BSOD during start up, can I save data?

[Thor20]

Hello,

After resizing my C: partition, I have been unable to boot to win 7. I have tried every fix I could find, but to no avail. "Starting Windows" screen appears, then BSOD. Through Linux, I am able to see that the files and such are still all there, but since I can't fix the partition I'm going to clean (re)install.

What I would like to know, is there a simple way to save my settings, installed programs, drivers, etc. (not just files), to an external hard drive, then import them back into the fresh win 7? So as to save me wasting hours and hours more on this problem?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Petey7]

EDIT: what I typed below won't help you in your case, but it might help some one else so I'm going to leave it and type a new response.

Some settings you can indeed save. Let me clarify, I don't know of a way to save your windows settings atm but i'll look around. You program setting are a bit easier. Make sure you have explorer set to show hidden files and folders. If you go to C:\Users\[username]\AppData you can fidn where a lot of your programs settings are stored. Copy the folders of the programs you plan to reinstall. Also get the folders from the program files folders in c:\. After the clean install. reinstall the programs and replace the folders with the ones you copied from the old installation. This way you will still have you settings for those programs. For example you will still have your browser history and bookmarks, so you want have to track down each and every website again. It sounds like you were hoping to nit have to reinstall all your programs. With Win98 you could just copy the programs folder for some software, but those days have passed. If you still have the installer on your hard drive for any programs you downloaded you can grab those which will make things a little easier for you. Drivers have files that are installed in a bunch of different places, so they must be installed again. Once again, if you still have the installer or a folder the installer extracted to, you can copy that which saves you the effort of having to hunt down drivers on the internet. Hope this answered some of your questions sufficiently.

 

[Petey7]

You might be able to look around your hard drive via linux and locate settings for programs and you might be able to find installers you downloaded and folders driver installers extracted to. Those you can copy over fine. Unfortunately, you can not save the entire program or installer in the way I think you mean, but doing what I listed here can help. For program settings, when you find the folder with the stuff you want to save, copy the entire folder. When you reinstall the program, replace the new version of the folder with the one from the previous install. The only thing that comes to mind for saving all your windows settings is saving your registry, then replacing the new one with the old I'll posy a link at the bottom of this post that offers some insight on the matter. Be aware that this can cause some serious instability of the system if you go that route. MAKE SURE ALL SOFTWARE AND DRIVERS HAVE BEEN INSTALLED BEFORE DOING THIS.

replace registry with one from another xp PC

 

[Thor20]

To double check: I copy my two program folders to external drive, then reinstall windows, reinstall programs, then copy/paste individually the old program folders from external into new "C:", deleting the folder created by installing the program on the new "C:"? I must do this manually, correct? There isn't some option to have windows search for usable settings and ignore the unusable, if I were to copy my current "C:" entirely to an external?
And I'll just reinstall my hardware drivers from the CDROMS.

 

[Petey7]

Wasn't sure if you had CDs for your drivers or not. Having the disc makes things easier. Yes, you must do it manually for your programs, just how you describe. Also, read the first post about how some files are stored in a app data folder (second or third sentence). When looking at the folders with Ubuntu, I see them organized in an odd way. Nothing like how they look when looking at them in 7. I'm not sure how easy it will be to find the folders. Good luck.

 

[Jonathan_King]

There is an easier solution. Do a custom install.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/20146-custom-install-windows-7-a.html

It is simply a clean install without formatting. Your data will be backed up automatically to a folder called Windows.old, located in C:\.

 

[Petey7]

I keep forgetting about that solution. Do what Jon said. So much easier. Maybe I didn't think about because I was trying to answer the question in a yes or no format. Either way, do the custom install instead.

 

[Thor20]

I actually did the custom install several days ago, and it did create the windows.old folder. I tried to do what you said, Petey7 and copy the program folders and program data folders, deleting the newer folders. The programs still work just fine (except for norton antivirus, but I'm working on that), but none of the old settings or all of the pages I've bookmarked in Firefox, etc., have been restored. Is there another way to import settings from windows.old before I delete it, or from the copies I manually made of the program folders manually? Or I am SOL at this point?

 

[Jonathan_King]

See if you can find your old bookmarks.html file. Here is the path on my current install:

"C:\ProgramData\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\yfsjo4wb.default\bookmarks.html"

I honestly don't know if the ProgramData folder is backed up. It is a Hidden OS folder, if it matters any.

 

[Thor20]

FYI: the programdata and appdata folders are backed up in Windows.old, on my rig at least.

I tried finding all of the folders for any given app, even the mozilla profiles, bookmarks, etc., but when I moved them over to the new windows locations, the programs just ignore it completely. I don't know what happened to all these files, but they appear to be worthless. I'll play around with it a little more, but I think I'll just have to do everything from scratch. At least I've finally got windows 7 working with my dual-boot.

Thank you both for trying to help, and rather quickly too. I really appreciate it.

 

[Jonathan_King]

Go to FireFox, and press Ctrl+Shift+B to pull up the Bookmarks manager. Then select import bookmarks, and select that bookmarks.html file.