Floydy, looking to do this the simplest way, and on the assumption that the drive is going.
I have a slave drive fitted, much newer, less worked ( it only has docs/settings back ups on it), and an external hard drive.
If I were to move the whole of the slave drive onto the external, format the slave and then use my Acronis True Image to clone the C drive onto the slave, then install the slave as the master, would that be a reasonable procedure ?
OK, if the system32/config folder has gone from the current master, it would not be in the "clone", but there again, if the file is missing, why does everything work properly once the machine does start........further, if the file is used only at start up and is missing, why does it eventually start ?
The other alternative is to wipe the slave drive, and reinstall Windows and everything else onto that, after making it the master , and I do have a full XP installation disc, an Sp" disc, a motherboard disc with lots of drivers and then all my prog dics,printers etc discs.
Will try the clone thing first, and see what happens.