How to access System Restore on a non-bootable drive?

[Badger]

Here is the scenario.
OS is Windows XP SP2 on a P4 3.0Ghz machine.

For reasons that seemed valid to him at the time, the owner, (not me)
deleted all references to shgina.dll in his Registry. As a result the
computer would not boot, even into Safe Mode.
He had carefully set a System Restore point before fiddling with the
Registry but now cannot get to it to restore back to the point before he
changed the Registry.
I now have his computer to try to solve the problem for him. I tried to do a
repair install but the computer only got as far as installing devices and
then continually restarted the install from scratch.
I then hooked up another HDD with XP already installed, configuring it as
the Master and reconfigured the original C drive as a slave.
OK, now I can boot the computer and look at the original C drive. All his
settings and data are intact, and he would like to keep them like that. As a
precaution I have copied the entire contents of the old drive onto a folder
in the new one, called (imaginatively) "Stuff from old drive".
So, the question is, is there any way in which I can invoke System Restore
on the old C drive? At the moment it's just a data drive, not the OS Boot
drive so I can't simply run System Restore on it.
I've Googled this till I'm blue in the face but can't find any apparent
answers.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Badger

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hi Badger,

Hook it back up as the boot drive and see if you can run System Restore from
a command prompt:

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449



Regards,

 

[Badger]

Thank you Patti. However, as I can't boot the computer into Windows at all,
not even in Safe Mode with Command Prompt, I can't start System Restore from
a Command Prompt. Any attempt to boot in *any* mode gets to the Welcome
screen and then hangs.
Any other thoughts would be most welcome.
Badger

 

[Gerry]

Patti

As a result the computer would not boot, even into Safe Mode.

Did you not read this?

--
Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Gerry,

Yes, I did. Although it doesn't work out in ALL cases, and I can't guarantee
that it will work out in this case, I've had a few where I have suggested
booting into Safe Mode with Command Prompt to the person who could not boot
even into Safe Mode, and it worked out fine.



Regards,

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Well, it was worth a try.

I do have another thought, it has to do with loading the registry hive
that's on the "problem" disk while in the registry editor of the "good"
disk. Unfortunately, I have to head off to work the nightshift right
now.....if I get a chance at work, I'll write it out for you tonight, and if
not, then I'll write it out tomorrow afternoon when I wake up and am having
my coffee.



Regards,

 

[Badger]

Here is the scenario.
OS is Windows XP SP2 on a P4 3.0Ghz machine.

For reasons that seemed valid to him at the time, the owner, (not me)
deleted all references to shgina.dll in his Registry. As a result the
computer would not boot, even into Safe Mode.
He had carefully set a System Restore point before fiddling with the
Registry but now cannot get to it to restore back to the point before he
changed the Registry.
I now have his computer to try to solve the problem for him. I tried to do
a repair install but the computer only got as far as installing devices
and then continually restarted the install from scratch.
I then hooked up another HDD with XP already installed, configuring it as
the Master and reconfigured the original C drive as a slave.
OK, now I can boot the computer and look at the original C drive. All his
settings and data are intact, and he would like to keep them like that. As
a precaution I have copied the entire contents of the old drive onto a
folder in the new one, called (imaginatively) "Stuff from old drive".
So, the question is, is there any way in which I can invoke System Restore
on the old C drive? At the moment it's just a data drive, not the OS Boot
drive so I can't simply run System Restore on it.
I've Googled this till I'm blue in the face but can't find any apparent
answers.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Badger

Further to the above, I did reset the old drive as drive C again and once
again tried to boot from it. This time it recognised that Windows Setup
hadn't completed and tried to finish, with the same result of hanging and
restarting part way through.
So I tried booting the computer using Bart PE. I was able to use a Command
Prompt that way but the computer couldn't find the path required to run
System Restore. I have checked and all the requisite files and folders are
where they should be, in Windows/system32/Restore. I can even find and
identify the actual Restore file I need but I still can't run Restore to use
it!
Frustrating huh?
Badger

 

[Patti MacLeod]

I don't doubt that this is frustrating for you.

I just thought of something, and it may very well be a long shot, but here
goes....
If that computer has a floppy drive and you have a blank, formatted floppy
disk, you could try creating a boot disk to see if you can then successfully
boot into the Windows GUI:
Creating a boot disk for an NTFS or FAT partition
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311073/en-us

If you *are* successful, then you could either try running System Restore or
you could try re-registering that particular dll file. To re-register the dll
file, go to Start>Run and key in:
regsvr32 /i shgina.dll
Click on OK or hit ENTER
Click on OK in the Regsvr32 dialogue box



Regards,

 

[John John]

Here is the scenario.
OS is Windows XP SP2 on a P4 3.0Ghz machine.

For reasons that seemed valid to him at the time, the owner, (not me)
deleted all references to shgina.dll in his Registry. As a result the
computer would not boot, even into Safe Mode.
He had carefully set a System Restore point before fiddling with the
Registry but now cannot get to it to restore back to the point before he
changed the Registry.
I now have his computer to try to solve the problem for him. I tried to do a
repair install but the computer only got as far as installing devices and
then continually restarted the install from scratch.
I then hooked up another HDD with XP already installed, configuring it as
the Master and reconfigured the original C drive as a slave.
OK, now I can boot the computer and look at the original C drive. All his
settings and data are intact, and he would like to keep them like that. As a
precaution I have copied the entire contents of the old drive onto a folder
in the new one, called (imaginatively) "Stuff from old drive".
So, the question is, is there any way in which I can invoke System Restore
on the old C drive? At the moment it's just a data drive, not the OS Boot
drive so I can't simply run System Restore on it.
I've Googled this till I'm blue in the face but can't find any apparent
answers.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.

