backing up registry

[Jo-Anne]

I'm about to make a change in the registry on my new WinXP computer. I'd
like to back up the registry first. In Googling how to do it, I came across
a Microsoft knowledge base article (KB322756) that said creating a Restore
point in System Restore would work. Is that sufficient?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Bill in Co.]

I'm about to make a change in the registry on my new WinXP computer. I'd
like to back up the registry first. In Googling how to do it, I came
across
a Microsoft knowledge base article (KB322756) that said creating a Restore
point in System Restore would work. Is that sufficient?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Sure. More than sufficient (i.e, it backs up a bit more than the registry,
too).

 

[Jo-Anne]

Sure. More than sufficient (i.e, it backs up a bit more than the
registry, too).

Thank you, Bill! This'll be my first effort at doing anything with the
registry...

Jo-Anne

 

[Bill in Co.]

Thank you, Bill! This'll be my first effort at doing anything with the
registry...

Jo-Anne

OK.
Just keep in mind that it doesn't replace a image or clone backup, but it
does backup the registry and some other important files.

I don't have the links at my fingertips that describe System Restore (and
I'm on dial-up), but you can find plenty of them.

 

[Jose]

Thank you, Bill! This'll be my first effort at doing anything with the
registry...

Jo-Anne

Making a RP is a good idea, but what if you make your changes and the
changes keep your system from booting if you wanted to use the RP?
What would you do?

There is no undo or quit without saving when using regedit and if you
ever hear somebody saying "oops...", that could be a problem.

Here is a tool that just does the registry which will make emergency
registry recovery a little easier if you need it. I use it
(sometimes) when I am about to make registry changes that I will not
remember how to undo them if something goes wrong.

Before making any changes to your registry, back it up with this free
popular just the registry tool:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

Recovering just the registry from an RP on an unbootable system can be
done, but it is a little awkward, requires a genuine bootable XP
installation CD or a bootable Recovery Console CD.

I would not put all my faith in a Restore Point until you have never
used one to test your mechanism. Test your process from end to end to
make sure you can create a RP on demand when you want, reboot with no
changes and then restore to the RP you made previously and reboot
again. Does everything work?

Make a RP
Reboot
Restore
Reboot
Good?

If all is good, you will have some confidence about making the changes
since you know you can undo them if you need to (a psychological good
feeling).

Finding out SR doesn't work when you need it is not the right time to
receive this information!

Here is one of many articles about SR from MS about SR:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

 

[someone watching]

I second Jose's recommendation of ERUNT. Best registry backup (only) utility
I've ever found. Saved me time and time and time again!

 

[Jo-Anne]

OK.
Just keep in mind that it doesn't replace a image or clone backup, but it
does backup the registry and some other important files.

I don't have the links at my fingertips that describe System Restore (and
I'm on dial-up), but you can find plenty of them.

Thank you again, Bill! I do have an image backup too. (Thanks to SC Tom, I
was able to download Acronis--free--to use with my WD external hard drive.)
However, I don't yet have a CD/DVD drive for this netbook--which means I
probably can't boot the computer externally. I need to either buy a drive or
install WD's software on one of my external hard drives. I believe WD has a
program that will let the external hard drive appear to be an optical drive.
(Of course, I don't know if one can actually boot from it.)

Early on (a month ago) I used System Restore on this computer, and it worked
fine. So I know it's at least functional.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Bill! This'll be my first effort at doing anything with the
registry...

Jo-Anne

<<Making a RP is a good idea, but what if you make your changes and the
changes keep your system from booting if you wanted to use the RP?
What would you do?

There is no undo or quit without saving when using regedit and if you
ever hear somebody saying "oops...", that could be a problem.

Here is a tool that just does the registry which will make emergency
registry recovery a little easier if you need it. I use it
(sometimes) when I am about to make registry changes that I will not
remember how to undo them if something goes wrong.

Before making any changes to your registry, back it up with this free
popular just the registry tool:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

Recovering just the registry from an RP on an unbootable system can be
done, but it is a little awkward, requires a genuine bootable XP
installation CD or a bootable Recovery Console CD.

I would not put all my faith in a Restore Point until you have never
used one to test your mechanism. Test your process from end to end to
make sure you can create a RP on demand when you want, reboot with no
changes and then restore to the RP you made previously and reboot
again. Does everything work?

Make a RP
Reboot
Restore
Reboot
Good?

If all is good, you will have some confidence about making the changes
since you know you can undo them if you need to (a psychological good
feeling).

