Re: Windows registry cleanup tools

[Flash flash@xxxxxxxx]

Y'all,

Putting two and two together here:
≪From a DR perspective, it is a lot harder to extract data from a
corrupted /
damaged Hard Disk Drive if it has multiple partitions.
With the price/megabyte as it is, there is no reason why you shouldn't
have
a secondary HDD for data and non OS dependant apps. (Unless of course
you
are using a laptop)≫

+

≪
> But you SHOULD partition your drive. At the very least,
> EVERYONE, no matter how much a willing slave of
> Redmond, should have a separate data partition.
But I want to back up more than just data files. I want to backup the
config files, at least, for what I've installed. Even if I can't backup
the Windows OS, there's a lot of stuff that's neither that nor data (as
conventionally construed).≫
The obvious solution to data and OS backups, including backing up the
reg is this: make an IMAGE of the whole kit and caboodle, OS, apps,
data--regardless whether they are on the same or different partitions.
Once you have a clean-running system, deposit the image on an external
HD. External HDs are getting cheaper by the minute. Where I am, they
are down to one Swiss franc per GB. Shucks, a 250 GB HD can even be
purchased with a fastethernet link now, and you can daisy-chain
multiple 250s, so every pc and Mac in the LAN can access it/them. Image
software is readily available. This is a cheap and practical solution
for the home user, and not overburdened with documenting what you do.
If your system crashes or the reg gets cluttered beyond repair, just
copy the image from the external HD and overwite the partiitons
affected. Image software has the necessary GUI to do this, usually
including a bootable CD-ROM which gets you underneath the corrupted
Windows OS so you can communicate with the image source (viz the
external HD) and locate the image(s) to be copied.
Now, just to niggle Patricia a bit, No, not everyone should partition
your harddrive. (Too many cooks spoil the broth.) YOU should partition
your harddrive.

≪GEM was actually a more advanced
graphical interface than Windows was originally. (GEM and Ventura's
concepts
can be traced back to the original Xerox crew that dreamed up the whole
GUI
thing in the first place.) ≫ Good lord, someone out there remembers
GEM! I had an Atari 1040F, with a huge 1 MB RAM--huge for those
days--running GEM. It ran for ten years without one crash. Lovely
little machine. Changing over to Windows (3.11 and then NT4; I gave
Win9x a miss) was a degradation I regretted for years. Trouble was,
fewer and fewer apps were being written for the GEM/Atari as Windows
gobbled up the market.