My understanding is that having some form of registry backup, even if
available on an external medium like a CD, will do no good when
recovering from a disk crash. This is because the registry data is
meaningful only in the context of applications existing on the machine
at the time of the registry backup. Is this right?

And a corollary is: the only way to recover from a disk crash (I have
no sophisticated IT resources) is to start with a new disk, install
Windows XP, install the apps, and restore any backed-up user data. Is
this right?

Thanks in advance.

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:6bfbf5a6-0dcd-42a9-aa32-(E-Mail Removed)...
> My understanding is that having some form of registry backup, even if
> available on an external medium like a CD, will do no good when
> recovering from a disk crash. This is because the registry data is
> meaningful only in the context of applications existing on the machine
> at the time of the registry backup. Is this right?
I believe so.
>
> And a corollary is: the only way to recover from a disk crash (I have
> no sophisticated IT resources) is to start with a new disk, install
> Windows XP, install the apps, and restore any backed-up user data. Is
> this right?
>
> Thanks in advance.
That is certainly one way.
The better way is to create regular backups of the entire disk, and then
restore the latest of them.
I use Acronis True Image for this purpose.
Jim

First you have to find out why your computer crashed.
---
Leonard Grey
Packin' the 'K'

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> My understanding is that having some form of registry backup, even if
> available on an external medium like a CD, will do no good when
> recovering from a disk crash. This is because the registry data is
> meaningful only in the context of applications existing on the machine
> at the time of the registry backup. Is this right?
>
> And a corollary is: the only way to recover from a disk crash (I have
> no sophisticated IT resources) is to start with a new disk, install
> Windows XP, install the apps, and restore any backed-up user data. Is
> this right?
>
> Thanks in advance.

On Fri, 5 Dec 2008 09:41:19 -0800 (PST), (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

> My understanding is that having some form of registry backup, even if
> available on an external medium like a CD, will do no good when
> recovering from a disk crash. This is because the registry data is
> meaningful only in the context of applications existing on the machine
> at the time of the registry backup. Is this right?


It's right about *some* of the registry data, not all.


> And a corollary is: the only way to recover from a disk crash (I have
> no sophisticated IT resources) is to start with a new disk, install
> Windows XP, install the apps, and restore any backed-up user data. Is
> this right?


Yes and no.

That depends on exactly what you mean by Disk Crash, and also on what
kind of backup you have. If you mean that everything on the drive has
been lost as a result of the crash and is unrecoverable, that's what
you have to do unless your backup consists of a clone or image of the
drive. If you have a clone or image as backup, all you need to do is
restore it to your new drive, so producing a clone or image as backup
does a much better job of protecting you against such an occurrence.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
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