Pitfalls of using Recovery Option

[RT]

My Asus A2D laptop WinXPHome (5mths old) registry had a error (hard disk) in
early february and every since ive had constant faults. The error was

Saturday, 5 February 2005 Userenv Windows was unable to load the
registry. This is often caused by insufficient memory or insufficient
security rights. DETAIL - An I/O operation initiated by the registry failed
unrecoverably. The registry could not read in, or write out, or flush, one
of the files that contain the system's image of the registry. for
C:\Documents and Settings\Reuben Tarran\ntuser.dat
Saturday, 5 February 2005 Userenv Windows cannot load the locally
stored profile. Possible causes of this error include insufficient security
rights or a corrupt local profile. If this problem persists, contact your
network administrator. DETAIL - An I/O operation initiated by the registry
failed unrecoverably. The registry could not read in, or write out, or
flush, one of the files that contain the system's image of the registry.
Saturday, 5 February 2005 Userenv Windows has backed up this user's
profile. Windows will automatically try to use the backed up profile the
next time this user logs on.
Saturday, 5 February 2005 Userenv Windows cannot find the local
profile and is logging you on with a temporary profile. Changes you make to
this profile will be lost when you log off.


One that ive noticed is that it almost never loads all the taskbar icons for
program applications. Im sure the programs load but the icons dont always
appear.
I also have an application in the run section of the system configuration
utility that has no name and i dont know whether its good or bad.
I had BSOD errors relating to DRIVER_IRQ_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL error on shutdown
however i have done a driver update and a new driver installed, this error
only came up about every second shutdown, maybe related to some application
used.

I had video problems with WMP10 freezeing and causeing windows to freeze and
new raedonmobility 9200 drivers fixed that. I uninstalled my ASUS PowerGear
software after i thought this was causing some errors and not yet
reinstalled them.

What i want to know is wheter i should try and repair the errors or use the
recovery utility back to factory specs, however the recovery utility says to
back up docs and settings like email folders etc. Whats the effect of
recovery, does it remove programs? does it delete files not related to
windows system i.e. mp3's or does it just repair windows system files and
the registry? Will i need to reinstall progs like office etc. after
recovery?


Many Regards
Reuben Tarran
NZ.

 

[Bob Harris]

Generally these words mean:

recovery = erase everything on hard drive and replace it with an mage of the
PC made at the factory. In theory this restores the PC to the day you
bought it. You lose all files, all settings, all local email, etc that you
made. You also lose all programs you installed after ereceiving the PC.
Thus, the advice to backup personal files, which may be in documents and
settings, or may be elsewhere, depending on how yu organize your PC.

repair = with respect to XP, a repair insallation refreshes the operating
system files (*.DLL. *.EXE. etc). It does not erase user files or user
programs. A repair is done from the XP CDROM. Some OEM versions of XP do
not support the repair function, but all retail versions of XP do. However,
a repair is unlikely to fix a registry problem. A recovery would include a
copy of the registry form the day the PC was made, and presumeably that is
good. Note that if you have an XP CD running SFC /SCANOW may achive almost
the same effect.

restore (or system restore) = a function of XP that backs-up certain key
system files ever day or so, or just before installing software. System
restore is accessed via start--> help and support--> system restore. Whe
restoring, it should list one or more restore points by date. Pick one
before the problem occurred and it might fix the registry problem. However,
system restore is assigned a limited amount of space on the disk (which you
can control) so it erases older restore points when it makes newer ones.

recovery = with respect to XP this means the recovery console, which is a
DOS-like environment to fix some things, like boot records, or run a CHKDSK,
or copy/delete files that are locked when XP is running. It an be run from
the XP CDROM, or installed on the hard drive as an alternative boot option
to XP, or run from a set of several floppies, whose images are a free
download from Microsoft.

Of these, I would try a system restore first, and hope you see a date before
the problem began.

I would also run CHKDSK C: /R (then reboot for it to take effect), since
your file system is suspect.

I would also suggest getting some hard drive testing software to check for
physical disk integrity. All the major hard drive makers offer free
downloads of such software, whihc runs from a floppy or more recently from a
bootable CD.

links about repair:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341



http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm



http://www.extremetech.com/print_article/0,3998,a=23979,00.asp


links about recovery console:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_rec.htm



http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm



http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy33.htm (near bottom)