Hello everybody, Due some unfortunate events it seems my Windows 7 registry is corrupt. I've tried repairing it using System Recovery Options / Startup Repair but with no luck. The Recovery software indentifies the problem (CorruptRegistry) but is unable to repair it. I've tried to copy the files from windows32/system/config/regback to windows32/system/config still no luck (the back-up files are the same with the corrupted ones, same date, time, size --> great job windows!). I've tried even to use System Recovery (i have several restore points) but i got this wired message: "You must enable system protection on this drive..." --> stupid error, if I haven't had enabled system protection how do I got the restore points... Does anyone know if is possible to "extract" the registry files from a file called winre.win that I found in the folder /Recovery? I understood that this is like a system recovery image... Or if someone knows another method, I really do not want to make a clean install unless is the last option available. Mihai

Sorry I can't help you after the fact, but I advise people to Export a copy of their registry when they install their system and also from time to time afterward. The file can be huge (hundreds of megabytes), but it can be a lifesaver if you get a corrupted registry.-Noel

You can do In-place Upgrade to repair the system. Please launch your installation program in the system, and choose Upgrade. In general situations all programs and personal data will not be lost. However I still suggest you backup important data before upgrade.Arthur Xie - MSFT

Hello: I have the same concern. I hope a Microsoft Windows 7 guro will asnwer my concern. In Windows XP. If you make a System State backup, registry files are backed up to C:\windows\repair folder for later user. In addition, System Restore in Windows XP saves Registry files in System Volume Information directory. In many occasions, I was able to recover Windows XP by copying registry files from System Volume Information folder to over write the registry files in C:\Windows\System32\Config folder. I was able recover Windows XP from serious issues, including bad virus that normal windows interface unusable. But in Windows 7, I don't see that I can find any saved registry files in System Volume Information. Windows 7 allows you to boot from the Installation cd or recovery cd and restore from a previous system point. But it does not give me the flexibility of recover the System hive and/or the Software hive. I the corporate environment, it is hard to make regular backups for client computers. I rely on Windows XP's system restore so that I can recover the system by restoring the registry hive files from System Volume Information folder. What about Windows 7? I need to understand the recovery procedures so that when problem comes we can recover the systems. Thanks.

Hello Stphxu, Look in the \windows\system32\config\regback folder. There should be copies of the registry files stored inside that folder. They are backed up periodically and stored in that folder. Thanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Hi Darrell. Can you tell me how often this occurs? I just checked and mine are dated 03/21/2010. Any idea what the algorithm is that controls this and if it's changeable, perhaps via registry? Just curious.Rich Why can't I be different and original like everybody else? - Vivian Stanshal

Hello Ztruker, I think it's around every ten days when the machine finds some idle time. There appears to be a way to disable it but I do think there is a way of controlling the time interval. To disable: Add a REG_DWORD value called "EnablePeriodicBackup" under HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Configuration ManagerThanks, Darrell Gorter This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Hi Steph, I'm only another user, but I've saved my (and the users I support at my company's) bacon a few dozen times by writing batch files which can be used from a command prompt started from a Repair Boot Disk. I boot in and copy the registry hives to a hard drive folder I created. Since it's a batch file it takes only 20 seconds to do the copying. Then later, if needed, I can use the boot disk again and run a comparable 'restore' bacth file to put back a registry from a week or a month earlier. I discovered from a mishap yesterday that restore points I had been creating were missing when I needed them. Which makes them worthless. The 'Last known good' option is similarly limited since the user has usually made 6 or 8 attempts to boot his damaged mess before he comes to me. A registry saved from one week ago, when you could see the machine was doing well, is a good alternative. Steve Robertson

You can do In-place Upgrade to repair the system. Please launch your installation program in the system, and choose Upgrade. In general situations all programs and personal data will not be lost. However I still suggest you backup important data before upgrade. Arthur Xie - MSFT This is not a solution. If the registry is corrupt YOU CANNOT BOOT INTO WINDOWS. You cannot start an in-place upgrade by booting off the CD, you cannot start it from the system reserved partition, you can only do this if your system is already working. You cannot solve any problems this way. Stop recommending it. Yes, this was a valid solution in XP, since you can perform a repair install after booting off the disc, but in Vista/7, the in-place upgrade option is completely and utterly useless for fixing any problems at all, since you need a 100% functional system to use it in the first place. I would really like to know how to get past the "you must enable system protection on this drive" error. I have dozens of restore points, and I'm sure each of which has a perfect copy of the registry, it's just in the dozen or so different times I've tried on different computers, I've absolutely never been able to get system restore to work. I've read this is because the drive letter is mapped differently in the recovery environment, or that the VSS service isn't running. In my case, the drive is mapped correctly as C:, but the Volume Shadow service isn't running, and can't be started. Every time any Win7 system eats its own registry, the copy in regback is the same size as the active hives. In most cases this is 256kb. I have 10gb of files in \System Volume Information\, which I'm sure contains many, many valid registry backups, but I have absolutely no way of accessing them. Is there any way of extracting the SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, SAM, etc hives out of these {eabd352d82-2582052f-30252902ab262} files? This has happened at least a dozen times in the shop I work at, and each time I've ripped my hair out in frustration, trying to find a copy of the registry to restore, then eventually I've given up, saved the data, and reinstalled from scratch. My customers aren't happy, because they have to pay a lot more for all the time I have to spend, and in the end, they lose all their programs and settings. I really wish system restore actually worked, or when it doesn't, I wish you could just find the registry hives backed up as regular files under \System Volume Info\, like it was in XP.