Finding out SR doesn't work when you need it is not the right time to
receive this information!

Here is one of many articles about SR from MS about SR:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx

Thank you very much, Jose, for all this information! I will definitely get
ERUNT for all three of my computers. Shortly after I bought this netbook, a
month ago, I needed to do a System Restore; in fact, I did it twice, and it
worked fine both times--so I'm reasonably comfortable about it working. I
also have imaged the hard drive on an external hard drive with Acronis.

My big problem is that I don't yet have an external CD/DVD drive, so I can't
make a bootable CD. I've been dithering about what drive to buy, but I
should just go ahead with it. Unless there's a way to make a bootable flash
drive? Or perhaps a bootable external hard drive? (Western Digital, the
manufacturer of my external hard drives, has some sort of software, I think,
that makes the hard drive appear to be an optical drive.)

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

<<Making a RP is a good idea, but what if you make your changes and the
changes keep your system from booting if you wanted to use the RP?
What would you do?

There is no undo or quit without saving when using regedit and if you
ever hear somebody saying "oops...", that could be a problem.

Here is a tool that just does the registry which will make emergency
registry recovery a little easier if you need it. I use it
(sometimes) when I am about to make registry changes that I will not
remember how to undo them if something goes wrong.

Before making any changes to your registry, back it up with this free
popular just the registry tool:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

Recovering just the registry from an RP on an unbootable system can be
done, but it is a little awkward, requires a genuine bootable XP
installation CD or a bootable Recovery Console CD.

I would not put all my faith in a Restore Point until you have never
used one to test your mechanism. Test your process from end to end to
make sure you can create a RP on demand when you want, reboot with no
changes and then restore to the RP you made previously and reboot
again. Does everything work?

Make a RP
Reboot
Restore
Reboot
Good?

If all is good, you will have some confidence about making the changes
since you know you can undo them if you need to (a psychological good
feeling).

Finding out SR doesn't work when you need it is not the right time to
receive this information!

Here is one of many articles about SR from MS about SR:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx


Thank you very much, Jose, for all this information! I will definitely get
ERUNT for all three of my computers. Shortly after I bought this netbook,
a month ago, I needed to do a System Restore; in fact, I did it twice, and
it worked fine both times--so I'm reasonably comfortable about it working.
I also have imaged the hard drive on an external hard drive with Acronis.

My big problem is that I don't yet have an external CD/DVD drive, so I
can't make a bootable CD. I've been dithering about what drive to buy, but
I should just go ahead with it. Unless there's a way to make a bootable
flash drive? Or perhaps a bootable external hard drive? (Western Digital,
the manufacturer of my external hard drives, has some sort of software, I
think, that makes the hard drive appear to be an optical drive.)

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

Addendum and query: I just installed both ERUNT and NTREGOPT on one of my
computers and will install them on the others shortly. I set up ERUNT to
back up the registry each time Windows is started. Is that a reasonable
approach? (It will delete backups after 30 days.)

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Bill in Co.]

Addendum and query: I just installed both ERUNT and NTREGOPT on one of my
computers and will install them on the others shortly. I set up ERUNT to
back up the registry each time Windows is started. Is that a reasonable
approach? (It will delete backups after 30 days.)

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

I have ERUNT setup to automatically back up 5 days worth (I think that was
its default setup, too, similar to SCANREG in Win98). 30 days sounds a
bit much, and will consume a fair amount of HD space to do it.

PS. I was going to mention ERUNT, but figured you had your hands full with
SR for now, however ERUNT is really great!

 

[Bill in Co.]

Thank you again, Bill! I do have an image backup too. (Thanks to SC Tom, I
was able to download Acronis--free--to use with my WD external hard
drive.)
However, I don't yet have a CD/DVD drive for this netbook--which means I
probably can't boot the computer externally.

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily HAVE to have that option to use the
restore option, but it is certainly desireable!

What I mean by that is this: Should you decide you want to restore an
image, you can simply run Acronis in Windows and use the Restore option (it
has to reboot the computer to finish up, of course). (However, if your
internal drive actually died, this option won't be of much use, of course

 

[Jo-Anne]

Keep in mind that you don't necessarily HAVE to have that option to use
the restore option, but it is certainly desireable!

