Calnin said:
"> It is vaguely possible that you have struck registry size
limitations "

my C:\WINNT\system32\config\software is 8.9MB
and C:\WINNT\system32\config\system is 1.7MB
C:\WINNT\Profiles\Administrator\NTUSER.DAT is 1.5MB

are these excesively too large ??

reason i ask iirc there was program in NT4 ResKit
(like regdir.exe or reg.exe)
that reported the size of any key ie its subkeys
in the registry .. now i can not find it
nore remember what it was called ??

:rod-sacramento

nt4-ever wrote:

The Software hive is getting a bit on the fat side !!

Do you regularly run RDISK and save a repair copy of the hives? If so, do me a
favour, can tell me how big D:\Winnt\repair\software._ is on your machine.

When you run a repair disk the hives are read, stripped of crap and compressed.
the resulting files are saved in the repair folder. In the olden days (before
ERUNT and REGOPT came along) I used to 'manually' compress my registry hives by:

1. Run RDISK /S and update the \Repair folder copies.
2. Shutdown immediately after
3. Boot into Parallel installation
4. Expand the compressed copies out of the \Repair folder on my main
installation back to full size
5. Overwrite the existing hives on my main installation with the 'expanded
repair' copies. The new files you copy over are clean and have all the
superfluous garbage removed - RDISK does this when it makes the 'repair' copies
to save space :-)
6. Shutdown out of Parallel copy and reboot into a now clean registry normal
installation.

If you don't want to risk running REGOPT, my technique above suggests a simple,
safe test you can do - expand a copy of D:\Winnt\repair\software._ to somewhere
convenient and compare the size of resulting 'expanded hive' with the hive file
in D:\WinNT\System32\Config - this will give you an idea how much 'fat' is in
the active hive.

Hmmm.... can't say I've seen this tool - not to say it isn't there - the NT4
Resource kit is a goldmine of playtoys :-)

Calvin.

Calvin said:
"The Software hive is getting a bit on the fat side !! "

Yep never did very Much to reduce it

C:\WINNT\repair\software._ is
1.4 MB from 2004/03/19

i use Erunt .. but not sure how to save
to floppy or cd to replace ..

i copied my C:\WINNT\repair\software._
to
D:\TEMP2\Temp6\New Folder\software._
and when winzip expanded it it was
D:\TEMP2\Temp6\New Folder\$$hive$$.tmp
7.6MB
:rod-sacramento

Calvin said:
"can't say I've seen this tool"

Not sure it Was in the Reskit; justs
like resdir.exe and res.exe it was
CLI that gave size of registry keys ??

nt4-ever wrote:

When ERUNT saves your registry hives it does so to the path you specify. You can
change things like the default path and whether new files are created each time,
or files are overwritten, by settings you specify in the ERUNT.ini file. The
documentation supplied gives a rundown of this.

When ERUNT runs it also adds some executable files to the folder you save your
hives in to assist with restoration if required. Again the documentation
explains how this all works.

So in other words, your software. hive has 2.3MB of dead entries etc...

(8.9 - 7.6 = 2.3) in it.

Sounds like time for a serious REGOPT to me :-)

Do you have the ability to boot to a parallel install? - I always feel much
safer when doing these sort of things (like running REGOPT for the first time
ever) if I have a readily accessible 'back out' plan at hand !

Calvin.

Calvin said:
"So in other words, your software. hive has 2.3MB of dead entries
etc...
(8.9 - 7.6 = 2.3) in it.
Sounds like time for a serious REGOPT to me :-)
Do you have the ability to boot to a parallel install? "

Like: C:\WINNT2 which i instaled in 2002
when i had to replace My old 2GB Fujuitsu
drive with the New 20GB WDC .. ?

But is that serious problem ie 25 percent dead space
when i have 256 MB memory .. ??
:rod-sacramento
(( just realized the Aussies have different
Aritmetic ie 8.9-7.6 = 1.3 .. :-)
actually i did Not catch that either))