Restoring the registry

[Jim Byrd]

Hi CBCB - Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm I've set it up to
take a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis,
and a Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject

This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS
write drivers in an NTFS system. (There is also a way using the Recovery
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS
drivers, after which you can do a normal restore.) (BTW, it also includes a
Registry defragger program). Free, and very, very highly recommended.

FYI, quoting from the above document:

Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) to make
a complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the whole
registry (for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive is
saved), nor can the exported file be used later to replace the current
registry with the old one. Instead, if you re-import the file, it is
merged with the current registry, leaving you with an absolute mess of
old and new registry keys.


--
Please respond in the same thread.
Regards, Jim Byrd, MS-MVP



In

 

[John Barnett - MVP]

download the free software called Erunt. This will backup your registry far
more easily and you can also 'undo' the registry if problems occur. Go to:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt

 

[cbcb52]

I had a problem , and tech support of a hardware vendor
emailed me with some steps to be taken.
Part of these measures are saving the registry as a backup
in case sometinh will go wrong .
Saving the registry seems simple enough ( saving as a *.reg
file )
My doubts concerns restoring the registry in case anything
goes wrong.
The only option I see in Regedit is " Import "
What does "Import " exactly does ? Does it replace the
loaded registry after a boot ? Does it merge with the loaded
registry ? ( If it merges it would be possible that good data is
mixed with bad data ?? )
Please clarify this subject
Thanks

 

[t.cruise]

If you're a tech novice, it's best to avoid the Registry Editor if possible.
If you click: Start button/All Programs/System Tools/System Restore, and
opt to: Restore my computer to an earlier time, the registry from that
earlier time will be restored. Your data files will be left alone. But any
programs that you installed after the date of the Restore Point that you
choose will have to be reinstalled. So, it's important to select a Restore
Point with a date just prior to the problem. If you can't get to System
Restore in Normal Mode: Power on your system, and before the Windows logo
comes up press the F8 key to get a menu where you can choose to boot into
Safe Mode. Before Safe Mode loads the desktop, you'll be given the option
to go directly to System Restore. The above is the easy way out. There are
other ways. But, if the above wouldn't work for me, I'd do a Repair Install
of Windows XP, which keeps your programs and data files, and just repairs
Windows XP. So, the tech support person should have said to you: Create a
System Restore Point BEFORE editing the Registry. That's easily done, by
using the path that I gave above to go to System Restore, and then opt to:
Create a restore point. That way if you screw up editing the Registry, you
can fix it by opening System Restore and opting to Restore my computer to an
earlier time, and selecting the Restore Point that you created just prior to
making that registry edit.

 

[Kelly]

There isn't a need to backup the whole registry while making an edit.
Backup the key by exporting it.