Using Linux to restore previous XP Registry?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Geddes
  • Start date Start date
J

John Geddes

Looking at restoring a previous Registry for a PC with a "blank video"
problem (DOS-type screens and Windows splash screen are OK,, but once in
Windows, screen is blank even for Safe Mode. Onboard video and no AGP
slot, and no PCI video card to hand).

Is there any reasonably-straightforward way of restoring the XP registry
by booting to Linux-on-CD (or Linux-on-MemoryKey), mounting the XP hard
disk, and then using Linux tools to replace the no-good copy of the
Windows Registry with a previously-OK version?

John Geddes
England
 
How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

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:

| Looking at restoring a previous Registry for a PC with a "blank video"
| problem (DOS-type screens and Windows splash screen are OK,, but once in
| Windows, screen is blank even for Safe Mode. Onboard video and no AGP
| slot, and no PCI video card to hand).
|
| Is there any reasonably-straightforward way of restoring the XP registry
| by booting to Linux-on-CD (or Linux-on-MemoryKey), mounting the XP hard
| disk, and then using Linux tools to replace the no-good copy of the
| Windows Registry with a previously-OK version?
|
| John Geddes
| England
 
Hi,

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry [Q307545]
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

As long as you can mount the file system and read/write, there is no reason
you can't do this from Knoppix or other bootable Linux installation. You
could also do it from BartPE (you'll find a link to that tool on my site
listed in my sig).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
John Geddes said:
Looking at restoring a previous Registry for a PC with a "blank video"
problem (DOS-type screens and Windows splash screen are OK,, but once in
Windows, screen is blank even for Safe Mode. Onboard video and no AGP
slot, and no PCI video card to hand).

Is there any reasonably-straightforward way of restoring the XP registry
by booting to Linux-on-CD (or Linux-on-MemoryKey), mounting the XP hard
disk, and then using Linux tools to replace the no-good copy of the
Windows Registry with a previously-OK version?

John Geddes
England
Click to expand...

If you get the popup just prior to entering safe mode, with an option to
choose System Restore, then try that, as a first port of call.

Otherwise, if it's a minor registry change, and you know exactly what needs
to be done, then you can do it with this
(zip file in download section at the bottom of the page)
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

Failing that, post details of what you have at your disposal, in terms of
disks (or lack thereof), and people may be able to advise you further. There
may well be better ways of dealing with it - such as the repair install
already mentioned, or the setting up of a parallel Windows / Linux
installation etc.


Jon
 
John said:
Looking at restoring a previous Registry for a PC with a "blank video"
problem (DOS-type screens and Windows splash screen are OK,, but once
in Windows, screen is blank even for Safe Mode. Onboard video and no
AGP slot, and no PCI video card to hand).

Is there any reasonably-straightforward way of restoring the XP
registry by booting to Linux-on-CD (or Linux-on-MemoryKey), mounting
the XP hard disk, and then using Linux tools to replace the no-good
copy of the Windows Registry with a previously-OK version?

John Geddes
England
Click to expand...

No. The others have given you other options. Unless you use the Captive
tool - which is not recommended - you cannot write to an NTFS partition
from any Linux distro. You *can* write to FAT32.

You need to follow the directions that Rick Rogers gave you with the
exception that you should not write to an NTFS partition from Linux.
There is a very real risk of hosing the Windows system entirely. Bart's
PE, Recovery Console, or the very expensive ERD Commander are the tools
to use. Knoppix (or other Linux live cd) is great for retrieving data
from Windows systems, not for repairing them.

Malke
 
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