XP registry wont save changes

[systemcrash]

I recently re installed my OS Xp home, and now i am having problems with the registry, I Copied the "Programs" folder to another partition, E:\ and opened the registry and moded it to run programs form that partition. It worked fine, I then went to move Documents and settings folder... I know most people don't recommended doing this but i done it before and it went fine, I done the exact same this time, but when i reboot only 3/4 of the registry stay saved, so half the files run from D:\ the other half C:\ I have checked that all the folders have copied it allows me to set them in the registry to D:\ but on reboot they revert back.

With this fresh install i have turned off windows firewall and have not yet installed a anti-virus.

But for some reason the entire registry wont save, I tried other registry mods such as creating No low disk space entry and no shared folders entries and they wont save. I have booted into safe mode logged in as Administrator made the same changes and they wont save either. I dont know if it matters but the 2 profiles Admin and Owner don't share a registry, I cannot acess C:\Documents and Settings\Admin if im logged into the owner account or the other way round.

I have even re-installed XP and the same problem occurred the 2nd time, I have made sure nothing is running but the same problem happens

[Pilgrim]

If you have 'Copied' the folders then you have identical folders on two different partitions, I suspect that your registry is confused, if you had 'Moved' them there would be no room for conflict.

I have 'Program Files' and 'Documents and Settings' on both C and D partitions but the files they contain are different on each partition although they all started out on C.

When I moved them I cleaned the registry before I started and then ran Registry First Aid, which is permanently available free on various promotions, after the move, this picked up the new locations and edited the registry for me.

Make sure you have a backup of your files and registry first and then try moving the files so that they only exist on one partition.

[Concerned User]

Start out with a completely fresh install that does not require copying files from the "Program Files" folder.

Backup all your important files, documents, games, music to an external drive and then start out with a fresh install.

Yeah, I know that a fresh install can be a bit of a pain (I downgraded to XP right now and reinstalling all the updates can be very painful since I did not back them up

[systemcrash]

..... getting a little frustrated now this problem wont stop i done this before and it worked fine but this time it wont.... i have now done a fresh install with one user account (the Admin account) then i booted into safe mode to access the Admin account that windows provides not the one i created, This loads into C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator. Then i put in a rescue CD and booted to a rescue windows XP on the CD leaving the drive alone. While in the CD menu i opened the drive containing the \Documents and Settings Folder copied the entire folder including all the users and NTuser.dat files (this i found the only way to avoid the error message 'this file is in use') and deleted the original files.

i then used 'Registry editor PE' from the disk and opened the registry from all the users on my computer. I then went through the entire registry changing all the 'documents and settings' to E:\ instead of C:\ even the shorter C:\DOCUME~1 to E:\ even though there where only a max of 10 of these strings, when last time there where a lot more....

When i rebooted it booted into default profile and i then changes the settings back so i could access the original profile. Every time i delete the original C:\Documents and Settings the computer boots into Default User..... i have also tried NTFS Link program to redirect the document to another Drive But it dont work if i delete the original it boots into default user.

Its annoyning me a lot since i done it 5 times before without problems and now i cant do this method, and i have no idea why i had the method written down it now dont work..... ive tried it before installing the updates and after. And i dont have the updates either, so to reinstall the system after i spent ages updating gets a little annoying!!