What I mean by that is this: Should you decide you want to restore an
image, you can simply run Acronis in Windows and use the Restore option
(it has to reboot the computer to finish up, of course). (However, if
your internal drive actually died, this option won't be of much use, of
course

Thank you, Bill! I know I can restore from within Acronis. I was figuring
the worst-case scenario--that whether because of a hard disk failure or
something else, I couldn't get into Windows at all...

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

I have ERUNT setup to automatically back up 5 days worth (I think that was
its default setup, too, similar to SCANREG in Win98). 30 days sounds a
bit much, and will consume a fair amount of HD space to do it.

PS. I was going to mention ERUNT, but figured you had your hands full
with SR for now, however ERUNT is really great!

Thank you, Bill! The default when I installed it today was 30 days. I agree,
though, that 5 sounds more reasonable. I'll check into where it can be
changed.

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Thank you, Bill! The default when I installed it today was 30 days. I
agree, though, that 5 sounds more reasonable. I'll check into where it can
be changed.

Jo-Anne

Addendum: I have no idea how to change the default (which definitely is 60
days in WinXP). The README file says you can change the number of days at
the command prompt with /days:[number]. But what exactly do you type at the
command prompt--before "/days:X"?

Jo-Anne

 

[SC Tom]

"Jo-Anne" <Jo-AnneATnowhere.com> wrote in message

Addendum: I have no idea how to change the default (which definitely is 60
days in WinXP). The README file says you can change the number of days at
the command prompt with /days:[number]. But what exactly do you type at
the command prompt--before "/days:X"?

Jo-Anne

This is the line from my shortcut that I have in my Startup folder (In
Windows 7):

"C:\Program Files\ERUNT\AUTOBACK.EXE" %SystemRoot%\ERDNT\AutoBackup\#Date#
/noconfirmdelete /noprogresswindow /days:7

Mine saves 7 day's worth and deletes the old ones daily.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Thank you, Bill! The default when I installed it today was 30 days. I
agree, though, that 5 sounds more reasonable. I'll check into where it
can
be changed.

Jo-Anne

Addendum: I have no idea how to change the default (which definitely is 60
days in WinXP). The README file says you can change the number of days at
the command prompt with /days:[number]. But what exactly do you type at
the
command prompt--before "/days:X"?

Jo-Anne

I think that is for the ERUNT.INI file, if you choose to create one. But I
looked on my drive, and apparently didn't create that file, so I'm guessing
that when I installed ERUNT, I configured the option during setup. Can't
recall now.

When you installed ERUNT, were you given a choice or option for the
autobackup configuration during the prompts?

One idea might be to reinstall ERUNT (or uninstall, reboot, and reinstall)
to get that option IF you remember that was shown there. (Of course if you
uninstall it, you'll probably lose those backups).

Either that, or create an ERUNT.INI (text) file in Notepad, and follow the
readme notes.

 

[Jo-Anne]

Also available is Erunt.
Which can be set to back up the Registry at start up.
Or used before d/loading new programs etc.


http://www.snapfiles.com/get/erunt.html

Got it, Desmond! Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

"Jo-Anne" <Jo-AnneATnowhere.com> wrote in message

Addendum: I have no idea how to change the default (which definitely is
60 days in WinXP). The README file says you can change the number of days
at the command prompt with /days:[number]. But what exactly do you type
at the command prompt--before "/days:X"?

Jo-Anne

This is the line from my shortcut that I have in my Startup folder (In
Windows 7):

"C:\Program Files\ERUNT\AUTOBACK.EXE" %SystemRoot%\ERDNT\AutoBackup\#Date#
/noconfirmdelete /noprogresswindow /days:7

Mine saves 7 day's worth and deletes the old ones daily.

Looks fine, but I don't know how to create it. I can see something that
looks like it when I run MSCONFIG, but how would I go about making the
change so it will work in Startup. I gather from the program notes that you
have to do this at the command prompt--which I could do if I knew the
syntax. Or is the syntax exactly what you've typed above? If so, I'll type
it at the command prompt and see what happens--unless that could screw
things up badly. (Also, I gather I can't just copy and paste at the command
prompt? I tried, and it didn't work.)

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

 

[Jo-Anne]

Jo-Anne wrote:
"Jo-Anne" <Jo-AnneATnowhere.com> wrote in message
On Jan 10, 1:50 am, "Jo-Anne" <Jo-AnneATnowhere.com> wrote:
messageJo-Anne wrote:
I'm about to make a change in the registry on my new WinXP
computer.
I'd
like to back up the registry first. In Googling how to do it, I
came
across
a Microsoft knowledge base article (KB322756) that said creating a
Restore
point in System Restore would work. Is that sufficient?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

Sure. More than sufficient (i.e, it backs up a bit more than the
registry, too).

