The Easy Road to Registry Recovery

A slow computer is the bane of many people’s lives, and the continual appearance of error messages does nothing to improve their mood. There is though a way to get rid of those messages and get a computer back to running like it was brand new.

THE ROAD TO RECOVERY

Locating the Problem - The most common causes of computer problems are either the presence of malicious code on the machine, with viruses and spyware common culprits, or are a result of a Windows registry problem. The first thing to do is have your anti-virus software to scan the whole computer just to make sure that there is no virus causing all of your computer issues.

If the anti-virus software fails to find anything then it is more than likely that the problem lies in your Windows registry.

Creating a Windows Registry Back-Up - You may be lucky enough to have a registry repair program installed that will automatically create a back-up of the Windows registry. A program like RegCure will do this for you and save a whole load of time and hassle.

If you don’t have a repair program installed yet then it is vital that back-up of the Windows registry is created before you even start to look at manually fixing a corrupt registry. A back-up is that added comfort that in case anything goes wrong it can be easily reversed.

Different versions of the Windows operating system will be backed up in different ways; some are far easier than others. Therefore use the hyperlinks below to find your own version of Windows and step-by-step instructions -

Windows 95 | Windows 98 & ME | Windows 2000, 2003 & XP | Windows Vista

Creating a Windows 95 Registry Back-Up

• Press F8 when the “Starting Windows” screen is reached during the restarting of your computer.

• Then pick “Safe Mode - Command Prompt Only" and confirm with the Enter key.

• The following commands then need to be keyed in -

  cd \windows (Enter)

  attrib -r -h -s system.dat (Enter)

  attrib -r -h -s user.dat (Enter)

  copy system.dat *.bak (Enter)

  copy user.dat *.bak (Enter)

  Just make sure that there are no files on your computer that are already called system.bak or user.bak. If there are such files then the file extensions above needed to be changed.

• Restart your machine.

 The result of this is that the Windows registry has been backed up

Restoring a Windows 95 Registry from a Back-Up

• Press F8 when the “Starting Windows” screen is reached during the restarting of your computer.

• Then pick “Safe Mode - Command Prompt Only" and confirm with the Enter key.

• The following commands then need to be keyed in -

cd windows (Enter)

attrib -r -h -s system.dat (Enter)

attrib -r -h -s system.da0 (Enter)

attrib -r -h -s user.dat (Enter)

attrib -r -h -s user.da0 (Enter)

ren system.dat system.daa (Enter)

ren system.da0 system.da1 (Enter)

ren user.dat user.daa (Enter)

ren user.da0 user.da1 (Enter)

copy system.bak system.dat (Enter)

copy user.bak user.dat (Enter)

• Restart your machine

Following these steps will see the successful restoration of a back-up of the registry. Just remember though to make sure that there is continual usage of file names or you may lose the location of the back-up.

Creating a Windows 98/ME Registry Back-Up

• Click on Start and then Run. Within the text box enter scanregw and press OK.

• Windows 98 will then undertake a scan of the registry to locate and issues. Once the scan is completed the computer will then ask if you want to make a back-up of the registry. Of course you do so, click on Yes, this will commence the back-up of the Windows registry. Once completed confirm by pressing OK.

The result of this is that the Windows registry has been backed up

Restoring a Windows 98/ME Registry from a Back-Up

For Windows 98 -

• Restart your machine and hold down the CTRL key at the same time. This will allow the picking of “Safe Mode - Command Prompt Only", this will allow a DOS command-prompt interface to appear.

For Windows ME -

• Restart your machine with the Start-Up disk.  This will allow the picking of “Start Computer Without CD-ROM Support", this will allow a DOS command-prompt interface to appear.

Then for both Windows Operating Systems -

• In the DOS command-prompt interface, enter

c:\windows\command\scanreg /restore (Enter)

• ScanReg will then provide a list of available Windows registry back-ups. All that is then needed is to pick the back-up required and then press Enter.

• Following the restoration of the back-up the only thing then needed is to restart the computer when prompted. (It is though important that the Start-Up disk is removed prior to restart for Windows ME users)  

Following these steps will see the successful restoration of a back-up of the registry.

Creating a Windows 2000/2003/XP Registry Back-Up

When logged in as an administrator undertake the following steps -

• Follow the path Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Backup. You may find that the Back-Up option is not available, all this means is that you will need to install it from the original Windows CD.

• As the Back-Up option launches, make sure that the wizard component is open. Then click on Next.

• A prompt will appear where the "Only back up the System State Data" option needs to be selected. Then it is just a case of following the prompts and clicking on Next until the registry is backed-up.

• Then click on Finish to initiate the actual back-up of the registry. The program should then be closed once the back-up is completed.

The result of this is that the Windows registry has been backed up

Restoring a Windows 2000/2003/XP Registry from a Back-Up

• Follow the path Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> System Tools >> Backup.

• In Back-Up Wizard just pick the registry back-up that you want restored and then click Next and Finish. The program should then be closed once the restoration is completed.

Following these steps will see the successful restoration of a back-up of the registry.

Creating a Windows Vista Registry Back-Up

When logged in as an administrator undertake the following steps -
A registry back-up can be undertaken in two ways in Windows Vista. It can be done by creating a System Restore Point or by just exporting the entire Windows registry to another location on the computer or an external location.

This second way can be done by following the path Start >> All Programs >> Accessories >> Run >> Reg Edit. From this point it just a case of moving to the registry keys to the desire location. Restoration is then a case of just following the same route.

The first way is considered to be the safer option and makes use of the System Restore option.

• Follow the path Start >> Control Panel >> System >> System Protection

• Select which drives you want to create restore points for, and then click on Create to achieve a new restore point.

• Take note of the prompts as they appear and the back-up process will be completed.

Restoring a Windows Vista Registry from a Back-Up

• Follow the path Start >> Accessories >> System Tools >> System Restore

• Click on Next and select the restore point that you would like to restore onto your computer. Once selected click on Next.

• Take note of the prompts as they appear and the restoration process will be completed.

Fixing the Registry Problems -

The manual process of fixing a Windows registry should only ever be contemplated be skilled IT technicians. Even such professionals will normally steer clear of such a move, knowing full well that an accidental change or deletion could prevent a computer from working.

As such a much safer and easier option is to use a good registry repair program like RegCure.

There are a range of issues that could be causing registry issues, so any possible fix could be an easy one or one that could need the total reinstall of the whole Windows operating system. In an ideal world it should be possible to undertake a system restore to a point before the registry errors started to appear, unfortunately though it is rarely that simple.

For more complicated solutions there are only three options left -

• Hire an expensive IT technician to attempt a fix

• Use the Windows operating system’s Registry Editor. This will allow the manual change of keys and values that are causing the issues

• Install a good registry repair program like RegCure. RegCure will create a back-up of the Windows registry, as well as locate and fix any registry issues.

This last option is the most favoured one, and it is no wonder as it saves a lot of time and hassle. RegCure is even available as a download, which can be obtained from the RegCure link