mike M and me to choose the "clean"
install route.
Considering the recent past history of the system, this will certainly
succeed and will afford the most stable, reliable system. If someone you
know has the MS Win9X Update CD from last year, the recovery will proceed
faster. Broadband will definitely help, too. There will be additional
necessary Win Updates. This would be a good time to consider upgrading any
older hardware, too. Esp. a modern, fast HD and IDE controller system. And
if funds permit, 256 MB of ram, or more. Keep in mind about moving the swap
file to a dedicated 2.1 GB partition at the head of a second drive, too.
And as Rick T suggested,
Partition planning
http://www.aumha.org/a/parts.htm
http://badour.freewebsites.com/html/partitions.html
http://www.newlogic.co.uk/kbase/fdisk/page1.htm
http://www2.cajun.net/~theriots/blk/...share_part.htm

Be assured that whatever you decide, we stand ready to aid you in the event
something unexpected happens.
When you have the new system up and running well, repost with a request for
suggestions for backup tools and methods. The value of your system to you
and personal data will drive the best option/s.

As you have learned most grievously, System Restore is not a backup tool.

Best wishes, and don't forget to attend to the other important parts of your
life this weekend,
--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Jack and everyone. I am sorry I have not replied. I have been in meetings
most of the day. I will return to the post in a few hours. Great
suggestions
everyone! thanks

Rick T wrote:

(I'd be inclined to back up info and proggie-install-sets onto the new
drive and do a fresh install onto the old one, but YMMV.)

After removing the new drive, boot from an EBD floppy.

(if you haven't got an EBD floppy, make one in Windows from
ControlPanel/AddRemoveSoftware|StartupDisk then remove the new drive (or
fiddle the master/slave jumpers, whatever works for you... curious, you
have both drives on the same cable?)

A:\ SCANDISK C: (might as well)

A:\ SCANREG /RESTORE
and pick a date from before you tried to update Norton; if none are
available then type

A:\ SCANREG /FIX

There's a possibility you can boot now after removing the diskette.

Rick

(Still to come: booting using progman.exe and running a System Restore..
and if that doesn't work, doing a Refresh Install)

Mark Garron wrote:
I have run into a series of hard drive problems that I have tried to
fix. I could not run scandisk through start up of my system. I came to
the conclusion that my best tactic was to buy a new hard drive and
install a clean install of windows me. I connect the old drive that I
am

having troubles as a slave and booted on the new drive. I ran scan
disk
and this seemed to clean up the problems. I booted on the old hard
drive. I then tried to upgrade my copy of Norton anti virus in order
make sure my problems were not caused by a virus. This did not work .
I
could not install the upgrade. I decided that I better boot the new
hard

drive with the old drive as a slave again. I installed the new version
of Norton anit virus and ran a scan of both my drives. I lot of spy
ware

came up and I deleted all that i could. I then reboot trying to use
the
old drive and could not. I get a windows protection fault. I can not
boot in safe mode either. I would guess that I have problems with the
registry. How can I fix this? I can still boot using the new drive
with
the old drive as a slave. How can I run a diagnoistic and repair on
the
registry of a slave drive? If this can't be done perhaps I should look
at building up a new registry on the new drive.. I do not want to
reinstall all my software as this is very inpractical. What is the
procedure in copying programs over one at a time so that all
components
and keys are installed? I can not boot using a floppy as I don't have
a
floppy drive. Is there any repair feature on the WindowsME install
disk?

Thanks for any help!

Mark

BTW I posted this on another thread but we all got off the subject.

To follow up I have the following further info.

I have run scandisk (in thorough mode) on the the drive.

The drive is 40 MB

the syetem is an IBM 6300-32E

I can boot with the OEM windows install CD to a DOS prompt.

My ultimate goal is for my system to function as it was prior to the
problem.

I am not married to any one solution. If I need to migrate to a new
drive I will but I don't know how to migrate the registry.

