Where is Computer Name Stored?

The computer name is stored within the registry files of Windows.

Assuming you're booting from that drive, pressing win + pause should bring up a popup which includes the computer name.

If you're looking for the location in the registry, it's:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ActiveComputerName

Of course if you were booting from that drive AND you didn't have a pause/break button you could right click on the Computer icon and click preferences. Or if you can't find a Computer icon you could go to Control Panel/System and Security/System...

But from the word crashed, I have to assume you're not booting from the drive in question.

Open the start menu. Right-click My computer and select properties. Scroll down and you will see a section titled "Computer name, domain and workgroup settings." Click on Change Settings. In the window that opens, click Change. You can change the computer name from there.

Computer Name - View and Change

Do you just want to find out what the Computer Name is or do you want to change it?

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System and there you shall find the Computer Name as well as a link to System Properties to change the settings.

FuturDreamz said:

Trucidation said:

Assuming you're booting from that drive, pressing win + pause should bring up a popup which includes the computer name.

What happens if your keyboard doesn't have a play/pause button?

*insert conspiracykeanu stare*

They make keyboards without the pause button?

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On a serious note, the OP sounds like he's booting off another PC and just has the HDD slaved to it. In that case I don't think the suggestions here are going to help as they're only going to return the ID of the booting machine.

Although the registry (referred to as registry hives) appears to be in one file, it is actually placed in several files on your computer.

Depending on your system configuration, registry files can be found in the following locations:

The HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE hives are stored in the Default, SAM, Security, Software, System files in C:\Windows\System32\Config\.

The HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive is stored in the NTUSER.DAT in that user's profile folder usually C:\Users\username.

To load a particular hive from a second hard disk connected to your system, follow these instructions.

1 Click the "Start" button and type "regedit" into the Search field, then click the "Registry Editor" program.

2 Click "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" in the left pane of the Registry Editor window.

3 Click the "File" menu and choose "Load Hive."

4 Browse to the secondary hard drive's "windows\system32\config" directory from the "Load Hive" dialog box.

5 Click to select the "System" or "Software" file (no file suffixes) to open the respective registry hives. Type a temporary name and click "Open" to open the hive.

6 Once the registry hive is loaded into the registry editor, traverse down to the below path

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ComputerName\ActiveComputerName

Here you will find the Computer name for the second hard disk.

Important: Once you have done with browsing the registry, Click the "File" menu and choose "Unload Hive" before closing the registry editor.