Help with Windows XP Issue

[Guest WorkingStiff]

I have Windows XP Corporate installed on my C: drive and FS2002 and add-ons installed on my F: drive.Unfortunately, on Monday I developed significant problems with the operating system that could not be repaired by restore points or any other methods so I was forced to reformat my C: drive and reinstall Windows XP.My problem is that my FS2002 is fairly complex; the last time I went through a similar exercise it took me a week to get all the add-ons installed and running properly.Is there a way I can somehow write the FS2002 entries to the Windows XP registry without having to reinstall all my FS software? Thanks for any advice.

[Guest outtatimeiii]

I ran FS2002 without the registry before, nothing bad happened. It was when I was doing a clean install of XP from Win2k and I didnt feel like reinstalling FS2002, so i just executed FS2002 and it worked fine. But dont expect TrafficTools to work properly or any other "detect FS2002 from registry" progs. If you want the "easy way out", you can just run FS2002 without registry.But the recommended way is to have fun reinstalling FS2002 and all your addons (I done this several times already when nothing seems to wanna install for FS2002 anymore).

[Guest]

How about the following... it worked for me ( when I got my new computer, not like you when reinstalling..)I made a backup of the complete fs 2002 folder. Installed a new copy of fs2002 and overwrote this "basic" fs2002 with my old backup... worked like a dream... I did reinstall fsnavigator etc again though ...good luck / Dick

[Guest WorkingStiff]

Yhanks for your suggestions guys. I'll try backing up the folder and copying it over a fresh install but it seems like I'll eventually just have to bite the bullet and reinstall everything again.

[Francois_Dumas 10]

.... to prevent this from happening next time AFTER you have properly re-installed everything.. is to get you Ghost (made by Symantec) and use that to back up your FS2002.. or whole partition and XP Partition. With it you can restore including the registry settings. :-outta Francois :-wave[table border=0 cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0][tr][td valign=bottom" align="center]"At home in the wild"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][link:avsim.com/alaska/alaska_052.htm]Don's Alaskan Bush Charters]"Beavers Lead the Way"[/td][td valign=bottom" align="center][br][tr][td valign=top" align="center]http://bfu.avsim.net/sigpics/logo75b.gif[/td][td valign="top" align="left" colspan=2]http://www.fssupport.com/images/moose2.gif[/td][tr][/table

[Guest WorkingStiff]

Francois, I guess I just have to learn the hard way. I have a copy of Norton Systemworks Professional which includes Norton Ghost but I've been trying to keep my hard drive cleaned up so I neglected to install it.Oh well, it will just take me the entire weekend just to reinstall. :-lol

[Guest gasebah]

You are lucky if you can do it in a weekend. I have so many specialized texture mixes, landclass stuff and small changes, that it would take me weekend alone to figure out what to reinstall.I make a complete image of my FS2002+ WinXP partition once every two month. I am using Drive Image to do it. I bought a harddisk alone for that matter.Alex

[Guest]

Same here. Seperate hard drive just for Ghost files. Ghost is the single utility you must have. It's saved me more than once. I especially like to use it before any major upgrade, like WinXP SP1 for instance. ;) If you don't like the change, just reload your image file and your right back in business. :)

[Guest WorkingStiff]

Okay, I just installed Norton Ghost but I haven't saved any disk images since I'm still installing applications.I have two drives; a 40 MB and 20 MB I use for backup. The problem is that the 20 MB drive is almost full with a number of ISO images I load with a virtual CD drive so I have limited space. Looks like its time to get another hard drive. ***sigh***

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

WS,If there's nothing wrong with your FS installation you can get around the problem very easily. Try this...1. Open Explorer and locate your existing FS folder and rename it FS2002GOOD.2. Insert the FS2K2 CD and install to the original named folder. This won't exist of course since you renamed it to FS2002GOOD.3. Do a minimal install just to get the Registry entries created.4. Run the newly installed version just to make sure it's okay.5. Exit FS and rename the newly created folder to FS2002TEMP.6. Rename FS2002GOOD to FS2002 (or what it was originally called). Run FS and if it's okay, exit and then delete FS2002TEMP.That will work as I've done it myself on several occasions.I hope I wasn't too late :-)Cheers,

[Guest WorkingStiff]

No you aren't too late Ray; I haven't attempted to reinstall FS2002 yet. At first glance it appears that your method would work; I am concerned though about the add-ons such as the 40 or so install packs I have for Project AI and addons like Dreamfleet 737 and PIC 767. Wouldn't these be influenced by the lack of Windows registry entries?

[Ray Proudfoot 8,955]

Hi WS,I could be wrong but I don't believe these addons would be unusable if their Registry entries were missing. All that means is that you wouldn't be able to uninstall them from Control Panel / Add Remove Programs but you won't want to do that anyway.FS is very clever in that it places no files in the WindowsSystem folders - everything is installed to the location of your choice. All DLLs are loaded in the MODULES folder and nowhere else.Good luck,