If I try to recover the old hard drive(which sounds like the easy way)
I
don't know how to restore my registry to an earier date considering I
can't boot in safe mode.

Please do not suggest I boot in safe mode. I can't boot in safe mode.
This IS THE PROBLEM. IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO BOOT IN SAFE MODE
THEN
I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM.

While I am happy to see that you think you have made some improvements, I
have no clue as to where your "recovery" is now!

your DBX files from OE. See www.insideoe.com, and esp. the "Extract from
DBX" tools to retrieve e-mails from the OE files.

A critical take home lesson here, is to have in-place before they are
needed, real backup tools and images for a successful recovery.This can
include second hard drives, with images, or a "mirrored" partition/s for
reinstallation, or removable media with images. It is best to have
rehearsed a recovery before it is critically necessary.

OTH, copying your current working C: partition to a new HD should have been
almost trivial, using the included tools, or other third-party tools. Just
replacing the original drive with the new one, jumpered correctly, should
have enabled a boot to WinME , just as seen with the original drive.

Since I last spoke with you, Mike Maltby participated in a WinME recovery
which involved extracting a copy of the three registry files, under DOS,
from a RG cab file in the System Restore archive, replacing the damaged
registry files with these copies, and successfully booting to complete the
repair.
Needless to say, this is quite amazing! All without SR or scanreg
/restore !

So, Mark, tell us a little more about your current circumstance, and any
remaining problems.

--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Well what can I say. It has been a long hard road to recovery. I am not
quite
back to the beginning to were I started but I am close. I seem to have a
corrupt DBX file so emails are a bit of a mess. Not sure of the rational
of DBX
files. The seem to be more of a land mine for users then a convenice. From
what
I gather there doesn't seem to be easy ways to migrate to a new hard
drive. In
general I am am disapointed as the backup systems that I relied on seem to
have
failed with ME. SCAREG could not be run which was a shock. I could not
copy
over a registry from one drive to another.

Jack said it best "system restore" is not a backup tool. It is a sad
comment
but true. In general best practises are not obvious or accessable. I am
back to
the beginning having learned very little about prevention. If this were to
happen again I am not sure that I could do any better the next time
around. In
fact I feel I would most likely be in the same boat.

I am surprised that most if not all who posted here assumed that restoring
the
old drive and the installation of a new drive were mutually exclusive. I
did
not look at it that way. In fact the restoration of the old drive was
instrumental in my installaation of the new drive. I could not figure out
how I
could have gotten everything on the new drive without the old drive.

Mark

Jack E Martinelli wrote:

Mark, I suggest you take at least two days off, to recover emotionally,
to
review the many links we have suggested, and to mull your several
options.
I suggest you schedule Sunday for your decision, and begin the recovery
on
Monday, or later, when we, the unwashed, are most available to aid you
.
You have clear recommendations from Mike M and me to choose the "clean"
install route.
Considering the recent past history of the system, this will certainly
succeed and will afford the most stable, reliable system. If someone
you
know has the MS Win9X Update CD from last year, the recovery will
proceed
faster. Broadband will definitely help, too. There will be additional
necessary Win Updates. This would be a good time to consider upgrading
any
older hardware, too. Esp. a modern, fast HD and IDE controller system.
And
if funds permit, 256 MB of ram, or more. Keep in mind about moving the
swap
file to a dedicated 2.1 GB partition at the head of a second drive, too.
And as Rick T suggested,
Partition planning
http://www.aumha.org/a/parts.htm
http://badour.freewebsites.com/html/partitions.html
http://www.newlogic.co.uk/kbase/fdisk/page1.htm
http://www2.cajun.net/~theriots/blk/...share_part.htm

Be assured that whatever you decide, we stand ready to aid you in the
event
something unexpected happens.
When you have the new system up and running well, repost with a request
for
suggestions for backup tools and methods. The value of your system to
you
and personal data will drive the best option/s.

