WinXP System.DAT, USer.DAT Registry File. Thanks.

[david12345]

Hi,
On Win9X, I Can Find The Registry File (System.DAT, USer.DAT) On
My Computer. But On WinXP, I Search All Harddisk I Can’t Find It.
Where The WinXP Registry Dat File Storge On ?
How I BAckup The Registry ?

I Can’t Used System Restore On WinXP.

Thanks

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

The Registry is split into various different files - nothing like a Win 9x
system. I use a 3rd party program to back up the Registry - ERUNT:

http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/index.htm

Why can't you use System Restore?

 

[Wesley Vogel]

They are Hidden files. The registry setup is different in XP (NT).

One NTUSER.DAT for each user on the machine, some templates and repair.
C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator
C:\Documents and Settings\Default User
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService
C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService
C:\Documents and Settings\Your Name Here\NTUSER.DAT
C:\WINDOWS\repair

All hives are stored in %systemroot%\SYSTEM32\CONFIG. Except
HKEY_CURRENT_USER. That's stored in C:\Documents and Settings\Name Here.
The major hives and their files are as follows:

Hive File Backup File
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE SOFTWARE SOFTWARE.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY SECURITY SECURITY.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM SYSTEM SYSTEM.LOG
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SAM SAM SAM.LOG
HKEY_CURRENT_USER NTUSER.DAT ntuser.dat.LOG
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT DEFAULT DEFAULT.LOG

Microsoft® Windows® XP Registry Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/6232.asp

Index from Microsoft® Windows XP® Registry Guide by Jerry Honeycutt
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/index/6232.asp

Sample Chapter from Microsoft® Windows XP® Registry Guide by Jerry Honeycutt
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/books/sampchap/6232.asp

=======

Get both of these...

NTREGOPT NT Registry Optimizer
ERUNT The Emergency Recovery Utility NT
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/

ERUNT [[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.]]
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt

NTREGOPT [[Similar to Windows 9x/Me, the registry files in an NT-based
system
can become fragmented over time, occupying more space on your hard
disk than necessary and decreasing overall performance. You should
use the NTREGOPT utility regularly, but especially after installing
or uninstalling a program, to minimize the size of the registry files
and optimize registry access.

The program works by recreating each registry hive "from scratch",
thus removing any slack space that may be left from previously
modified or deleted keys.

Note that the program does NOT change the contents of the registry in
any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive
(as the PageDefrag program from SysInternals does). The optimization
done by NTREGOPT is simply compacting the registry hives to the
minimum size possible.]]
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/ntregopt.txt