(Resolved) windows.old Vista SP1

[Cristo]

I upgraded to Vista SP1 this morning and when I started my computer up after Activiating it etc. it appeared to have just re-formatted the hardrive. I cut my losses and said "Oh well, shit happens" and went about downloading and re-installing all my various programs when I checked my C drive to see how much psace I had left. Only to see that I had 10gigs left of 140gigs, so I went in to see what the hell was up and I found a folder called "windows.old".

Apparently, in that folder it has EVERYTHING from before I upgraded and Vista SP1 just decided to start afresh with a new folder in my drive. So I'm just wondering if it's possible to literally just copy+paste all the stuff in windows.old into the new windows folder and save myself a LOT of time installing and downloading etc.

[Hickabod]

Give it a shot, just copy + paste a program to where ever it was previously installed (eg. C:\Program Files) open it up, and run the .EXE If it works keep doing it, or am I missing something here?

[Cristo]

No that seems about right.

It was what I was planning to do, but I just wanted to ask in case there might be any negative side effects.

Edit:

I just spoke to my mate, and it happened to him as well. Apparently, I have to do that but because Windows is a beach I have to individually create new shortcuts for EACH program which is a bit of a pain but oh well.

[opn4bzns]

Won't work due to the registry existing. You'll have to manually reinstall everything if you want stuff to work properly.

I'm guessing you upgraded from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium?
For some reason it doesn't like you doing that and won't properly upgrade, but if you have media centre edition or home it will let you. Not much help now, but worth noting for future reference.

[Cristo]

Actually it was from Windows Vista Ultimate and then to Vista SP1, because I dl'd SP1 from a torrent.

Bit of a bitch, good thing I made back ups of all my documents etc. I suppose.

[Hunnter]

Most of it won't work due to requiring the registry settings from the old install.

What you would need to do is bootup into another OS (Live OS would be best) copy it into another folder.
I'm not entirely sure where it is located in Vista, but in XP, it is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\config
I don't really know of any programs to extract the registry items though.
I have been looking for one actually, i might google around (found some using this read old registry files (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=read+old+registry+files+&btnG=Search&meta=)

You could possibly read old files, extract your programs information, then create a reg file and import it.

edit:
this one looks interesting, click (http://help.lockergnome.com/windows2/Reading-secondary-drive-ftopict481262.html)
Never even realised what those 2 menu items done.
Not sure what will happen when you load a hive up to be honest, so be cautious.

[Cristo]

Thanks Hunnter!

I appreciate you bothering but I ended up deleting windows.old and just getting every re-installed.

It's actually pretty great because I've freed up tonnes of Hard-drive space and gotten rid of all sorts of worthless crap that I didn't realise I had and realised I didn't need.

It's actually running much smoother now, partly because of SP1 too I think.

[opn4bzns]

Actually it was from Windows Vista Ultimate and then to Vista SP1, because I dl'd SP1 from a torrent.

Bit of a bitch, good thing I made back ups of all my documents etc. I suppose.

Er, what? SP1 is just a service pack, you shouldn't have to reinstall your entire os because of it. It sounds like you pirated it anyway, but SP1 is free, it comes in Windows Update and doesn't require any reinstallation of windows or anything.

[hardcoresk8r69]

Er, what? SP1 is just a service pack, you shouldn't have to reinstall your entire os because of it. It sounds like you pirated it anyway, but SP1 is free, it comes in Windows Update and doesn't require any reinstallation of windows or anything.

Well he may have pirated Vista or does that not matter when it comes to SP's?

[Beefynick]

That would not matter when it comes to Service Packs. A service pack just updates the OS files without caring if it has a registration key or not. Once finished if you do not have a registration key most of the time you get prompted or if it is a hacked version the "hack" goes away and you have a unregistered copy of the OS.

[opn4bzns]

That would not matter when it comes to Service Packs. A service pack just updates the OS files without caring if it has a registration key or not. Once finished if you do not have a registration key most of the time you get prompted or if it is a hacked version the "hack" goes away and you have a unregistered copy of the OS.

I'm pretty sure Windows Update doesn't work on an unactivated copy of Windows, and the only other way to get sp1 is from MS's site, which you have to get Windows Genuine Advantage to use.

[Beefynick]

I'm pretty sure Windows Update doesn't work on an unactivated copy of Windows, and the only other way to get sp1 is from MS's site, which you have to get Windows Genuine Advantage to use.

You might be amazed about the Windows Update not working. I know of someone who has a cracked copy of Windows XP and Windows Update works for that, so I can only assume it will work for Vista as well.