As you have learned most grievously, System Restore is not a backup
tool.

Best wishes, and don't forget to attend to the other important parts of
your
life this weekend,
--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Jack and everyone. I am sorry I have not replied. I have been in
meetings
most of the day. I will return to the post in a few hours. Great
suggestions
everyone! thanks

Rick T wrote:

(I'd be inclined to back up info and proggie-install-sets onto the
new
drive and do a fresh install onto the old one, but YMMV.)

After removing the new drive, boot from an EBD floppy.

(if you haven't got an EBD floppy, make one in Windows from
ControlPanel/AddRemoveSoftware|StartupDisk then remove the new drive
(or
fiddle the master/slave jumpers, whatever works for you... curious,
you
have both drives on the same cable?)

A:\ SCANDISK C: (might as well)

A:\ SCANREG /RESTORE
and pick a date from before you tried to update Norton; if none are
available then type

A:\ SCANREG /FIX

There's a possibility you can boot now after removing the diskette.

Rick

(Still to come: booting using progman.exe and running a System
Restore..
and if that doesn't work, doing a Refresh Install)

Mark Garron wrote:
I have run into a series of hard drive problems that I have tried
to
fix. I could not run scandisk through start up of my system. I
came to
the conclusion that my best tactic was to buy a new hard drive and
install a clean install of windows me. I connect the old drive
that I
am

having troubles as a slave and booted on the new drive. I ran scan
disk
and this seemed to clean up the problems. I booted on the old hard
drive. I then tried to upgrade my copy of Norton anti virus in
order
make sure my problems were not caused by a virus. This did not
work .
I
could not install the upgrade. I decided that I better boot the
new
hard

drive with the old drive as a slave again. I installed the new
version
of Norton anit virus and ran a scan of both my drives. I lot of
spy
ware

came up and I deleted all that i could. I then reboot trying to
use
the
old drive and could not. I get a windows protection fault. I can
not
boot in safe mode either. I would guess that I have problems with
the
registry. How can I fix this? I can still boot using the new drive
with
the old drive as a slave. How can I run a diagnoistic and repair
on
the
registry of a slave drive? If this can't be done perhaps I should
look
at building up a new registry on the new drive.. I do not want to
reinstall all my software as this is very inpractical. What is the
procedure in copying programs over one at a time so that all
components
and keys are installed? I can not boot using a floppy as I don't
have
a
floppy drive. Is there any repair feature on the WindowsME install
disk?

Thanks for any help!

Mark

BTW I posted this on another thread but we all got off the
subject.

To follow up I have the following further info.

I have run scandisk (in thorough mode) on the the drive.

The drive is 40 MB

the syetem is an IBM 6300-32E

I can boot with the OEM windows install CD to a DOS prompt.

My ultimate goal is for my system to function as it was prior to
the
problem.

I am not married to any one solution. If I need to migrate to a
new
drive I will but I don't know how to migrate the registry.

If I try to recover the old hard drive(which sounds like the easy
way)
I
don't know how to restore my registry to an earier date
considering I
can't boot in safe mode.

Please do not suggest I boot in safe mode. I can't boot in safe
mode.
This IS THE PROBLEM. IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO BOOT IN SAFE
MODE
THEN
I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM.

Jack,

you mention...
successful recovery.This can
include second hard drives, with images, or a "mirrored" partition/s for
reinstallation, or removable media with images. It is best to have
rehearsed a recovery before it is critically necessary.

This is makes a lot of sense and I will buy another hard drive (they wre cheap
these days) just for this very purpose.

I am very interested to her what Mike Maltby managed to do. Extracting the
registry cab files is an interesting alternative that in the future might be
tried.

I am in good shape. I have my old drive bootable. This allowed me to get a
clearer idea of how to get the new drive to function. I don't trust the old
drive and it is now retired to the garbage can ( many bad sectors so I assume
it was on it's last legs.) The only thing I am missing are minor inconvenices
such as favorites and of course the dbx file corruption that I mentioned
earlier.



