Restoring the Windows Registry from a Back-up

Hi, this is Mike Callahan, Dr. File Finder and welcome back to your special butterscotch.com series on the Windows registry, tips and tricks.

Now, there are times when the registry gets corrupted for a variety of reasons, power failures, normal usage and you can’t get Windows to start. So in a case like that, there is a way to fix it because Windows has the registry keep a secret hidden copy of the registry.

So we’re going to show you how to access that so that you can restore your system. So you’re going to want to start your computer and as it starts to go through the self-test, tab F8 to bring up the Windows booth menu. You’re going to want to select Safe Mode with command prompt and press enter. What we’re going to have to do is going at the DOS level on height, this special system files so that we can copy a good one over the bad once, just a moment, we’ll be at the command prompt.

We still have to sign in and now here we are at the Command Prompt. We’re going to go through this step by step together and we’re going to type CD C:\Windows press Enter and so now we’re in the Windows directory and now we’re going to take attrib –h –r –s system.dat and press Enter and now we’re going to take similar command again, attrib –h –r –s user.dat and press Enter. And now we’re going to attrib –h –r –s system.a0, Enter. And now we’re going to attrib –h –r –s user.da0, enter and now unhidden all of the files, so we’re going to say, copy, user.da0 user.da and then we’re going to say, copysystem.da0 system.dat.

And what this does is it overwrites corrupted registry with the safe one and now you could boot your computer and your computer will come up with a revised copy of the registry. Remember, this is part of a special series in Windows registry, tips and tricks. And be sure to see all of the parts. That’s all there is to it.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services