My OS (Win10) crashed and I could not repair it, so I chose the re-install keep files option. Surprising, most of my programs still work, but, of course, my gaotd ones no longer, so now I have to wait until I see those for free once again. lol

Anyway, 2.5 hours later, at least my VMs worked (had to re-install Virtualbox, but it found my VMs find so lucky I am or I wouldn't be typing this message now; lol) so that's good. Now for some more re-install stuff and such. Oh well; could have been worse. Still planning to get a new HD (going solid state when I do) soon; probably should do so now just in case this happens again. Anyway, thanks for being patient with me; still have a bunch of programs to re-install (like GIMP) so I'll be busy again for the next few days. Fortunately, for me, I took this week off (including Friday; have to go back to work on Saturday) so I have the time.

Too late now for this one, but you really should learn how to make restore images of your Window OS partition and save them to your external HDD. You would've been able to fix your problem in minutes had you done so. I did that for years on Windows systems with a simple bootable USB thumbdrive or CD.

No need for them anymore, but I still have a few of those old thumbdrives around. Lot's of info on the web about such things.

I know how too, racer-x (and use to do so), but after Win-10, I just didn't want to do all the external drive setup stuff to create images and such (a time consuming pain). Believe it or not, except for the GAOTD programs, most programs worked simply by moving them back to the Program Files (or Program Files(x86)) folder and re-entering the registration key. Had to re-install Office 2016 though, but no bigger either. Still, I see a whiteout display box when I try to check for updates and remember this happened before until it got patched. I waited a long time but no updates happened and guessed that the block check box was to be clicked as there are no updates since when I did so, both the progress bar and that box disappeared . Anyway, Excel (pretty much the only program I use regularly for my monthly expenses) work fine. Probably could install Libre Office but I paid $9 for my Office Professional suite (perks for being a contract worker) so what not use Office. lol

Perhaps by chance you've made a backup copy of your registry with a registry cleaner utility? If so, you could try copying over the keys for your GAOTD programs or just restore the old copy.

Windows and restore images go together like salt and pepper. Never assume the latest and greatest Windows OS will be stable....

Only one I really used often enough was Style Windows, racer-x and by some strange reason, I had kept the installer in my temp folder and low and behold, not only did it install, but the key from the text file worked. Happy camper I am.

Sorry to hear about the crash, what a pain Glad you have a few things sorted already. Hope you get the rest up and running soon. You timed this perfectly with taking time off

lol; not the type of timing I wanted, Sallyanne. Also planned for the tree guy ($500) to do some things (but hoped he wouldn't show up; well he did). The guy did a great job as always. He did, in 2 hours, what it took me nearly a week to do when I did it myself a few years back, so, what is my time worth to me. I say it was money worth spent since I'm not getting any younger. lol

I know it is a bit late now, but if you had used a bootable Flashdrive or CD to image the failing system before you rebuilt it, you would still have access to all of your information by accessing the image after. This in includes all of your registry keys. Something to keep in mind for the future.

As I told racer, it's a pain when you have nearly $500Gs of stuff to image. I just back my data now and re-install the OS. Yes; only have 1 partition. I suppose if I had 2 (one for OS and other for data), this would still be workable for me, but my imaging days are over with (did this a lot back in the past and have had to recover on multiple occasions; also did this often enough for customers when I was repairing PCs. No longer repair them except for friends).

Every computer I've owned, I've made at least two partitions on the main HDD. OS partition (usually 80 GB or so) and a very large Data partition. For Linux, I also use a 3rd partition for the swap.

I think having everything on one partition is a bad idea. I see no benefit in such things, unless you are using a small solid state HDD as main along with a larger secondary HDD for data. Some say that extended partitions are unreliable, but I've never had a problem with that.

I did the same, racer-x; my last PC that I built had 3 partitions. Well, unfortunately, with this PC I got lazy and purchased a complete system from Best-Buy and it was partitioned this way and never really got around to creating additional partitions. Yes; have Hiren (thus the tools) to do so. Now that proposition would be a time consuming one so I pass. lol

I like my ASUS PC; purchased ASUS motherboards in the past for PCs that I built. ASUS makes some great motherboards and they now create complete PCs which are on par to any DELL or HP PC imo. Might rethink this and again build my own system next time, but I find it just as cheap (if not cheaper) to buy one already built. My system is 2014 vintage; believe I have a few more years of play with it, but am looking close at the new Ryzen based systems.

Sorry about the crash Lyle. Glad you have your computer up and running again.

Thanks, Mackenzieh. The Win10 recovery options are fantastic; much better than in the past. The only program that I've not been able to recover (that I will miss that is) is Inpaint, but GAOTD periodically offers this cool program from time to time. There's plenty of other ways to skin a cat especially with using G'MIC, but I do like the simplicity of Inpaint, so it will be missed until I can get it once again (have had to do so 3 or 4 times prior due to either PC changes or crashes; I guess I should stop being cheap and just buy this gem; lol).

I've never used Inpaint. If you can get it opensource, go for it. It beats having to pay money.