Clean Windows install aka Format C:\

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

So my WinXP has been acting up recently and I think it should be put to rest. It’s been with me for over 6 months now and that’s clearly too long for comfort, so a clean install is in order.
Now I’ve done that quite a number of times but what makes this time different is the fact that I’ve acquired a new (and considerably larger) HDD and involuntarily developed quite a library of games. What I dread it that reinstalling the OS will probably break some (if not most) of them and I do not want to reinstall everything, especially since some of the games are heavily modded.

From my experience after a reinstall some games work as-is, some need DirectX reinstall or GFWL and some are FUBAR. And then there is steam. How does one deal with steam?

I don’t really care for the windows setting or applications, they’re all lightweight and I’ll have them on in a matter of minutes, it’s the games that make me wary.

I’m sure many of you have reinstalled the OS and have a 53Tb drive full of games. What do you do?

And just to be clear:

  • I have a separate small partition for OS and apps.
  • Steam is installed on D:\
  • I won’t install win7 because of several reasons. That’s besides the point but I know you’ll nag me about it anyway.
  • I have some free space for backups but I sure as hell ain’t gonna backup everything.

tl;dr: I’m reinstalling Windows. How do I keep my games from breaking?

#2

steam doesn’t need anything to run. AKA just plug in your old hard drive and it will work in your new windows install on your other hard drive.

#3

Really? Awesome!

One more thing though… Only some of my games are on steam, others are… well, lets just say, not on steam.

#4

Not trying to convert you, just out of curiosity. What’s your prob with win7? If for legal reason, I can only agree, I had to revert to xp as well after experimenting a little with win7 rc, ain’t gonna cash out for it. But can’t find any other good reason.

For your question, you could backup parts of your windows registry and try to register your already installed apps. But must be very careful and thorough. Only backup specific keys needed for the apps, not the whole registry since … well, then there would be no point for a clean install in the first place. Oh, and save your whole documents and settings folder, including hidden files. Many apps, including games store their config files there, not to mention desktop icons.

Even if you manage to save the related registry entries, many games require additional libraries to be installed, .net, games for windows live, punkbuster, you name it. So don’t take this works guaranteed, but worth a try.

#5

Ok, first off, 2 gigs of ram. If that doesn’t cut it for you, I’ve got some kind of problem with hyperthreading on windows (it works fine on ubuntu) so I have to manually specify a different HAL and I can’t seem to do that with Win7. Basically I can’t even install it if I wanted to.

I’ve never messed with the registry. How fucked up is it? Is there a chance I can learn my way around it without too much brain damage?

:hmph:

About this. If I download and install the dx, .net, GFWL, VisualC++, PhysX and whatnot, will it work or do the games require somewhat specific versions of those that they were bundled with?

#6

Oh, winxp is just for gaming? That’s a good enough reason. :wink: I use linux as well as my main os, heck even for gaming whenever possible.

The registry is bscly just a bigass “organized” library of sorts. I can’t check the structure atm as I’m not under win, but if memory serves, the most common keys are under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/software/ in a logical order. Just right-click on the related key, export, and save it as a .reg file. You can even check the contents of the file with a native text editor. Run the same .reg file on the fresh install to register the exported key.

These registry entries hold information on your app’s install directory, some basic configuration (while other parts of the config is in your documents), related app’s locations, and rarely even product keys. To make sure, you can use the search for specific apps to not miss any registry keys.

Mind you, this whole mess is just my theory, I never had to use it myself, but would probably go this way if I had to. And some errr… not so legitimately obtained applications are also installed with just running a .reg file with pre-defined install locations, and they work fine.

I’m pretty sure the required apps are fine if you just install the latest version. Tough some of them - like .net - allows you to have earlier and newer versions installed at the same time, so you may need to have both of them. But in this specific case the windows updater can take care of it.

#7

I had a HD failure in my laptop today… i had to reinstall win7 today

#8

Your computer will instantly catch fire never ever do this

#9

if you have windows 7 right click on Steam.exe and choose Run as Administrator, you only have to do this once

#10

Did some digging through the registries and saved the game related entries found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software
There was even a valve\steam folder with entries for some apps.

The thing is, there are also similar entries under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software
Now if they were all identical to the ones I have exported, I’d ignore them but since they’re mostly slightly different, I’m kinda lost.

#11

Every 6 months? Sheesh, I only format the system when I make major hardware changes every couple YEARS. Quit going to so many shady porn sites.

#12

Fair enough. Do recommend me some non-shady porn sites then.

Seriously though, WinXP is quite good at absorbing crap even when it’s not connected to the interwebz. And try as you might deleting all that crap it still grows and I lack the balls to go all shift+del on random sytem folders. And then there’s the registry…

#13

Well, export those too then, but I would only run the current user .reg files if the local machine isn’t enough. It’s similarly built like vista/7 uac, where the game installs/registers to the os, but also has records only related to specific users, which I believe are only optional.

#14

Yes, upon closer inspection I found that there were far less relevant entries under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\ than there seemed at the first glance and I exported them too. I’ll probably reinstall in a few hours now after a final sweep for any important files on C:\

#15

I discovered this morning that I didn’t save my Pancake Time ITT pictures when I formatted my drive. sniff that makes me very sad…

#16

Now postin’ from a brand new bitchin’ fast windows. Feels good, man!

[EDIT] Well, steam works fine as do goldsrc and source games. Haven’t gotten round to test any other yet.

[EDIT2] Games that work as-is after the reinstall (besides those mentioned above): Crysis, Warhead, NFSU2, Plants vs. Zombies, Q3 Arena, RBR, all the STALKER games, Void and VTMB.
Fallout3, Oblivion, Borderlands and some others will need more convincing, or so it seems.

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