Well, although it is unfortunate that you wound up losing settings etc, I suppose it could be worse. I am glad to hear you managed with no worse than that.
As you referenced, I believe the 'connection' between those two installs was this stupid registry thing we keep bustling about
And, after all was said and done, you did get the space you were aiming to get.
I do hope it goes smoothly once you get all your settings dialed in.
Best of luck with it