Restoring Exports From the Registry Editor

I have done a few successful restorations of the entire Registry from .REG files exported from the Registry Editor. These customers knew of no other methods for backing up the Registry, but had fortunately followed instructions for the one method they had heard about.

But I've tried other restorations from files exported from the Registry Editor that didn't work so well. They would freeze up, or hang. Some would run continuously for more than half an hour and then freeze up. The Registry files can become quite large, and when they do, the Editor seems to have some difficulty restoring the exported backups.

When restoring a portion of the Registry from Windows, it's a simple matter of double clicking the .REG file. It tends to get a little more involved from the DOS prompt.

I know there are people that use it, and rely on it as their main Registry backup. I hope they've tested it. If you want to try and restore your Registry from the .REG files that you exported from the Registry Editor in Windows, then boot to the DOS prompt, and type 'REGEDIT'. When you press the ENTER key, information will come up explaining the proper syntax for using the real mode version of the Registry Editor.

If you want Registry backups using RegEdit that are fairly reliable, here's a little hint. Make the backups from the DOS prompt, not from Windows. And make two separate export files, one for SYSTEM.DAT and one for USER.DAT.

Try this...

Boot to the DOS prompt. Make a directory or folder at the root of C: called REGBACK. At the C:> prompt, type:

MD REGBACK

This creates the directory C:\REGBACK. Now, to use REGEDIT to export the SYSTEM.DAT file, type:

REGEDIT /L:C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT /E C:\REGBACK\SYSTEM.TXT

This tells the Registry Editor where the file is that you want to export (SYSTEM.DAT). It also tells REGEDIT to name the exported file SYSTEM.TXT, and save it in the C:\REGBACK folder. The process could take awhile if SYSTEM.DAT is fairly large (mine takes about 25 mins).

Now you can export the USER.DAT file. Type:

REGEDIT /R:C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT /E: C:\REGBACK\USER.TXT

If you feel fairly confident knowing you have several different types of Registry backups, go ahead and change the attributes on SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT and delete the two files. Here's the restore commands from the DOS prompt. For SYSTEM.DAT, Type:

REGEDIT /L:C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT /C C:\REGBACK\SYSTEM.TXT

And to import USER.DAT Type:

REGEDIT /R:C:\WINDOWS\USER.DAT /C C:\REGBACK\USER.TXT

I find this method a little more reliable, but REGEDIT can still have problems when the files are large. However, by using more than one method to back up the Registry, and performing regular backups, recovering from a corrupted registry can be quite easy!

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