Thank you, Bill! This'll be my first effort at doing anything with
the
registry...

Jo-Anne

<<Making a RP is a good idea, but what if you make your changes and
the
changes keep your system from booting if you wanted to use the RP?
What would you do?

There is no undo or quit without saving when using regedit and if you
ever hear somebody saying "oops...", that could be a problem.

Here is a tool that just does the registry which will make emergency
registry recovery a little easier if you need it. I use it
(sometimes) when I am about to make registry changes that I will not
remember how to undo them if something goes wrong.

Before making any changes to your registry, back it up with this free
popular just the registry tool:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

Recovering just the registry from an RP on an unbootable system can
be
done, but it is a little awkward, requires a genuine bootable XP
installation CD or a bootable Recovery Console CD.

I would not put all my faith in a Restore Point until you have never
used one to test your mechanism. Test your process from end to end
to
make sure you can create a RP on demand when you want, reboot with no
changes and then restore to the RP you made previously and reboot
again. Does everything work?

Make a RP
Reboot
Restore
Reboot
Good?

If all is good, you will have some confidence about making the
changes
since you know you can undo them if you need to (a psychological good
feeling).

Finding out SR doesn't work when you need it is not the right time to
receive this information!

Here is one of many articles about SR from MS about SR:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx



Thank you very much, Jose, for all this information! I will
definitely
get
ERUNT for all three of my computers. Shortly after I bought this
netbook,
a month ago, I needed to do a System Restore; in fact, I did it
twice,
and
it worked fine both times--so I'm reasonably comfortable about it
working.
I also have imaged the hard drive on an external hard drive with
Acronis.

My big problem is that I don't yet have an external CD/DVD drive, so
I
can't make a bootable CD. I've been dithering about what drive to
buy,
but
I should just go ahead with it. Unless there's a way to make a
bootable
flash drive? Or perhaps a bootable external hard drive? (Western
Digital,
the manufacturer of my external hard drives, has some sort of
software,
I
think, that makes the hard drive appear to be an optical drive.)

Thank you again!

Jo-Anne

Addendum and query: I just installed both ERUNT and NTREGOPT on one of
my
computers and will install them on the others shortly. I set up ERUNT
to
back up the registry each time Windows is started. Is that a
reasonable
approach? (It will delete backups after 30 days.)

Thank you!

Jo-Anne

I have ERUNT setup to automatically back up 5 days worth (I think that
was its default setup, too, similar to SCANREG in Win98). 30 days
sounds a bit much, and will consume a fair amount of HD space to do it.


PS. I was going to mention ERUNT, but figured you had your hands full
with SR for now, however ERUNT is really great!

Thank you, Bill! The default when I installed it today was 30 days. I
agree, though, that 5 sounds more reasonable. I'll check into where it
can
be changed.

Jo-Anne

Addendum: I have no idea how to change the default (which definitely is
60
days in WinXP). The README file says you can change the number of days at
the command prompt with /days:[number]. But what exactly do you type at
the
command prompt--before "/days:X"?

Jo-Anne

I think that is for the ERUNT.INI file, if you choose to create one. But
I looked on my drive, and apparently didn't create that file, so I'm
guessing that when I installed ERUNT, I configured the option during
setup. Can't recall now.

When you installed ERUNT, were you given a choice or option for the
autobackup configuration during the prompts?

One idea might be to reinstall ERUNT (or uninstall, reboot, and reinstall)
to get that option IF you remember that was shown there. (Of course if
you uninstall it, you'll probably lose those backups).

Either that, or create an ERUNT.INI (text) file in Notepad, and follow
the readme notes.

Thank you, Bill! Yes, I was given a choice, but the default was 30 days, so
I just left it at that. See the response from SC Tom about creating the
right script. I haven't figured out how to do that...

Jo-Anne

 

[Daave]

I have ERUNT setup to automatically back up 5 days worth (I think
that was its default setup, too, similar to SCANREG in Win98). 30
days sounds a bit much, and will consume a fair amount of HD space to
do it.

How much hard drive space would an extra 25 days' worth of registry
backups take up? (Surely, less than 1GB total.) Assuming Jo-Anne's hard
drive isn't tiny, it might make more sense for her to keep the default
value of 30 days IMO. It's not hurting anything.