Jack E Martinelli wrote:

While I am happy to see that you think you have made some improvements, I
have no clue as to where your "recovery" is now!

your DBX files from OE. See www.insideoe.com, and esp. the "Extract from
DBX" tools to retrieve e-mails from the OE files.

A critical take home lesson here, is to have in-place before they are
needed, real backup tools and images for a successful recovery.This can
include second hard drives, with images, or a "mirrored" partition/s for
reinstallation, or removable media with images. It is best to have
rehearsed a recovery before it is critically necessary.


OTH, copying your current working C: partition to a new HD should have been
almost trivial, using the included tools, or other third-party tools. Just
replacing the original drive with the new one, jumpered correctly, should
have enabled a boot to WinME , just as seen with the original drive.

Since I last spoke with you, Mike Maltby participated in a WinME recovery
which involved extracting a copy of the three registry files, under DOS,
from a RG cab file in the System Restore archive, replacing the damaged
registry files with these copies, and successfully booting to complete the
repair.
Needless to say, this is quite amazing! All without SR or scanreg
/restore !

So, Mark, tell us a little more about your current circumstance, and any
remaining problems.

--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Well what can I say. It has been a long hard road to recovery. I am not
quite
back to the beginning to were I started but I am close. I seem to have a
corrupt DBX file so emails are a bit of a mess. Not sure of the rational
of DBX
files. The seem to be more of a land mine for users then a convenice. From
what
I gather there doesn't seem to be easy ways to migrate to a new hard
drive. In
general I am am disapointed as the backup systems that I relied on seem to
have
failed with ME. SCAREG could not be run which was a shock. I could not
copy
over a registry from one drive to another.

Jack said it best "system restore" is not a backup tool. It is a sad
comment
but true. In general best practises are not obvious or accessable. I am
back to
the beginning having learned very little about prevention. If this were to
happen again I am not sure that I could do any better the next time
around. In
fact I feel I would most likely be in the same boat.

I am surprised that most if not all who posted here assumed that restoring
the
old drive and the installation of a new drive were mutually exclusive. I
did
not look at it that way. In fact the restoration of the old drive was
instrumental in my installaation of the new drive. I could not figure out
how I
could have gotten everything on the new drive without the old drive.

Mark

Jack E Martinelli wrote:

Mark, I suggest you take at least two days off, to recover emotionally,
to
review the many links we have suggested, and to mull your several
options.
I suggest you schedule Sunday for your decision, and begin the recovery
on
Monday, or later, when we, the unwashed, are most available to aid you
.
You have clear recommendations from Mike M and me to choose the "clean"
install route.
Considering the recent past history of the system, this will certainly
succeed and will afford the most stable, reliable system. If someone
you
know has the MS Win9X Update CD from last year, the recovery will
proceed
faster. Broadband will definitely help, too. There will be additional
necessary Win Updates. This would be a good time to consider upgrading
any
older hardware, too. Esp. a modern, fast HD and IDE controller system.
And
if funds permit, 256 MB of ram, or more. Keep in mind about moving the
swap
file to a dedicated 2.1 GB partition at the head of a second drive, too.
And as Rick T suggested,
Partition planning
http://www.aumha.org/a/parts.htm
http://badour.freewebsites.com/html/partitions.html
http://www.newlogic.co.uk/kbase/fdisk/page1.htm
http://www2.cajun.net/~theriots/blk/...share_part.htm

Be assured that whatever you decide, we stand ready to aid you in the
event
something unexpected happens.
When you have the new system up and running well, repost with a request
for
suggestions for backup tools and methods. The value of your system to
you
and personal data will drive the best option/s.

As you have learned most grievously, System Restore is not a backup
tool.

