Performance counters and logs - inadvertent wipeout?

[Almali del Benian]

I posted this question to WindowsXPnewusers, but had no replies.

Maybe somebody here can help me out.

I'm new to WindowsXP. My dealer set up my machine with great care and
attention; he also updated Windows to the minute, installed and
updated my Microsoft Office 2000 as well, before letting the machine
out of his shop into my hands.

The other night, seeing references to Hotfixes on the newuser group, I
went to Control Panel, Add/Remove, but then instead of staying in the
main Add/Remove screen where I should have stayed, I went to Windows
Components. (Silly me; thinking of "Windows.")

I'm not sure what I did (it was wrong, whatever it was), but a Wizard
popped up. I was so disoriented then that perhaps I clicked on a Next;
if so, I thought, surely I could cancel. But then there appeared a
message saying that my Performance counters and logs had been removed,
and/or at least, two (if I remember the numbers right) Registry keys
had been removed.

Obviously, this occurred at my ignorant clicking, when I should have
kept my hands off.

Hey! I didn't want to do that!

Can I get these counters and logs back, or start them again? I have
begun to look at the Help and Support screens, and find them totally
daunting; I don't understand them. Yet. It will probably take me weeks
to understand them. I will pursue it.

In the meantime, though, can somebody here:

1) Suggest to me what I might have done, and what happened as a
result, and what my losses probably are?

2) Suggest to me how I can go about restoring the Performance logs and
counters capability, so they will at least start up again, if I have
lost previous ones?

Further information, in case it applies:

I'm running XP Home
My machine is network-capable, but it is not networked; I'm using it
as a single-user machine.
I use ZoneAlarm (free), AdSubtract, AVG antivirus (v. 7,paid),
AdAware, Spybot.
I have run chkdsk /r a few times, and defragged twice or three times,
since receiving the machine just over three weeks ago.

I have purposely not run chkdksk/ r nor defragged since I made this
terrible error two evenings ago.

I had already installed NTBackup from the Windows (OEM) CD, and run it
twice, on 27 Feb. and 29 Feb, backing up only the System State, to my
second hard drive, D. I stopped doing that when a friend told me
(likely erroneously) that NTBackup doesn't work with XP Home; he said
you can back up, but you can't restore (perhaps especially, not the
System State, and he might be right about that part).

I probably wouldn't want to restore the System State, anyway; I just
did the backups to learn something.

I have set Restore Points a couple of times, but also have no
intention of using those if I can possibly help it; I gather you use
one of those only if your system won't work at all.

I am in the process of setting up backup procedures, backing up to
CD-Rs and CDRWs. My crucial backups, for now, consist of redundant
files and folders on the two physical hard drives. If one has to
choose to back up Performance Counters and Logs, to back them up, then
I have no backups of those.

Likely I wouldn't need old Performance Counters and Logs anyway,
provided I could start them up again.

It was the removal of two Registry keys that really scared me.

I hope somebody can step me through at least re-starting Performance
Logs and Counters?

Thanks in advance!


Almali del Benian

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

HOW TO: Set Up Administrative Alerts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310490&Product=winxp

HOW TO: Manage System Monitor Counters in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305610&Product=winxp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


