I have a crippled XP installation that can't be fixed. It can only be worked around and I'm tired of it. I've decided to get a new hard drive and install from the CD. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how (or if) I can copy some of the files from the original hard drive so that I can have the SP2 setup I have now and also use the various programs I have without having to reinstall them all. So what I'm asking is, is there a magic directory (ok ok FOLDER) somewhere that I can copy to the new drive to save myself some time and effort in getting to the installation I have now....sans the problems plaguing this disk drive?

The problem(s) I have are quirky and manifold, but the drive is accessible (as you can see since I'm running off it right now).

The programs you should reinstall when you get the new copy installed. You won't be able to do that because of registry issues and you probably don't want to copy the registry over because there are probably a lot of problem in that part of your system too. Is there a reason for a new hard drive? If there is nothing wrong with the old one you can just reformat and reinstall XP onto that. Otherwise for files you could create a secondary partition that would hold the info, but that would depend on if you're getting a new one (easily possible then) or if you just reformat the old one (might not be possible). When I reformat, I use my USB flash drive and store all of my data on there and then I also create a CD backup for extra protection, just in case.

Hope this helps,
Adam

have u tried repairing the current installation at bootup?

Thanks for your thoughts. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to trust the old registry and you verified that. Does anybody have any suggestions on getting the SP2 stuff off the old drive? I'm hoping to avoid a long automatic upgrade process from microsoft.

As to the drive itself, it appears to be fine. The reason for the second drive is to save all the stuff on the old drive. But since it's likely to be faster, I figure I'll just make it the master drive and use the original drive as a slave just to save some copying....as long as I can't just copy programs across it seems like a good plan.

One thing I forgot to ask is about partitions. It seems to me it would be a good idea to have windows in it's own logical drive. What's the thinking on that?

Oh brother have I ever. No joy whatsoever. Whatever happened to it, Windows isn't able to fix it. Chkdsk returns an "unspecified error".

here for a slipstreamed setup disc:

Create A Bootable/Slipstreamed Windows XP Installation CD

If you install your OS on one partition-- and put your "personal/critical files on another... if you have a system crash-- you can reinstall without damaging your other files.
NOTE: Once size is set/installed-- they cannot be changed

That looks like just what I need.