Restoring the Registry 100% !!

[Tones2]

I just recently made some configuration changes to my system but BACKED-UP the registry before doing so. I BOTH exported the registry from REGEDIT AND copied the system.dat, user.dat, classes.dat. win.ini and sys.ini files to a backup directory.

The changes I made froze the system completely, so I wanted to get back to my previous registry. However, when I "IMPORT" the registry from REGEDIT, it actually does a "MERGE" and not a complete rewrite, so any keys ADDED since the last export are NOT deleted. This did not work for me since there must have been keys added.

I then tried to copy over the system.dat, user.dat and classes.dat files to the Windows directory - overwriting the old file completely. This, however, gave me an error message saying that there was an inconsistant registry structure and thus corrupted the registry.

So neither of these methods worked. The "backup" registry that is autocreated is also based on the "new" configuration that doesn't work, so I can't revert back to that. I also had SYSTEM RESTORE turned OFF (Duh!!) so I can't use that either.

So....How the heck do I get back my old registry if I have a good export AS WELL AS good copies of the .dat file? Nothing seems to work!!

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Tony

[Votan]

I feel sorry for you. I happend once to be in about the same situation, but I was lukier than you. I saved the user.dat and the system.dat files (did not touch the classes.dat) and worked out my way through the registry but it didn't work. I deleted user.dat and system.dat from windows directory and copied the once I saved. At reboot it gave me message that the registry is corrupted but it did fix it by itself.

I don't know what changes you did do in your registry. You must have done something too subtle to have this problem.

Try this, if you haven't done it yet: reboot with the startup disk, use the command attrib -h -s -r and delelte the .dat files from windows directory, then copy the once you saved and make sure you restored them by attrib +h +s +r then reboot with ME. I am not sure it will work, but worth trying.

good luck

[Cave_Dweller]

This KB article describes how to edit the registry without booting into windows. I don't know if this will work in ME, it was written for 95. It might be a long shot.
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q131/3/52.asp

[Tones2]

Actually, I CAN boot into Windows. I just don't know how to actually REPLACE the registry with my saved version. Like I said, "IMPORTING" it really does a MERGE (not what I want) and deleting the old system.dat, user.dat and classes.dat and replacing them with the saved version ALWAYS seems to corrupt the registry.

Tony

[Greasey]

Give this a shot... get out your boot disk, get to C:\windows...

attrib -s -h -r user.da*
attrib -s -h -r system.da*
mkdir C:\temp
move user.da* C:\temp (note MOVE NOT COPY)
move system.da* C:\temp (note MOVE NOT COPY)

regedit /restore

now hopefully you know the name IE: rb000(?).cab

this should solve the problem.. ive done it many many times and it works great...

Greasey....

p.s. the reason for the MOVE of the old reg files, is so it doesnt try "merge" and if the restore fails, you can always move them back and make them work...

[goodespeler]

Well actually working with the registry. I would try going into dos using the boot disk and see if you cant move the old reg files to a temp folder and move yours to the correct destination.