restoring a corrupt registry value from another HD

[jakalope]

while removing a few keys in my registry i foolishly added quotations around a value in the registry of my 2nd pc.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Software\Microsoft\Win dows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

the true value is:
Userinit = C:\WINNT\system32\userinit.exe,

i did this:
Userinit = "C:\WINNT\system32\userinit.exe,"

now when rebooting my pc it continues to try and load my personal settings over and over without success.

i know exactly what i need to change/remove but i'm not sure how or even IF i can gain access to the registry from the other hard drive to edit this value on the pc i am currently writing this message on.

is it possible to access the "Software, Software.log, Software.sav" files from the corrupt registry and view/edit them through regedit on my current pc, then replace?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks in advance.

[bAdWaYz]

Did you try to boot the computer to safe mode or better yet safe mode command prompt? If you can boot to either you should be able to access regedit.

[jakalope]

unfortunately it continues reload the "Loading your personal settings..." prompt =(

looks like the call to "Userinit = C:\WINNT\system32\userinit.exe," gets made before i can access anything else.

thanks for the reply

[MaDef]

I was going to suggest the same thing, but you say you can't get into safe mode. Have you thought about putting the drive into the 2nd pc as a slave, edit the registry, then put it back into the first pc?

[jakalope]

MaDef, i guess that's my real question... if i mount the drive on my other machine, how do access the corrupt registry on the slave drive?

i'm assuming regedit will display my current windows registry.

i CAN access the files on my other machine via the one i'm currently on (while it continues to reload my personal settings) i just can't edit the registry.

[MaDef]

I think windows 98 was the last time I did this, when you open regedit, import the registry you want to edit, then export it back to where it was after making changes.
(I'm going from memory here)
to edit the registry remotely, you need to have administrator privileges on the machine you are trying to edit.

There is another way to fix it:
1. Start windows 2000 from the setup disks or cd
2. Choose the repair option during setup
3. Choose the type of repair (fast or Manual) You have to use fast, since manual won't allow you to fix the registry.
4. Start the repair proccess. You will be asked to insert the ERD (emergency repair disk) if you don't have one, windows will use the current windows installation to do the repair (works 9 times out of 10)
5. Reboot the system.

[jakalope]

i just reinstalled windows. the windows repair option didn't correct the corrupt registy value. windows continued to repeat the "loading personal settings" only at an accelerated pace.

thanks for the help though =)

[MaDef]

Good you got it fixed.

You might want to get "Hirens boot cd". It's saved me from having to reinstall the os once or twice.