Backing up and restoring the Registry

[Edward W. Thompson]

If the bootable drive is formatted NTFS and the Registry is corrupted to the
extent that you are unable to boot into WINXP (normal or safe mode) how can
the Registry be restored?

If the bootable drive is formatted FAT then there is no problem as ERUNT
will restore the Registry but ERUNT will not restore from outside Windows to
an NTFS drive. System Restore does not help outside of Windows.

As far as I know the only strategy that covers this situation is by creating
an image of the bootable drive and a bootable recovery disk and restore the
complete drive in the event of not being able to boot. Any comments?

 

[george]

inline

If the bootable drive is formatted NTFS and the Registry is corrupted to
the extent that you are unable to boot into WINXP (normal or safe mode)
how can the Registry be restored?

you could install a new (bare bone) version of XP onto the drive (make sure
it does *not* go into the existing WINDOWS directory, but choose a new one).
Now you have a working XP (that can access NTFS!! and gives you the ability
to run whatever program you need!!), so you can just simply restore your
system32\config directory (containing your macine-related system registry)
as well as any ntuser*.* files from the users listed in Documents&Settings
(the user-parts of the registry).

Once done, reboot your old system, adjust boot.ini to no longer reflect your
new install and delete the newly installed 'windows' directory.
You could also leave it on the system for future use in which case changing
boot.ini to default to the correct windows-installation will suffice.

)

george

 

[JAX]

Hi Edward,

I would suggest that you try a repair install of XP. See the following link
for instructions.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
Thanks to Michael Stevens

HTH, JAX

 

[Harry Ohrn]

You can try Last Known Good Configuration. Repeatedly press F8 as the
computer starts. You should get to the Boot Menu. There choose Last Known
Good Config. That will attempt to restore a working copy of the registry.

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

Thanks Harry, I was aware of that but I assume, perhaps incorrectly, that
Registry corruption may prevent accessing that page. From what I understand
from others postings recently when installing SP2 they have ended up not
being able to boot at all and I assumed that meant not accessing the
'choices' page.

I guess, reading between the lines of your response, you agree that an
'image' plus a bootable disk is the only way to restore the Registry in a
'no boot' situation. Fortunately, I have not been in that dilemna, but you
never know .

You can try Last Known Good Configuration. Repeatedly press F8 as the
computer starts. You should get to the Boot Menu. There choose Last Known
Good Config. That will attempt to restore a working copy of the registry.

--

Harry Ohrn MS-MVP [Shell/User]
www.webtree.ca/windowsxp

If the bootable drive is formatted NTFS and the Registry is corrupted to
the extent that you are unable to boot into WINXP (normal or safe mode)
how can the Registry be restored?

If the bootable drive is formatted FAT then there is no problem as ERUNT
will restore the Registry but ERUNT will not restore from outside Windows
to an NTFS drive. System Restore does not help outside of Windows.

As far as I know the only strategy that covers this situation is by
creating an image of the bootable drive and a bootable recovery disk and
restore the complete drive in the event of not being able to boot. Any
comments?

 

[Alex Nichol]

If the bootable drive is formatted NTFS and the Registry is corrupted to the
extent that you are unable to boot into WINXP (normal or safe mode) how can
the Registry be restored?

If the bootable drive is formatted FAT then there is no problem as ERUNT
will restore the Registry but ERUNT will not restore from outside Windows to
an NTFS drive. System Restore does not help outside of Windows.

It is always worth seeing if you can boot to Safe Mode - Command Prompt.
From that you can run Restore with
C:\Windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

With ERUNT - make its folder C:\Windows\ERDNT

You can then boot the CD to Repair (recovery console) mode, and copy
the backed up registry hives (no extension) from there direct into
Windows\system\config

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

It is always worth seeing if you can boot to Safe Mode - Command Prompt.
From that you can run Restore with
C:\Windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

With ERUNT - make its folder C:\Windows\ERDNT

You can then boot the CD to Repair (recovery console) mode, and copy
the backed up registry hives (no extension) from there direct into
Windows\system\config

Thanks Alex, not to be picky but assume you mean Windows\system32\config.
That's very useful info.

Now to remember if I ever have to use it. .