I mangled my Windows XP registry. This incident started after I upgraded my HDD to a 200 Gb model. I took these steps: 1) exported up the registry to a USB thumbdrive, 2) formatted the new HDD, 3) reinstalled Windows XP and software and 3) double-clicked on the registry file to install its registry entries. I got an error griping about trying to update registry entries that were being actively used. Then, the regedit program closed. Does this mean a partial success? Short of scanning the registry and reg file there was no way of knowing. This probably messed up the registry.

I noticed that the system seemed to think it was in safe mode. Funny thing was that I didn’t see any of the banners that are displayed when Windows is in safe mode. My PC consistently booted into Safe Mode without displaying the “Safe Mode menu”, the one that you see if you press F8 at boot time. I searched Microsoft’s knowledge base for an article how to get Windows to not think it is in Safe Mode. No success.

So I reformatted the HDD and reinstalled Win XP. This time I did not attempt to reinstall the registry entries. All works fine.

Lesson learned: do not try to install registry keys from an exported reg file. The regedit program does not fail nicely or attempt to clean up after itself.