How to copy PuTTY sessions from crashed computer?

Question

I had PuTTY on crashed computer and it had many of items in sessions.

I have access to the system drive of crashed computer.

How to reach PuTTY's registry branch and copy it to new active computer?

Answer 1

You can use some registry reading tool. Like MiTec Windows Registry Recovery.

See my guide to recovering settings of WinSCP. With PuTTY, it's identical, except for the registry key path, of course:

• In MiTec Windows Registry Recovery, go to File > Open.
• Locate registry hive file of your account. It is typically located in C:\Users\username\ntuser.dat (or C:\Documents and Settings\username\ntuser.dat in Windows XP and older). Note that the file is usually hidden.
• Go to Explore > Raw Data.
• Locate key Software/SimonTatham/PuTTY/Sessions.
• Go to File > Export to REGEDIT4 format.
• On Export to REGEDIT4 dialog, select HKEY_CURRENT_USER and check both Only selected key and Cut off root key name.
• Save export to file of your choice.
• Transfer the file to target system.
• Import the registry export by opening it (double-click).

Answer 2

Here is a simple tutorial on how to extract your Putty configuration from an old Windows/Crashed Windows without any extra software. This was very helpful to me and I just want to share the same stes here in case the below one goes down. Credits : http://www.miniservernation.com/2012/05/putty-import-settings-from-old-hdd-or-crashed-system/

Pre-requisites:
• your registry file must still be accessible (located in user profiles) Steps on restoring putty configurations:

1. On your new Windows run putty once. Then create a dummy configuration server. This is make Putty create a new configuration entry in registry.
2. Close putty.
3. Use windows run command (Windows Key + r) to run “regedit“.
4. Once in registry editor, highlight “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE“
5. Then click File -> Load Hive…
6. A dialog box will ask for the registry file to open. Explore to your old user profile folder. For eg, “C:\Windows.old\Users\myusername\NTUSER.DAT“
7. You will be prompted a name for this key name. Just put anything you like. In this example, we use “old-registry“.
8. You can now expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you will see the key file you just opened under the label you put in step 7.
9. Expand as such, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\old-registry\Software\SimonTatham
10. Now highlight SimonTatham on your left hand side of regedit and right-click then choose export.
11. Export this registry entry to a file name and location of your choice. I put it in desktop and call it “putty-config“. This file will have the extension of .reg. But those who didn’t enable view extensions will not see it. That is fine.
12. Now you can unload old-registry from your hive. Make sure “old-registry” is highlighted. Select File -> Unload Hive…
13. Once you have unload the hive, close regedit.
14. Use notepad to open up the registry file you just saved. For me, it’s “putty-config“.
15. Use replace “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\old-registry” with “HKEY_CURRENT_USER“. Click Replace All.
16. Now save the file and close notepad.
17. Right click on the “putty-config” file and select “Merge“. This will merge the registry into your new registry.
18. Open up Putty and voila!!! Your old configurations are all back in Putty including all the session keys.