Best wishes, and don't forget to attend to the other important parts of
your
life this weekend,
--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Jack and everyone. I am sorry I have not replied. I have been in
meetings
most of the day. I will return to the post in a few hours. Great
suggestions
everyone! thanks

Rick T wrote:

(I'd be inclined to back up info and proggie-install-sets onto the
new
drive and do a fresh install onto the old one, but YMMV.)

After removing the new drive, boot from an EBD floppy.

(if you haven't got an EBD floppy, make one in Windows from
ControlPanel/AddRemoveSoftware|StartupDisk then remove the new drive
(or
fiddle the master/slave jumpers, whatever works for you... curious,
you
have both drives on the same cable?)

A:\ SCANDISK C: (might as well)

A:\ SCANREG /RESTORE
and pick a date from before you tried to update Norton; if none are
available then type

A:\ SCANREG /FIX

There's a possibility you can boot now after removing the diskette.

Rick

(Still to come: booting using progman.exe and running a System
Restore..
and if that doesn't work, doing a Refresh Install)

Mark Garron wrote:
I have run into a series of hard drive problems that I have tried
to
fix. I could not run scandisk through start up of my system. I
came to
the conclusion that my best tactic was to buy a new hard drive and
install a clean install of windows me. I connect the old drive
that I
am

having troubles as a slave and booted on the new drive. I ran scan
disk
and this seemed to clean up the problems. I booted on the old hard
drive. I then tried to upgrade my copy of Norton anti virus in
order
make sure my problems were not caused by a virus. This did not
work .
I
could not install the upgrade. I decided that I better boot the
new
hard

drive with the old drive as a slave again. I installed the new
version
of Norton anit virus and ran a scan of both my drives. I lot of
spy
ware

came up and I deleted all that i could. I then reboot trying to
use
the
old drive and could not. I get a windows protection fault. I can
not
boot in safe mode either. I would guess that I have problems with
the
registry. How can I fix this? I can still boot using the new drive
with
the old drive as a slave. How can I run a diagnoistic and repair
on
the
registry of a slave drive? If this can't be done perhaps I should
look
at building up a new registry on the new drive.. I do not want to
reinstall all my software as this is very inpractical. What is the
procedure in copying programs over one at a time so that all
components
and keys are installed? I can not boot using a floppy as I don't
have
a
floppy drive. Is there any repair feature on the WindowsME install
disk?

Thanks for any help!

Mark

BTW I posted this on another thread but we all got off the
subject.

To follow up I have the following further info.

I have run scandisk (in thorough mode) on the the drive.

The drive is 40 MB

the syetem is an IBM 6300-32E

I can boot with the OEM windows install CD to a DOS prompt.

My ultimate goal is for my system to function as it was prior to
the
problem.

I am not married to any one solution. If I need to migrate to a
new
drive I will but I don't know how to migrate the registry.

If I try to recover the old hard drive(which sounds like the easy
way)
I
don't know how to restore my registry to an earier date
considering I
can't boot in safe mode.

Please do not suggest I boot in safe mode. I can't boot in safe
mode.
This IS THE PROBLEM. IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO BOOT IN SAFE
MODE
THEN
I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM.

Well, that is very good news indeed. Congratulations!

If your old HD was repeatedly throwing bad sector errors, you can be sure it
was dying --- and you are very lucky to have got out as well as you did.

Post back with your new thoughts about a backup system, and see what the
other gurus think about the options.
When money is no object, a RAID array is superb.
http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...hdd/perf/raid/

I leave it to Mike Maltby to tell his very interesting WinME registry
recovery story, as only he can! I'm still shaking my head in wonder at the
good luck.
--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Jack,

you mention...
successful recovery.This can
include second hard drives, with images, or a "mirrored" partition/s for
reinstallation, or removable media with images. It is best to have
rehearsed a recovery before it is critically necessary.

This is makes a lot of sense and I will buy another hard drive (they wre
cheap
these days) just for this very purpose.