question: When do you get that "you must enable system protection on this drive" error? as I understand it, the error appears whenever you try to use System Recovery, if that is so, what is (if there is) the original error message that made you think your registry is corrupt?CESabarre Free Tech Support Bad News: There really is no such thing as Free Tech Support. Good News: Oftentimes a simple thank you is the best form of payment!

"what is (if there is) the original error message that made you think your registry is corrupt?" The computer will not start, it only goes into "repair my computer" mode. The repairs fail, giving the error CorruptRegistry. Booting off a CD, I noticed that C:\windows\system32\config\software is 256kb, so is the system hive, and so are all the copies in the regback directory. I didn't bother looking at them in a hex editor, but I know they're not valid registry hives, because when I try to load them into a copy of regedit on another PC, it says they're unreadable. I'd say that's a corrupt registry if you ask me. Anyways, I solved my problem. I found a program called Shadow Explorer, which can manually suck files out of vista/7's system restore. I took the drive out of the laptop, installed it in a desktop, ran shadowexplorer, found a 64MB copy of the SOFTWARE file, and a 15MB copy of the SYSTEM file, backed up by system restore the day before, restored them manually, and the laptop works perfectly fine now. I asked around the shop, and out of a dozen employees, no one here has ever, even once, had system restore work in windows 7. I'm sure if it functioned the way it was designed to, it would be very useful.

Hi, Same exeprience here. Windows 7 System Restore did not work the two times I needed it on two different computers. ("registry corruption" but Safe mode OK). The first time it apparently failed upon restoring a IE temp file. I couldn't believe it and still flabbergasted by the fact that there are just NO restoring options. I started a thread on that, but had no response. What saved me in those two occurence was a "F8" start and then "last known good configuration". So for sure there was a true "good configuration" somewhere and System Restore failed to find/restore.

It can sometimes be the simple things people don't try first, most times on a corrupt file it was not closed due to power down and sometimes will become seen as corrupt, so a simple chkdsk will fix it, not the version where the pc restarts but from console from a win7 disc or you can get to it through F8 in a less obvious route. I woudln't assume a file was corrupt untill I could be 100%, error messages can sometimes be misleading. As to your customers paying for extra time it takes you to work it out, shouldn't you charge them after you know the solution till the end time of fixing it? Otherwise they will be paying you for your guess work until you find a solution from someone else. Anyway this seems to be the first route to try. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822705

#1 Insert the Windows XP installation CD or DVD into the drive and reboot the machine. This boots to the Windows XP Repair Console screen. Press the "R" key to enter the console. #2 Press the "1" key to repair the Windows XP installation. After you enter this option, enter the administrator password for the Windows machine. After it's been entered, you are given a DOS command prompt. #3 Type "cd c:\windows\system32\config" into the command prompt. This moves the focus to the config directory, which holds the Windows registry files. #4 Type the following commands into the DOS command prompt. Each one of these statements copy the original registry files to the current registry directory. copy C:\windows\repair\system system copy C:\windows\repair\software software copy C:\windows\repair\security security copy C:\windows\repair\sam sam copy C:\windows\repair\default default #5 Press the "Y" key after each copied file. This confirms that you want to overwrite the existing registry files. #6 Remove the Windows XP installation disc from the drive and reboot the machine. The registry is now restored with original settings. I think that will help you to fix the issue for more info Fix Computer Registry Problems

what do you mean by inplace upgrade? can you give more details? Thanks

I know there is just too much information contained in this registry scan file for me to sort thru.... showing close to 1400 errors! some are even in the HELP files... " Wow, alot of good the help files are now!! " But this report I'm getting is coming from one of those free scanner, booster, speed 'em uppers that only tell you your screwed then ask for money...... wont mention any names....... OK its Uniblu How good are these scans and how do I know for sure they are accurate and what to do if they are besides shelling out the money that doesnt exist ???? mentaga5150 gary b.

On Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:02:16 +0000, mentaga5150 wrote: I know there is just too much information contained in this registry scan file for me to sort thru....  showing close to 1400 errors!  some are even in the HELP files... " Wow, alot of good the help files are now!! "  But this report I'm getting is coming from one of those free scanner, booster, speed 'em uppers that only tell you your screwed then ask for money...... wont mention any names....... OK its Uniblu    How good are these scans and how do I know for sure they are accurate and what to do if they are besides shelling out the money that doesnt exist ???? All such programs are terrible, and should be avoided like the plague. Registry cleaning programs are all snake oil. Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software try to convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt you. The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit it may have. Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html and http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=28099 and also http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2005/10/02/registry-junk-a-windows-fact-of-life.aspx Let me point out that neither I nor anyone else who warns against the use of registry cleaners has ever said that they always cause problems. If they always caused problems, they would disappear from the market almost immediately. Many people have used a registry cleaner and never had a problem with it. Rather, the problem with a registry cleaner is that it carries with it the substantial risk of having a problem. And since there is no benefit to using a registry cleaner, running that risk is a very bad bargain. Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

Ken, Thanks for the heads up on those links, very insiteful..... With all that is going on in my system frustration dosn't even have a meaning any more. Im slowly getting some of the bugs out BUT , I have the HP advisor package with the windows 7 and Im still under warrenty .... 2 days ago auto updates were installed then after they were thru Intel System Identification Utility Tool comes on and starts after it was done , I was reading thru what was in its findings and my computer goes to blue screen and shuts down... So I start it back up and to be on the safe side I do it in Safe Mode with networking, figured I would Get HP to check everything out first.... well it wouldnt startup, HP Advisor that is, so I go to see why?? And now I dont seem to have any administrative privlidges..... I get some, but not all of that worked thru????? Kind of clueless ya know? After long non stop hours of messing with it I gave up! Well, today I decide to take another look..... When I log in my monthly report from Norton comes up and Im reading thru it and find out Norton is Blocking HP and other parts of windows itself...... Now, I trust in Norton.... But why would it be doing this, could it be from registry errors? Oh, I forgot to mention I did manage to get on with Microsoft tech support and a report was sent to them and the chat tech had me delete a BUNCH Of Crap and he had not even seen the report ..... So, now I'm stuck not knowing what to do or whats missing?? Tryed restore after the blue screen and it wouldnt do it got an error msg. But that was before the tech and what little changes I made to try and get my admin. priv's back and thats not even completly done yet...... What can I do????? HELP !!!!!!!!! mentaga5150

Leave the registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. +100 to that! I have run Windows operating systems since Windows came out, on multiple systems. I have managed divisions of engineers running Windows. I don't need to reinstall my operating systems - ever. And I have never, ever run a registry cleaner. My current main Windows 7 workstation is as quick and nimble as ever, logs 0 errors or warnings, stays up 24/7 between scheduled reboots (e.g., for Windows updates), and does the TONS of multitasking work I ask it to without fault or complaint. What I do to keep my systems in good working order is: Avoid installing things from the internet that I don't know and seek out on purpose. Avoid allowing Internet Explorer to run ActiveX and active scripting except from sites I trust. Avoid running eMail attachments. Use a good antivirus / antimalware package in addition to Windows Defender. Review the programs that are running or will run on bootup / login occasionally and make sure I know what every one is and why it's there. Read up on what works and what doesn't (e.g., here). Being a career software/hardware engineer, you might say I am not in the norm, but even for a layperson managing a Windows system in a conscientious way does not take a lot of effort, does not require much sacrifice, and absolutely NEVER requires a "registry cleaning". It just requires you to exercise the brain a little and do what makes good sense. -Noel

HOT TIP Use ERP Commander and many of the problems are already solved. <cite>calmit.org/erd-commander-2010-vista-windows-7</cite> It works for me everytime. PBSOLUTION http://www.pbshelp.nl

These instructions apply only to Windows 7 1. Turn on your computer and press F1 or F2 to go into BIOS settings. On "Booting" section set your computer to boot from your cd/dvd drive. Insert the Windows 7 installation CD or DVD (either full or upgrade version) into the drive and save your new settings and exit BIOS mode. When your computer starts again it will ask you to press any key to reboot from the disk. You will be taken to the Windows 7 screen. Once on this screen, you will be given the choice to install windows or to repair it. Choose repair it. If your problem is not solved try it again and this time when you choose "Repair" you should get some of the following choices: Repair Windows, Repair Using a Mirror copy previously made, Diagnose System hardware, or Display DOS command prompt or something similar. 2. Choose DOS command prompt. 3. Once on the command prompt window, type c: and hit enter. 4. Type the following commands into the DOS command prompt. Each one of these statements copy the original registry files to the current registry directory. copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\system c:\windows\system32\config\system copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\software c:\windows\system32\config\software copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\security c:\windows\system32\config\security copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam copy C:\windows\system32\config\regback\default c:\windows\system32\config\default 5. Press the "Y" key after each copied file. This confirms that you want to overwrite the existing registry files. 6. Remove the Windows 7 installation disc (either full or upgrade version) from the drive and reboot the machine. 7. Press F1 or F2 right after restarting your machine to go back to the BIOS settings and set your machine to boot from the "C" drive. The registry is now restored with original settings.