If you clicked on your c: drive and made a full copy of it would your registry be coppied too.?

Question

Im wondering cause I want to make a full copy of my computer and I just want to know if I need to make a copy of my registry too.Or if copping my c: drive will coppy everything.So if I need to restore my computer I can just get on my other hardrive and copy all the files back since that hardrive will not be in use I will be able to copy ever single file making an exact duplicate.But will I need to copy the registry too or is your registry maybe part of some of these files like I think HKEY_USERS is? Thanks

Answer 1

Theorectically if you could capture every hidden file, possibly. But this is not the traditional method. The best way is to create an image using Symantec Ghost. However, you would want to place your files on a separate hard disk since the image would be too large to place on a CD or DVD.

More Information:
HKEY_USERS is a key that contains default settings upon which HKEY_CURRENT_USER is build for each user that logons on.

Each HKEY_CURRENT_USER is linked to a specific SID related to each user account. You can view profile SID's at

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\ProfileList

Each user account's registry is store in their profile in the form of a .dat file in c:\documents and settings\[user profile]

Do not delete c:\documents and settings\default user or any new user who does not have a profile will not be able to logon ever.

Answer 2

Under a modern Windows operating system such as Windows XP, a simple complete (including registry files) copy of files from one computer hard disk to another location will not be bootable when you copy it back to the same hard disk. At least when I have tried it, it wouldn't boot.

This takes a utility such as come with modern hard disks (Maxblast, WD Data Lifeguard tools, Seagate, etc.) or a backup utility such as Norton Ghost. Even then, the disk may not be bootable after the restore because of errors in the process.

make a bootable floppy using the disk tools might help, but nothing is certain.

Just to be sure, I have two bootable disks in my computer. I made the second from the first using Maxblast that came with my Maxtor disks. I switch from one to the other using the boot order choice in the BIOS. (hit delete during POST to access this.) I keep them the same using the free utility from Microsoft, Sync Toy.

Good luck.

Answer 3

the best way 2 copy ur hard drive is 2 get a prog. called ghost that copy all everthing and puts it on ur other hard drive if thats what ur trying 2 do. If ur just trying 2 copy c: drive yes u can. But ur compt will get full and I mean full. All the files i mean some of them r compressed and when u copy them and put them some where else they wont be compressed any more.

Answer 4

yes you will need to copy your registry files as well and make sure that it works once youve made all the copys because alot of times computers come with specific hard drives and are only compatiable with that type but once you copy your files over make sure you try to start your computer up from the copy hard drive to make sure it works

Answer 5

no the registry keys will not be copied............you have to copy the registry keys from the registry editor

go to

Start -- Run -- type regedit

in there do a backup of all the registries