Retrieving data from an old Registry on backup.

[Big_Al]

I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week ago.
This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the scores
for a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all
crappy places) and now I have a new issue.

How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I
could backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new
system back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that
hard up yet. 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find
it.

...... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other tweaks
I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!

Thanks for any input.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

"Big_Al" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:#[email protected]...
> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week ago.
> This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the scores or a
> card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all crappy
> places) and now I have a new issue.
>
> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I could
> backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new system
> back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that hard up
> yet. 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>
> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other tweaks I
> do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>
> Thanks for any input.

Well, you must be keen . . . Anyway, here you go. The process assumes that
your scores are stored in the Current User hive.
1. Copy the hidden file cDocuments and Settings\Al\ntuser.dat from your
old installation to some folder on the new installation.
2. Run regedit.exe.
3. Click HK_Users
4. Click File / Load Hive
5. Specify the path + file name for the copied ntuser.dat file.
6. Give the key a name when prompted, e.g. Al-Hive.
7. Open up HK_Users and locate Al-Hive.
You can now search for your scores in this hive.
8. When finished, click Al-Hive.
9. Click File / Unload Hive.

 

[John John - MVP]

On 8/24/2010 5:14 PM, Big_Al wrote:
> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week ago.
> This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the scores for
> a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all crappy
> places) and now I have a new issue.
>
> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I could
> backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new system
> back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that hard up yet.
> 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>
> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other tweaks
> I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>
> Thanks for any input.

Easy, see here:
http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm

John

 

[John John - MVP]

On 8/24/2010 5:52 PM, John John - MVP wrote:
> On 8/24/2010 5:14 PM, Big_Al wrote:
>> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week ago.
>> This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the scores for
>> a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all crappy
>> places) and now I have a new issue.
>>
>> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I could
>> backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new system
>> back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that hard up yet.
>> 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>>
>> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other tweaks
>> I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>>
>> Thanks for any input.
>
> Easy, see here:
> http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm

PS.

If the applications are properly written the user specific information
(like the game scores) are almost certainly stored in each individual
user's registry hive, these hives are the ntuser.dat files in their
profile folders so load the hives in question to get the information:

xDocuments and Settings\UserName\ntuser.dat

John

 

[HeyBub]

John John - MVP wrote:
>>
>> Easy, see here:
>> http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm
>
> PS.
>
> If the applications are properly written the user specific information
> (like the game scores) are almost certainly stored in each individual
> user's registry hive, these hives are the ntuser.dat files in their
> profile folders so load the hives in question to get the information:
>
> xDocuments and Settings\UserName\ntuser.dat
>

If the application is properly written, it will store NO volatile data in
the Registry. Microsoft has been ragging on developers for TEN YEARS not to
do this. With Vista, they enforced it.

Every previous version of Quickbooks (and other applications) failed to run
on Vista.

 

[John John - MVP]

On 8/24/2010 79 PM, HeyBub wrote:
> John John - MVP wrote:
>>>
>>> Easy, see here:
>>> http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm
>>
>> PS.
>>
>> If the applications are properly written the user specific information
>> (like the game scores) are almost certainly stored in each individual
>> user's registry hive, these hives are the ntuser.dat files in their
>> profile folders so load the hives in question to get the information:
>>
>> xDocuments and Settings\UserName\ntuser.dat
>>
>
> If the application is properly written, it will store NO volatile data in
> the Registry. Microsoft has been ragging on developers for TEN YEARS not to
> do this. With Vista, they enforced it.

First, the information is not so 'volatile' and secondly Microsoft has
never insisted that programs not store per-user settings in the user's
hives, quite to the contrary they have often stated that the hive could
include user specific settings such as program items. Of course with
the seeming push towards applications that store user settings in XML
files the practice might now be frowned upon but that wasn't the case
TEN years ago when Windows 2000 was Microsoft's crowning jewel.


> Every previous version of Quickbooks (and other applications) failed to run
> on Vista.

Quackbook ever hardly ran properly on any operating system!

John

 

[Big_Al]

John John - MVP said this on 8/24/2010 4:52 PM:
> On 8/24/2010 5:14 PM, Big_Al wrote:
>> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week ago.
>> This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the scores for
>> a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all crappy
>> places) and now I have a new issue.
>>
>> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I could
>> backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new system
>> back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that hard up yet.
>> 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>>
>> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other tweaks
>> I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>>
>> Thanks for any input.
>
> Easy, see here:
> http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm
>
> John


Thanks to both you and Pegasus. That seems easy enough.

