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How to find the computer host name on a hard drive removed from a Windows PC

Just don't ask.. please don't. I had a client who presented me with several disk images (via Macrium) and who needed to know which image belonged to which machine & therefore client. Basically, somebody had not documented it correctly at build time.

So, the solution is to mount the images in Macrium and then:

1) Copy the file: \Windows\System32\config\system from the subject drive onto your local hard drive
2) Start up Regedit (Start -> Run -> "regedit")
3) Single-click on "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" to select it
4) File -> Load Hive.  Then navigate to and select the "System" file that you copied from the external disk.
5) When asked for a Key name, enter any name -- I'll Use "EXT" for this example.
6) Double-click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and you will see a "EXT" key under it.
7) Navigate to EXT\ControlSet001\Control\ComputerName\ComputerName
8) There should be an entry in the right window with the computer name.
9) To clean up, single-click on the "EXT" key to select it then File->Unload Hive.  Answer "Yes" in the next box.

Works perfectly.

Thanks to JW

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