|I posted this question to WindowsXPnewusers, but had no replies.
|
| Maybe somebody here can help me out.
|
| I'm new to WindowsXP. My dealer set up my machine with great care and
| attention; he also updated Windows to the minute, installed and
| updated my Microsoft Office 2000 as well, before letting the machine
| out of his shop into my hands.
|
| The other night, seeing references to Hotfixes on the newuser group, I
| went to Control Panel, Add/Remove, but then instead of staying in the
| main Add/Remove screen where I should have stayed, I went to Windows
| Components. (Silly me; thinking of "Windows.")
|
| I'm not sure what I did (it was wrong, whatever it was), but a Wizard
| popped up. I was so disoriented then that perhaps I clicked on a Next;
| if so, I thought, surely I could cancel. But then there appeared a
| message saying that my Performance counters and logs had been removed,
| and/or at least, two (if I remember the numbers right) Registry keys
| had been removed.
|
| Obviously, this occurred at my ignorant clicking, when I should have
| kept my hands off.
|
| Hey! I didn't want to do that!
|
| Can I get these counters and logs back, or start them again? I have
| begun to look at the Help and Support screens, and find them totally
| daunting; I don't understand them. Yet. It will probably take me weeks
| to understand them. I will pursue it.
|
| In the meantime, though, can somebody here:
|
| 1) Suggest to me what I might have done, and what happened as a
| result, and what my losses probably are?
|
| 2) Suggest to me how I can go about restoring the Performance logs and
| counters capability, so they will at least start up again, if I have
| lost previous ones?
|
| Further information, in case it applies:
|
| I'm running XP Home
| My machine is network-capable, but it is not networked; I'm using it
| as a single-user machine.
| I use ZoneAlarm (free), AdSubtract, AVG antivirus (v. 7,paid),
| AdAware, Spybot.
| I have run chkdsk /r a few times, and defragged twice or three times,
| since receiving the machine just over three weeks ago.
|
| I have purposely not run chkdksk/ r nor defragged since I made this
| terrible error two evenings ago.
|
| I had already installed NTBackup from the Windows (OEM) CD, and run it
| twice, on 27 Feb. and 29 Feb, backing up only the System State, to my
| second hard drive, D. I stopped doing that when a friend told me
| (likely erroneously) that NTBackup doesn't work with XP Home; he said
| you can back up, but you can't restore (perhaps especially, not the
| System State, and he might be right about that part).
|
| I probably wouldn't want to restore the System State, anyway; I just
| did the backups to learn something.
|
| I have set Restore Points a couple of times, but also have no
| intention of using those if I can possibly help it; I gather you use
| one of those only if your system won't work at all.
|
| I am in the process of setting up backup procedures, backing up to
| CD-Rs and CDRWs. My crucial backups, for now, consist of redundant
| files and folders on the two physical hard drives. If one has to
| choose to back up Performance Counters and Logs, to back them up, then
| I have no backups of those.
|
| Likely I wouldn't need old Performance Counters and Logs anyway,
| provided I could start them up again.
|
| It was the removal of two Registry keys that really scared me.
|
| I hope somebody can step me through at least re-starting Performance
| Logs and Counters?
|
| Thanks in advance!
|
|
| Almali del Benian

 

[Almali del Benian]

Carey,

Many thanks! I trust that will do the trick!

Almali del Benian

 

[Almali del Benian]

Update: Carey, I went to the sites you mentioned. They got me started
- in a way. I didn't really understand very well, though, and don't
know how I might best set things up.

I played with it just a little, and at least got some idea of how the
setups work. But there's no way I'd attempt to make a proper
selection.

I noticed that you can import settings from a specified location; how
lovely! Of course, I had wiped all traces out, including Registry
keys, with my little Wizard operation. But my dealer might have
settings he uses regularly; he sells quite a few of these systems, or
some a fair bit fancier.

So what I will do is find out from my dealer if he has a standard
setup. I see that it's possible, if you have settings in place
somewhere, you can import them from that location.

I'd guess he'd set them all up fairly similarly.

So I'll ask him if he might put settings on a CD, and perhaps I could
import them from there, rather than taking my machine on a long trek.

Do you have any thoughts about that?

If there's a moral to this story, it's that a person with my skills
and lack of them, knowledge and lack of it, does very well to buy from
a really good local dealer. Which mine is <g>.

Luckily, I had just completed getting my CD-burning software in place,
so, for the first time, I have a reliable CD-writer working for me. (I
won't tell the horror stories about my previous CD-Writer; only say,
it was a dud.)

Thanks very much for the steer, Carey. It does strike me quite funny
that I hadn't a hope of comprehending how I might actually use the
information you steered me to, but there is this very crucial feature
of your steer: your.giving me that information helped me see how to
ask my dealer about it, and might have saved me that long trek with my
machine.

Almali del Benian