We all learn one way or another... He had the good sense of creating a
Restore Point before his "experiment", so hopefully the backup registry
hives inside the Restore Point he created can be used to bring the
machine back to life.

Here is what Patti was refering to in one of her posts:

From your working Windows installation navigate to the
Windows\System32\config folder on his drive and rename or *move* the
following files out of the System32\config folder:

DEFAULT
SECURITY
SOFTWARE
SYSTEM
SAM

The files can be renamed with a .old extension or to eliminate clutter
they can (should) be moved to another temp location.

Now, navigate to the System Volume Information folder on his drive,
inside which you will fing a _restore{... folder which contains
Restore Point folders numbered as such: RP1, RP2, RP3... Select the
newest RP folder and inside that folder you will find a "Snapshot"
folder the containing a backup of the registry hives. Copy the
following files from the snapshot folder to the System32\config folder,
making sure to rename them to the same names as the files they will be
replacing:

• Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

That may permit you to boot the computer, if it does boot to finish the
repair do a System Restore to the newest available point.

John

 

[Badger]

Here is the scenario.
OS is Windows XP SP2 on a P4 3.0Ghz machine.

For reasons that seemed valid to him at the time, the owner, (not me)
deleted all references to shgina.dll in his Registry. As a result the
computer would not boot, even into Safe Mode.
He had carefully set a System Restore point before fiddling with the
Registry but now cannot get to it to restore back to the point before he
changed the Registry.
I now have his computer to try to solve the problem for him. I tried to do
a repair install but the computer only got as far as installing devices
and then continually restarted the install from scratch.
I then hooked up another HDD with XP already installed, configuring it as
the Master and reconfigured the original C drive as a slave.
OK, now I can boot the computer and look at the original C drive. All his
settings and data are intact, and he would like to keep them like that. As
a precaution I have copied the entire contents of the old drive onto a
folder in the new one, called (imaginatively) "Stuff from old drive".
So, the question is, is there any way in which I can invoke System Restore
on the old C drive? At the moment it's just a data drive, not the OS Boot
drive so I can't simply run System Restore on it.
I've Googled this till I'm blue in the face but can't find any apparent
answers.
Any ideas would be much appreciated.
Badger

Thank you Patti and John John for your input. I will try each of your ideas
to see if I am successful.
Badger

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Thank you Patti and John John for your input. I will try each of your
ideas to see if I am successful.
Badger

You're welcome, and please do let us know whether you are successful or not
trying out those ideas.



Regards,

 

[Patti MacLeod]

We all learn one way or another... He had the good sense of creating a
Restore Point before his "experiment", so hopefully the backup registry
hives inside the Restore Point he created can be used to bring the
machine back to life.

Here is what Patti was refering to in one of her posts:

From your working Windows installation navigate to the
Windows\System32\config folder on his drive and rename or *move* the
following files out of the System32\config folder:

DEFAULT
SECURITY
SOFTWARE
SYSTEM
SAM

The files can be renamed with a .old extension or to eliminate clutter
they can (should) be moved to another temp location.

Now, navigate to the System Volume Information folder on his drive,
inside which you will fing a _restore{... folder which contains Restore
Point folders numbered as such: RP1, RP2, RP3... Select the newest RP
folder and inside that folder you will find a "Snapshot" folder the
containing a backup of the registry hives. Copy the following files from
the snapshot folder to the System32\config folder, making sure to rename
them to the same names as the files they will be replacing:

• Rename _REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT to DEFAULT
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY to SECURITY
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE to SOFTWARE
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM to SYSTEM
• Rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM to SAM

That may permit you to boot the computer, if it does boot to finish the
repair do a System Restore to the newest available point.

John

Hi John,

Actually, that wasn't what I was referring to, but what you've suggested
would probably work and may even be a lot simpler than what I was thinking.
A brief example of what I was thinking is this:

Slave the "problem" drive in the working XP rig. Boot into XP on the "good"
drive. Open the registry editor, highlight either HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE or
HKEY_USERS and then go to File>Load Hive. Navigate to
Windows\System32\Config folder and open the file named "software". At the
prompt for Key name, enter something like TempHive or the Username for the
user on the "problem" drive. Expand the key into which the hive was loaded,
and then open the TempHive or Username key.....this will be the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software key on the "problem" drive. This registry hive
can then be manually edited to replace the shgina.dll values that had been
deleted.
I did a search of the registry on my rig for the shgina.dll values, and
could instruct as to what would need to be edited.
Once the keys are edited, then highlight the main TempHive or Username key
and go to File>Unload Hive. Click on Yes at the prompt. This would unload it
from the "good" drive's registry and replace it in the "problem" drive.
Can't say for certain that it would work, but it might.



Regards,

 

[Badger]

Hello again Patti and John.

Unfortunately the last attempt to boot from the stuffed-up drive and it's
attempt to once again try to finish the repair install of Windows seems to
have overwritten the required restore file. As a result I wasn't able to get
the system back to where it had been before the Registry was edited.
Soooo, I bit the bullet, reinstalled XP from scratch and he'll just have to
install all his apps again!
I do appreciate your help very much.
Thank you again.
Badger

 

[Patti MacLeod]

Hello again Patti and John.

Unfortunately the last attempt to boot from the stuffed-up drive and it's
attempt to once again try to finish the repair install of Windows seems to
have overwritten the required restore file. As a result I wasn't able to get
the system back to where it had been before the Registry was edited.
Soooo, I bit the bullet, reinstalled XP from scratch and he'll just have to
install all his apps again!
I do appreciate your help very much.
Thank you again.
Badger

Too bad that didn't work out for you :-(

You're welcome for the help



Regards,