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determinedblkman: how do you restore a registry backup (for xp) when it is in use? & if you have to do it from a command line, whats the syntex, & do you have to be in the recovery console ?
How did you back up the registry. The "System Restore" feature or the Windows Backup program can restore a backup of the registry. They refer to that as the "System State" and you have to select a separate option to back up or restore that. If you just have the registry hive files (they have no file extension) then you will need to use the Recovery Console to copy the files. To use the Recovery Console, boot a Windows XP Setup CD (not one by Dell, Gateway, etc.) and select the options to use the Recovery Console. All of the registry hives are located in this directory. C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/CONFIG NOTE: Replace the forward slashes with backslashes (MySpace won't display backslashes). There is usually a (very old) backup copy of the files in this directory. C:/WINDOWS/REPAIR Those may be useful to get the system to boot, but I recommend renaming the old registry files NOT deleting them from the "CONFIG" folder. You may need to go fishing for information later. Microsoft recommends getting the system to boot, and then restoring the registry using System Restore. They also have instructions on the Microsoft site about how to get System Restore to work after replacing the registry (it won't work after you replace certain registry files). What I recommend to back up and restore the registry is this program. Emergency Recovery Utility NT (ERUNT) Among other things (ERUNT) includes some batch files that you can use as Recovery Console commands to restore the registry from one of the ERUNT backup copies. Otherwise you have to type in commands for each registry hive file to restore them. Here are the names registry hive files. DEFAULT - Settings used by system services and windows logon task SAM - User names and passwords for security IDs (SIDs) SECURITY - Computer security settings, user rights and group assignments SOFTWARE - Software settings (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE) SYSTEM - Hardware configuration and system settings, services, etc. The "SYSTEM" and "SOFTWARE" hives are somewhat interrelated so you can't always get away with replacing one without the other. The SYSTEM hive is loaded under "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM". One of the most important keys in the SYSTEM hive is "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/MountedDevices". If the drive letter for C: is not assigned to a partition that can be located you will get the dreaded "Inaccessible boot device" error. The settings for "HKEY_CURRENT_USER" don't come from any particular file. That key is loaded when you log on to Windows, and the file used is "ntuser.dat" from your user profile directory. |