[MrPink]

I thought I'd use the recent release of vista service pack 2 as an excuse to do a complete reinstall of vista. No real reason for it i guess, but I hear these things are good to do every once in a while.

My question is, I have files across 3 hard drives; windows and basic programs on one, games on another, and multimedia on the last. In order to save me the trouble of reinstalling/redownloading (steam) all my games, I wasn't going to reformat that drive. However, won't the games be missing from the windows registry after the reinstall? I could always add the .exe's to the 'games' folder myself, but I'm worried about my new windows installation not 'knowing' these games are on the other drive, since they would be missing from the registry.

I know I'm not the first person to split stuff across multiple hard drives, then wanted to reinstall windows. Any and all help appreciated

EDIT: I've been reading up on splitting games to other hard drives, and in many cases people agree it doesn't make much a difference performance-wise. While I see no reason to reformat my multimedia drive, I guess I'm open to any suggestions as to how to setup my two 250gb drives (raid, partition, etc.). I've tried a RAID once before, but it ended up failing; if you do suggest a RAID, maybe give some tips on setup or useage to ensure it doesn't fail?

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

reinstall's fail. if i want my fresh install speed back i just uninstall my AV, copy my drive from one to another then back again and do a defrag.

Windows (XP atleast) is at the login screen before the load scroller finishes one pass

I don't recommend raid actually..... the speed isn't worth the risk of failure especially for mobo based raids.

if you installed a dedicated raid controller it'd be better

 

[MrPink]

Haha, that's some impressive boot speed. I don't think I could achieve that with Vista, unfortunately.

What good does copying your install from one drive to another, then back again, do?

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

well i usually format the first drive before copying back, so the MFT is rebuilt, im not sure how it works exactly, but even without the defrag its booted to the login screen before 1 pass finishes.

 

[MrPink]

Hm, well I have diskeeper which defrags the mft to some extent, so that should be enough I think.

Also though, I was wondering how I can get 'my documents' location moved to another hard drive besides the primary. In Vista, it's called the "(your name here)" folder, but the file path is C:/users/your_name_here

Is it just enough to copy the "Josh" folder to the hard drive I want it located on? Or is there some other configuration needed?

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

How To Move My Documents Folder To A Different Drive

 

[MrPink]

Thanks. Done, and happy with my documents safely on another drive.

 

[GCFreak]

Only go with a RAID if its a hardware RAID (ie moderately expensive dedicated RAID card) and if you're under Linux, software RAID is a better option than FAKERAID (RAID built into your motherboard). With a FAKERAID, you're only putting your data at risk and you get reduced CPU resources and disk speed.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

MrPink why the hell do you use Windows Vista anyway???Vista is SUPER MEMORY HUNGRY operating system lol.What's wrong with Windows XP?

Anyway if you are worried about the games registry,you can copy ALL the registry files on your other HDD or other partition or anywhere you want.
The registry files are in the folder called "config" which is located at "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config" (Where "C:" is the drive letter you use for your operating system Windows Vista).
However you WILL NOT be able to simply just copy that "config" folder because that's the Windows protected folder.BUT off course there is the way.Since you are planning to reformat that HDD and make a fresh Windows Vista installation,BUT you do NOT want to lose ANY of your settings do the following:

-Let's say that you use NTFS file system which you probably do.
-Download the Windows 98 MS-DOS files.
-Install the program called HP USB disc storage format tool version 2.1.8
or any other version of that program.Plug the USB stick in your computer
and with that HP USB disc storage format tool FORMAT that USB stick
into the FAT32 USING that Windows 98 DOS files.
-Download the MS-DOS file called "XCOPY.EXE" and copy it on your USB
stick.
-Download the Partition Magic and with it convert your NTFS file system
into the FAT32 file system.Now...after conversion from the NTFS file
system to FAT32 file system it MIGHT happen that you won't be able
to boot into Windows Vista anymore,but never mind that.You ARE going
to make a fresh Vista installation anyway.
-Plug the stick into the computer,restart the computer and in the BIOS
make that USB stick to be the first device to boot from.
-Save changes to CMOS and restart the computer.
-Now you will be inside the Windows 98 MS-DOS.Let's say that your
partition where you have those games is the "C:" drive and the that USB
stick is the "E:" drive.
NOTE: To be sure which partition is which,use the "dir" command!For
example.If you want to see what is inside the drive "C:",write:

dir C:\

-Anyway...to copy that "config" folder on the USB stick,write
the following command:

xcopy C:\WINDOWS\system32\config E:\config\

(Where "C:" is the drive letter on which is Windows Vista and where
"E:" is the drive letter of that USB stick).

-Click the Enter button on your keyboard.Now it will probably ask you is
the destination target FILE or DIRECTORY.It's directory of course so
click the D letter on your keyboard and wait until copying is finished.
-So now you have ENTIRE registry saved on your USB stick in that
"config" folder.

And now unplug your USB stick from the computer,put the Windows Vista
CD-ROM disc in your CD-ROM drive and restart the computer.And now
feel free to format the hard disc drive and install Windows Vista in the
NTFS files system.:thumb:

This is how I did it and it worked perfectly!I didn't lose ANY of my settings.The entire registry was working correct.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

stop giving people stupid advice ffs.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

stop giving people stupid advice ffs.

Hey shut up and stop saying that everything I say is stupid!!!Because it's not!!!

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

everything you say IS stupid.

if a person wanted to copy their drive, they have plenty of PE's (BartPE for instance) to do so.

converting a drive to Fat32 is dangerous and risky, and ntfs file data is lost in the process.

 

[S.T.A.R.S.]

Look I don't wanna fight with you.REALLY.
I know that data CAN be lost while converting back to FAT32,but not always.That's why he will copy all his important data before doing this.Besides that is only one folder.He can't lose anything then 15 minutes of his time.
BartPE is really excellent thing I agree with you.I just mentioned one of the MANY ways of how this can be done.

I would really like that you STOP insolting me all the time.
Thanks.

 

[Squall-Leonhart]

DATA LOSS ALWAYS HAPPENS, on a conversion from NTFS to FAT32, specifically ntfs metadata and security descriptors.

I would really like that you STOP insolting me all the time.

I'm not insulting you, You do it well enough on your own.