I am very interested to her what Mike Maltby managed to do. Extracting the
registry cab files is an interesting alternative that in the future might
be
tried.

I am in good shape. I have my old drive bootable. This allowed me to get a
clearer idea of how to get the new drive to function. I don't trust the
old
drive and it is now retired to the garbage can ( many bad sectors so I
assume
it was on it's last legs.) The only thing I am missing are minor
inconvenices
such as favorites and of course the dbx file corruption that I mentioned
earlier.



Jack E Martinelli wrote:

While I am happy to see that you think you have made some improvements,
I
have no clue as to where your "recovery" is now!

your DBX files from OE. See www.insideoe.com, and esp. the "Extract
from
DBX" tools to retrieve e-mails from the OE files.

A critical take home lesson here, is to have in-place before they are
needed, real backup tools and images for a successful recovery.This can
include second hard drives, with images, or a "mirrored" partition/s for
reinstallation, or removable media with images. It is best to have
rehearsed a recovery before it is critically necessary.


OTH, copying your current working C: partition to a new HD should have
been
almost trivial, using the included tools, or other third-party tools.
Just
replacing the original drive with the new one, jumpered correctly,
should
have enabled a boot to WinME , just as seen with the original drive.

Since I last spoke with you, Mike Maltby participated in a WinME
recovery
which involved extracting a copy of the three registry files, under DOS,
from a RG cab file in the System Restore archive, replacing the damaged
registry files with these copies, and successfully booting to complete
the
repair.
Needless to say, this is quite amazing! All without SR or scanreg
/restore !

So, Mark, tell us a little more about your current circumstance, and any
remaining problems.

--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Well what can I say. It has been a long hard road to recovery. I am
not
quite
back to the beginning to were I started but I am close. I seem to have
a
corrupt DBX file so emails are a bit of a mess. Not sure of the
rational
of DBX
files. The seem to be more of a land mine for users then a convenice.
From
what
I gather there doesn't seem to be easy ways to migrate to a new hard
drive. In
general I am am disapointed as the backup systems that I relied on
seem to
have
failed with ME. SCAREG could not be run which was a shock. I could not
copy
over a registry from one drive to another.

Jack said it best "system restore" is not a backup tool. It is a sad
comment
but true. In general best practises are not obvious or accessable. I
am
back to
the beginning having learned very little about prevention. If this
were to
happen again I am not sure that I could do any better the next time
around. In
fact I feel I would most likely be in the same boat.

I am surprised that most if not all who posted here assumed that
restoring
the
old drive and the installation of a new drive were mutually exclusive.
I
did
not look at it that way. In fact the restoration of the old drive was
instrumental in my installaation of the new drive. I could not figure
out
how I
could have gotten everything on the new drive without the old drive.

Mark

Jack E Martinelli wrote:

Mark, I suggest you take at least two days off, to recover
emotionally,
to
review the many links we have suggested, and to mull your several
options.
I suggest you schedule Sunday for your decision, and begin the
recovery
on
Monday, or later, when we, the unwashed, are most available to aid
you
.
You have clear recommendations from Mike M and me to choose the
"clean"
install route.
Considering the recent past history of the system, this will
certainly
succeed and will afford the most stable, reliable system. If
someone
you
know has the MS Win9X Update CD from last year, the recovery will
proceed
faster. Broadband will definitely help, too. There will be
additional
necessary Win Updates. This would be a good time to consider
upgrading
any
older hardware, too. Esp. a modern, fast HD and IDE controller
system.
And
if funds permit, 256 MB of ram, or more. Keep in mind about moving
the
swap
file to a dedicated 2.1 GB partition at the head of a second drive,
too.
And as Rick T suggested,
Partition planning
http://www.aumha.org/a/parts.htm
http://badour.freewebsites.com/html/partitions.html
http://www.newlogic.co.uk/kbase/fdisk/page1.htm
http://www2.cajun.net/~theriots/blk/...share_part.htm

Be assured that whatever you decide, we stand ready to aid you in
the
event
something unexpected happens.
When you have the new system up and running well, repost with a
request
for
suggestions for backup tools and methods. The value of your system
to
you
and personal data will drive the best option/s.

