Windows Reinstall

[Frankybabes]

I have developed a bad fault in windows which calls for a reinstall of Windows! my current setup took me 2 yrs of hard work, which files should I save to reinstall my current setup? and all being well how would I go about reinstalling it? Regards

[nullPointer]

Basically you'll want to perform the following steps to maintain your settings exactly as they currently are:

• Copy your entire GameEx installation directory over to your new harddrive
• Install GameEx over the top of the copied directory.
• Done.

Make special note that this will preserve your settings exactly as they are, which may not be strictly desirable in terms of having everything working again right out of the box. If it's possible, you'll want to try to make sure that your GameEx install is up to date prior to doing this. This part is not strictly required, but it may help prevent weird issues, particularly if your current install of GameEx is a particularly old one. You'll also want to account for any directory changes in terms of assets, emulators, and ROMs which won't necessarily match the ones in your updated system (depending on the exact nature of your update).

[RIP-Felix]

Sometimes it's possable to fix problems with your windows instalation by booting into your installation CD. Have you tried to fix windows and failed? If not, try that first. Otherwise, what null said. Its easy to copy the GameEx folder to another drive while reinstalling windows onto your OS drive (If your compuiter is setup that way - I recomended it). Then just re-copy it to your C: directory afterwards and reinstall gameex over the top of it (it won't wipe any settings).

You'll still need to reinstall all of your apps, some emulators (like project 64 for ex.) and paripherals, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It'll refresh your skillz .

Once you have everything working to your liking I reccomend creating a windows image. Then if anything like this happens again you can at least start again ahead of the curve. You'll still have to reinstall whatever you added since the image, but not have to start again from scratch.

[Frankybabes]

Do I copy my GameEx folder on top of the new install one ,plus the "Assets folder" & the "Emulators folder" as well ? the assets folder has all the videos,Backgrounds,carts,snaps,titles,and box's etc. Thanks

[tthurman]

I haven't personally attempted this, but I believe what nullPointer is suggesting is to take that entire backup copy of the current directory, and put it back to the same directory path once you've re-established a stable Windows environment on your freshly formatted drive. If you've customized the path from the default at all, be certain it's in the same place one the newly installed OS.

Then, download and install the current version of GameEx. This essentially would act like an over the top installation just as if performing a routine version upgrade.

Basically you are restoring your current directory structure, emulators, extras etc and so on, and then reinstalling GameEx over the top of it, not the other way around as you have it worded.

Let nullPointer respond to this to ensure I'm not steering you incorrectly, but this is sure what I take from his comments.

Also, I agree that it would probably be best that if at all possible that you are running the current version prior to creating your backup of the current image. This way you are doing a apples to apples restoration.

If this is not possible, and you have a backup of the installer for the version you are currently running, then I think it would be desirable to use it instead. (In the case you have a really old, but stable build running in your current setup)

[DazzleHP]

Basically you'll want to perform the following steps to maintain your settings exactly as they currently are:

• Copy your entire GameEx installation directory over to your new harddrive
• Install GameEx over the top of the copied directory.
• Done.

Make special note that this will preserve your settings exactly as they are, which may not be strictly desirable in terms of having everything working again right out of the box. If it's possible, you'll want to try to make sure that your GameEx install is up to date prior to doing this. This part is not strictly required, but it may help prevent weird issues, particularly if your current install of GameEx is a particularly old one. You'll also want to account for any directory changes in terms of assets, emulators, and ROMs which won't necessarily match the ones in your updated system (depending on the exact nature of your update).

I haven't personally attempted this, but I believe what nullPointer is suggesting is to take that entire backup copy of the current directory, and put it back to the same directory path once you've re-established a stable Windows environment on your freshly formatted drive. If you've customized the path from the default at all, be certain it's in the same place one the newly installed OS.

Then, download and install the current version of GameEx. This essentially would act like an over the top installation just as if performing a routine version upgrade.

Basically you are restoring your current directory structure, emulators, extras etc and so on, and then reinstalling GameEx over the top of it, not the other way around as you have it worded.

Let nullPointer respond to this to ensure I'm not steering you incorrectly, but this is sure what I take from his comments.

Also, I agree that it would probably be best that if at all possible that you are running the current version prior to creating your backup of the current image. This way you are doing a apples to apples restoration.

If this is not possible, and you have a backup of the installer for the version you are currently running, then I think it would be desirable to use it instead. (In the case you have a really old, but stable build running in your current setup)

This is all correct. Do what nullpointer and tthurman say. The main thing if you are trying to use a backup is paths. You must replicate these exactly if using a backup install.

So, for instance, your MAME roms were located at: C:\MAME\roms, then you must put these roms in the exact same place for your backup to work properly. Likewise if your SNES emu was in C:\SNES\snes9x then you need to make sure it is in that same place after reinstalling.

Any deviations from this will result in problems. Because of this I personally would advise starting again - you get better at organizing and knowing where things are over time, and also you will understand, that paths don't rule you - you rule the paths