The Registry
Introduction
Registry backup in Windows
Registry backup via DOS
Restore Registry in Windows
Restore Registry via DOS
Repair Registry - Windows
Repair Registry - DOS
Introduction
Since the registry keeps configuration information for your programs and hardware, when you restore a backup you will lose all changes made to your system after the backup was created, which means you may need to reinstall some programs and drivers.
Registry backup in Windows
- Click Start, Run
- Type in regedit and click OK
- Click on File, Export
Now give your registry backup a name and save it.
Registry backup via DOS
To backup the registry, enter the following commands at the DOS prompt:
- c:
- cd \windows
- xcopy /h system.dat d:\backup
- xcopy /h user.dat d:\backup
Alternatively, if "User Profiles" are enabled, this example would change to:
- xcopy /h c:\windows\system.dat d:\backup
- xcopy /h c:\windows\profiles\\user.dat d:\backup
Please note that these examples assume that the operating system directory is "c:\windows" and the destination of the files is "d:\backup".
Restore Registry in Windows
- Click Start, and click Run. The Run dialog box appears.
- In the Open box, type scanregw.exe and click OK.
Restore Registry via DOS
- Restart the system in MS-DOS mode.
If the system does not automatically start in MS-DOS mode when attempting to boot, hold down Ctrl key during system startup until the Startup Menu displays, and choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" from the Startup Menu.
- At the C: prompt, type scanreg /restore and press Enter. You do not have to be in the C:\Windows\Command folder to run the command.
- Choose which backup to restore. You should have a choice of registry backups from the last five days the system successfully booted. You can also restore other backups from either the hard drive or floppy disk.
Repair Registry - Windows
- Click Start, and click Run.
- Type scanregw.exe and click OK.
Repair Registry - DOS
- Restart the system in MS-DOS mode. If the system does not automatically start in MS-DOS mode when attempting to boot into Windows 98, hold down the Ctrl key during bootup until the Startup Menu appears, and choose "Safe Mode Command Prompt Only" from the Startup menu.
- At the C: prompt, type scanreg and press Enter. You do not have to be in the C:\Windows\Command folder to run the command.
If ScanReg is unable to fix the registry problems, or does not detect registry problems, run scanreg /fix
|