As you have learned most grievously, System Restore is not a backup
tool.

Best wishes, and don't forget to attend to the other important parts
of
your
life this weekend,
--
Jack E. Martinelli 2002-05 MS MVP for Shell/User / DTS
Help us help you: http://www.dts-L.org/goodpost.htm
In Memorium: Alex Nichol

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...ts/nichol.mspx
Your cooperation is very appreciated.
------
"Mark Garron" wrote in message
...
Jack and everyone. I am sorry I have not replied. I have been in
meetings
most of the day. I will return to the post in a few hours. Great
suggestions
everyone! thanks

Rick T wrote:

(I'd be inclined to back up info and proggie-install-sets onto
the
new
drive and do a fresh install onto the old one, but YMMV.)

After removing the new drive, boot from an EBD floppy.

(if you haven't got an EBD floppy, make one in Windows from
ControlPanel/AddRemoveSoftware|StartupDisk then remove the new
drive
(or
fiddle the master/slave jumpers, whatever works for you...
curious,
you
have both drives on the same cable?)

A:\ SCANDISK C: (might as well)

A:\ SCANREG /RESTORE
and pick a date from before you tried to update Norton; if none
are
available then type

A:\ SCANREG /FIX

There's a possibility you can boot now after removing the
diskette.

Rick

(Still to come: booting using progman.exe and running a System
Restore..
and if that doesn't work, doing a Refresh Install)

Mark Garron wrote:
I have run into a series of hard drive problems that I have
tried
to
fix. I could not run scandisk through start up of my system. I
came to
the conclusion that my best tactic was to buy a new hard drive
and
install a clean install of windows me. I connect the old drive
that I
am

having troubles as a slave and booted on the new drive. I ran
scan
disk
and this seemed to clean up the problems. I booted on the old
hard
drive. I then tried to upgrade my copy of Norton anti virus in
order
make sure my problems were not caused by a virus. This did not
work .
I
could not install the upgrade. I decided that I better boot
the
new
hard

drive with the old drive as a slave again. I installed the new
version
of Norton anit virus and ran a scan of both my drives. I lot
of
spy
ware

came up and I deleted all that i could. I then reboot trying
to
use
the
old drive and could not. I get a windows protection fault. I
can
not
boot in safe mode either. I would guess that I have problems
with
the
registry. How can I fix this? I can still boot using the new
drive
with
the old drive as a slave. How can I run a diagnoistic and
repair
on
the
registry of a slave drive? If this can't be done perhaps I
should
look
at building up a new registry on the new drive.. I do not want
to
reinstall all my software as this is very inpractical. What is
the
procedure in copying programs over one at a time so that all
components
and keys are installed? I can not boot using a floppy as I
don't
have
a
floppy drive. Is there any repair feature on the WindowsME
install
disk?

Thanks for any help!

Mark

BTW I posted this on another thread but we all got off the
subject.

To follow up I have the following further info.

I have run scandisk (in thorough mode) on the the drive.

The drive is 40 MB

the syetem is an IBM 6300-32E

I can boot with the OEM windows install CD to a DOS prompt.

My ultimate goal is for my system to function as it was prior
to
the
problem.

I am not married to any one solution. If I need to migrate to
a
new
drive I will but I don't know how to migrate the registry.

If I try to recover the old hard drive(which sounds like the
easy
way)
I
don't know how to restore my registry to an earier date
considering I
can't boot in safe mode.

Please do not suggest I boot in safe mode. I can't boot in
safe
mode.
This IS THE PROBLEM. IF I COULD FIGURE OUT HOW TO BOOT IN SAFE
MODE
THEN
I WOULD HAVE NO PROBLEM.