Restoring the Automatic Backups in Windows 95

Restoring the Automatic Backups in Win95

Now comes the fun part (or the scary part, however you want to look at it).

You should read over the procedures and make sure you understand them before attempting the restorations. Print out the newsletter so you can follow along if you get stuck.

If you decide to continue with this exercise, you do so at your own risk. Under no circumstances will any person associated with PC ComputerNotes be held responsible or accountable for any problems or difficulties that may arise due to the proper, or improper performance of the following procedures.

Please read our disclaimer!

It would be a good idea to have a complete backup of your system. That being said, backups should be tested. No backup is any good unless you know that it works and is reliable.

So OK..

Here is the method to restore Windows 95's automatic backup files USER.DA0 and SYSTEM.DA0.

Restart your computer, and watch the screen. When you see the greeting - "Starting Windows 95", press the F8 key. This should take you to the Windows StartUp Menu. Highlight 'Command Prompt Only' and press ENTER. You should now be at the DOS prompt.

From here, you want to:
1. Change directories to the WINDOWS directory

2. Remove the system, hidden, and read-only attributes from SYSTEM.DAT, USER.DAT, SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 so you can manipulate these files.

3. Rename SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT (to, say, SYSTEM.NOT and USER.NOT), then rename SYSTEM.DA0 and USER.DA0 to SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT.

4. Now replace the system, hidden, and read-only attributes to the new SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT and reboot the system.

If you see the word ENTER in brackets, push the ENTER key. Other than that, please don't type anything you see in parentheses!

This is what it will look like:
1.
CD WINDOWS (ENTER)
(You should now be in the C:\WINDOWS directory or folder)

2.
ATTRIB -S -H -R SYSTEM.DAT (ENTER)
ATTRIB -S -H -R USER.DAT (ENTER)
ATTRIB -S -H -R SYSTEM.DA0 (ENTER)
ATTRIB -S -H -R USER.DA0 (ENTER)
(This removes the attributes so you can manipulate the files)
(Note the spaces:[space]-S[space]-H[space]-R[space])

3.
REN SYSTEM.DAT SYSTEM.NOT (ENTER)
REN USER.DAT USER.NOT (ENTER)
REN SYSTEM.DA0 SYSTEM.DAT (ENTER)
REN USER.DA0 USER.DAT (ENTER)
(Replacing the Registry files with the automatic backup files)

4.
ATTRIB +S +H +R SYSTEM.DAT (ENTER)
ATTRIB +S +H +R USER.DAT (ENTER)
(Restoring the attributes to the new Registry files)

CTRL+ALT+DEL (Reboot)

Tah Dah! Windows starts up.

**Remember, these backups are not always 100% reliable after a system crash, but they are something you can try in Windows 95 if you're stuck.

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