nurmi said:
1. By "OS Partition" you mean Operating System (WindowsXP)?
Yep. That's where the OS is installed. I didn't want to get into
naming them the system and boot partitions because Microsoft's
terminology is just the opposite of what a typical user would expect
those terms to mean (for Microsoft, the system partition is the one
that load the kernal loader whereas the boot partition is where are the
rest of the OS files that the kernal loader loads). In most configs,
the system and boot partition partition but that isn't required. The
system partition (you use to boot Windows) could be on C: on the first
hard disk in the 3rd partition, for example, while the boot partition
(where you run the operating system) could be on D: on the second hard
disk in the 2nd partition. It can get quite confusing. So I just say
the OS partition to mean wherever you are loading [the rest of] Windows
[after the kernal loader begins].
It is installed on C Drive. ?
I wouldn't know for sure but that's the typical drive letter assigned
to the OS partition (and where the system and boot partition are the
same partition) and it is often the first partition on the first hard
disk.
2. I want to back-up WindowsXP OS so I can use it, if Windows7 fails
to install.
You really don't want to be doing logical file backups. You want to be
saving images of the OS partition to restore it later, if needed.
3. I am not able to back up because of another program is using
NTUSER.DAT etc.
Yep. That's part of the registry so it is inuse while Windows is
running. Actually you and apps use the memory copy of the registry
with changes recorded back into the disk file copy. However, there is
a lock on the registry files because they are critical to both the OS
and apps.
4. I thought of deleting all ntuser files in the Registry to get
around 3. above. Back-up or Registry for safety reasons. I guess
that would be a fool's errance?
If you could delete them, you wouldn't be able to boot Windows anymore.
There are only 2 real hives in the registry: HKEY_USER and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. All the others are pseudo-hives that are
compositions of these two real hives. You are trying to delete the user
hive. Don't do it. Don't even try.
You could export the registry to a huge .reg file but to import it means
you would need a working Windows. Importing a .reg file is an action
you perform after loading Windows so obviously Windows has to load to
perform the import action. Imaging software typically provides a means
of booting using their install or restore discs to reload the saved
image into the partition to get back up to the same state as you
snapshotted when you took the image. Alternatively, and if you have
another hard disk, you could use cloning software to make a copy of your
hard disk with the OS (and whatever other partitions it has) onto a
backup hard disk, and then clone back (provided the cloning software
provided a bootable floppy/CD to let you run that software to clone back
since there won't be a running instance of Windows to run that cloning
software).
