system32\config\regback fills up

[hspindel]

I've had my Vista computer for about 14 months. Gradually my hard disk has
filled up. I've traced this to the system32\config\regback directory, which
now contains 32GB of files mostly named REGxxxx where xxxx is a sequence
number.

I understand these are registry backups of some sort. What is safe to delete?

There are several backups for each date I've owned the computer, with some
days missing. Why doesn't Vista automatically get rid of old backups instead
of filling my hard disk?

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Basically, there should be two backups of each of the five registry hives
named <hive> and <hive>.old as well as the associated logs. For instance you
should see:

SAM
SAM.OLD
SAM.LOG1
SAM.LOG2

Anything else for each of them can be deleted.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[hspindel]

Thank you for the response, Rick. I see the two backups of each of the five
registries as you describe.

But there are also a gazillion files named REGxxxx. What are these? If I
don't need them, can I stop them from being created?

Thanks,
Howard

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Do the file names have an extension? That could be informative...

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

I have no idea what's creating them. Have you looked at any third party
system protection programs that you may be using? It's not a function of
Vista to do that.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[hspindel]

There is no extension.

Do the file names have an extension? That could be informative...

 

[hspindel]

I use Norton Internet Security for system protection. Don't know how to tell
if NIS is creating these files, or how to tell it to stop if it is.

Thanks.

 

[hspindel]

I stumbled across the answer. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=257534

In short, they are temporary files used by ntbackup. (Since Vista doesn't
come with a reasonable backup program, I've been using ntbackup from XP).

It's a program bug in ntbackup - the temp files should be deleted.
Apparently it's safe for me to delete them.

I do not understand why I'm having the problem as the app note says this
applies to network backups, which I'm not doing, but I'm happy to have an
answer anyway.

Howard

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Well, I guess that's informative. But obviously not much help - just like
my question, I guess

I was kind of hoping that they might be REG0001.reg or something that would
provide a clue.

There are no files named like that on my computer (or else I searched
wrong), and nothing like that, without a filename extension, on Google (or
else I searched wrong again...).

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks for the update.

Who knew?

I stumbled across the answer. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=257534

In short, they are temporary files used by ntbackup. (Since Vista doesn't
come with a reasonable backup program, I've been using ntbackup from XP).

It's a program bug in ntbackup - the temp files should be deleted.
Apparently it's safe for me to delete them.

I do not understand why I'm having the problem as the app note says this
applies to network backups, which I'm not doing, but I'm happy to have an
answer anyway.

Howard

 

[Rick Rogers]

That would explain it, as it's probably unable to delete the backups on the
fly since XP's backup utility would not be able to self-elevate to delete
them.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com