The data is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\...... by the way.

Thanks again!.

 

[John John - MVP]

On 8/25/2010 11:57 AM, Big_Al wrote:
> John John - MVP said this on 8/24/2010 4:52 PM:
>> On 8/24/2010 5:14 PM, Big_Al wrote:
>>> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week ago.
>>> This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the scores for
>>> a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all crappy
>>> places) and now I have a new issue.
>>>
>>> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I could
>>> backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new system
>>> back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that hard up yet.
>>> 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>>>
>>> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other tweaks
>>> I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>>>
>>> Thanks for any input.
>>
>> Easy, see here:
>> http://www.rwin.ch/xp-live/regedit.htm
>>
>> John
>
>
> Thanks to both you and Pegasus. That seems easy enough.
>
> The data is stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\...... by the way.
>
> Thanks again!.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER is actually an ntuser.dat hive that is loaded when a
user logs on, or more precisely it's a symbolic link to the profile
which is loaded in HKEY_USERS key.

John

John

 

[Big_Al]

Re: Retrieving data from an old Registry on backup. DONE

Pegasus [MVP] said this on 8/24/2010 4:51 PM:
> "Big_Al" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:#[email protected]...
>> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week
>> ago. This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the
>> scores or a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all
>> crappy places) and now I have a new issue.
>>
>> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I
>> could backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new
>> system back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that
>> hard up yet. 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>>
>> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other
>> tweaks I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>>
>> Thanks for any input.
>
> Well, you must be keen . . . Anyway, here you go. The process assumes
> that your scores are stored in the Current User hive.
> 1. Copy the hidden file cDocuments and Settings\Al\ntuser.dat from
> your old installation to some folder on the new installation.
> 2. Run regedit.exe.
> 3. Click HK_Users
> 4. Click File / Load Hive
> 5. Specify the path + file name for the copied ntuser.dat file.
> 6. Give the key a name when prompted, e.g. Al-Hive.
> 7. Open up HK_Users and locate Al-Hive.
> You can now search for your scores in this hive.
> 8. When finished, click Al-Hive.
> 9. Click File / Unload Hive.
>
>

Thanks. I finally got around to doing this but I used BartPE. Now
that I've done it, I'm not sure I would use Bart again, but I was
paranoid that I'd chew up my system and I couldn't with Bart.

It worked great and I learned quite a few things.

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

Re: Retrieving data from an old Registry on backup. DONE

"Big_Al" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Pegasus [MVP] said this on 8/24/2010 4:51 PM:
>> "Big_Al" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:#[email protected]...
>>> I image my XP Pro frequently and did before a reloaded about a week
>>> ago. This is anal but I just found out where the vendor puts the
>>> scores or a card game I love. They are stored in the registry (of all
>>> crappy places) and now I have a new issue.
>>>
>>> How, or can I, read a registry file without reloading the image. I
>>> could backup my current PC, reload the old, extract, then put the new
>>> system back on the HD. A bit of work, but doable. But I'm not that
>>> hard up yet. 2 years of playing the game and I reload and now I find it.
>>>
>>> ..... you do know I'm taken it upon my self to find all the other
>>> tweaks I do and export them to files to they are easier to redo!!!
>>>
>>> Thanks for any input.
>>
>> Well, you must be keen . . . Anyway, here you go. The process assumes
>> that your scores are stored in the Current User hive.
>> 1. Copy the hidden file cDocuments and Settings\Al\ntuser.dat from
>> your old installation to some folder on the new installation.
>> 2. Run regedit.exe.
>> 3. Click HK_Users
>> 4. Click File / Load Hive
>> 5. Specify the path + file name for the copied ntuser.dat file.
>> 6. Give the key a name when prompted, e.g. Al-Hive.
>> 7. Open up HK_Users and locate Al-Hive.
>> You can now search for your scores in this hive.
>> 8. When finished, click Al-Hive.
>> 9. Click File / Unload Hive.
>>
>>
>
> Thanks. I finally got around to doing this but I used BartPE. Now
> that I've done it, I'm not sure I would use Bart again, but I was paranoid
> that I'd chew up my system and I couldn't with Bart.
>
> It worked great and I learned quite a few things.

Booting with a Bart PE CD is a good method to protect yourself against
mistakes when doing things with the registry. As an alternative you could
have created a Restore Point from within Windows before going ahead, thus
creating a back-out path for yourself.