How to save the current state of my XP machine.

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Guest

Hi All,

I recently bought a Dell Laptop with Windows XP Professional and software
bundle pre-installed. When I boot up my laptop, I can press the F12 function
key and have the system (with some kind of Dell pre-installed utility) wipes
out every thing I had installed after purchasing the laptop and restore my
laptop back to its original state when the machine was shipped to me. And
this happens without having inserting any CD or diskette.

I really like this capability and just wonder if I can do the same thing:
Having the machine back to a given point where I want it to be. For example,
after receiving this laptop, I make a connection to the Internet and upgrade
Windows with the latest patch. Now, I don't want to press F12 to have the
system restore my machine back to its original. Rather, I want it to restore
itself back to the point where I had update its Windows XP with all of the
latest patch, as of today.

How can I do that?

Thanks in advance.
 
You would have to do a full system backup, or "image" the drive, at the point you want to restore it to. Since you have a laptop, you would need a CD-R/RW drive at the very least, and some type of software that supports imaging to an internal, or external CD-R/RW drive. You could also use a USB 2.0 external hard drive.

Image For Windows (includes Image for DOS) is a program that meets all of these requirements.

http://www.bootitng.com/imagew.html
 
You may also want to see Help and Support for Automated System Restore (ASR). However, the built-in backup utility cannot span a backup across multiple CD's.
 
Doug: How about Registry backups...
would executing a full registry backup to a certain
date not restore the system to the condition it was
at that date?

just wondering....
 
Juan said:
Doug: How about Registry backups...
would executing a full registry backup to a certain
date not restore the system to the condition it was
at that date?
Click to expand...

Only if nothing else has changed.. Or nothing that you are afraid of losing.
If you installed applications, updated applications, etc - restoring the
registry and JUST the registry might break the links made to the new DLLs
and other updated files and thus, make the system and/or some aopplication
unusable.

--
=- Shenan -=<
=- MS MVP -=<
Click to expand...
--
The information above is intended to assist you; however, it is
suggested you research for yourself before you take any advice - you
are the one ultimately responsible for your actions/problems/solutions.
Whenever possible, the advice will include the method/places used in
compiling the answer. Also, questions may have been asked to clarify
your situation OR to give you an idea of where to look - do not dismiss
them lightly.
 
Notice taken.... thanks.

Shenan, since you are available, would you please respond to this doubt?....
Windows Explorer has been acting up with freequent freezes and I was
wondering if deleting it's registry key or part of it, and having it restore
itself to default settings,... would this fix the problem?....
the reason I ask this, is because I have done repairs such as this on other
Windows applications such as Paint and Excel and thought it might also
work with the Windows Explorer.

thanks.

-------------------------------------
 
Juan said:
Shenan, since you are available, would you please respond to this
doubt?.... Windows Explorer has been acting up with freequent freezes
and I was wondering if deleting it's registry key or part of it, and
having it restore itself to default settings,... would this fix the
problem?....
the reason I ask this, is because I have done repairs such as this on
other Windows applications such as Paint and Excel and thought it
might also work with the Windows Explorer.
Click to expand...

Wow.. seems a bit risky to me, to be honest. Windows Explorer is - well, it
is Windows.

My first step in troubleshooting the type of problems you are seeing would
be to create a new user and try the actions with that user.. I would then
go through and scan for the normal spyware/malware and viruses/trojans
followed by Control Panel --> Add/Remove Programs and uninstalling unused
applications. Then I would CHKDSK the entire drive and also defragment..

If you have the option available, I would make an image of the system
instead of just backing up the Registry before trying your 'fix'.

--
=- Shenan -=<
=- MS MVP -=<
Click to expand...
--
The information above is intended to assist you; however, it is
suggested you research for yourself before you take any advice - you
are the one ultimately responsible for your actions/problems/solutions.
Whenever possible, the advice will include the method/places used in
compiling the answer. Also, questions may have been asked to clarify
your situation OR to give you an idea of where to look - do not dismiss
them lightly.
 
No, as Shenan said, you'd likely lose settings for recently installed applications, and other changes that were made to the system since you made the backup. A full image will, of course, do the same thing. However, programs like Image for Windows and its companion Image for DOS will work with re-writable DVD media, so its quite possible that you could image a system partition onto a couple of DVD's (depending on how much stuff you had) and not have to go through so many discs.
 
As you adviced,... I had used another user account with the same results...
I guess the problem is within the LOCAL_MACHINE>Explorer key...
just as it was the case with the other Windows apps I commented about.

As to spyware and malware viruses, trojans and what not, I have Adaware SE,
Spybot S&D SpywareBlaster, CWShredder and HijackThis and keep them
updated with the latest definitions and versions, and do regular scans with
no results
that are out of the ordinary (they come out clean most of the time).
I have Internet Options set to delete Temporary Internet Files as Internet
Explorer
closes and is set to accept only session cookies and to delete them also at
shutdown...
My antivirus is set to seek for updates four times a week and to scann the
system
on a daily basis. In other words, when it comes to security I consider my
system to
be well protected. And BTW I do have a copy of your post from a while back
titled
"Shenan Stanley's Booklet on Security" and have made good use of it. So my
system
is as far as I can tell, as clean as can be.
As to Add/Remove programs, I do delete unused programs periodically...
and defragment the HD a few time a month. The CHKDISK option, to be honest,
I have not done recently, but will do so next.

As far as the complete registry backup, I do have a complete one I made when
the system was freshly installed and was just wondering if it would be of
any benefit
to use it now, but it was just a slight idea you managed to shake out of my
head.
I allready had some partial idea of what could be expected, but wanted
confirmation
from an authority on these matters.

As for the fixes I performed to Paint and Excel, I backed up the registry
keys
prior to deleting them, and saved them to text files and latter compared
them,
to the newly created registry keys,.. and boy were they corrupted!...
So I can only imagine if the Explorer registry key being so much larger than
the Paint or Excel keys, and if the size ratio would give some insight on
what
could be expected, that would make the Explorer key that more corrupted.

What if I were to extract just the Windows Explorer part from the registry
backup and make a .reg file to add to the HKLM\\\Explorer... would this be
a reasonable fix for the frequent Explorer crashes ... and would "combine"
the
key be the appropriate action.

Thanks for your time.

------------------------------------------
 
Thaks for your response Dough, I will surely give some serious
consideration to your advice.

Thank again.

------------------------------------------------------------
"Doug Knox MS-MVP" <[email protected]> escribió en el mensaje
No, as Shenan said, you'd likely lose settings for recently installed
applications, and other changes that were made to the system since you made
the backup. A full image will, of course, do the same thing. However,
programs like Image for Windows and its companion Image for DOS will work
with re-writable DVD media, so its quite possible that you could image a
system partition onto a couple of DVD's (depending on how much stuff you
had) and not have to go through so many discs.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart
Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
 
Restoring to the original Registry backup may get you into the system, and at least let you back up anything you need to. If there are things you simply can't afford to lose, it definitely can't hurt.

And you're correct, if HKLM is corrupt, then it applies to all users. If its just the user portion of the Registry, then using a different account would/might allow you the ability to salvage what you need.
 
"DQ" said:
Hi All,

I recently bought a Dell Laptop with Windows XP Professional and software
bundle pre-installed. When I boot up my laptop, I can press the F12 function
key and have the system (with some kind of Dell pre-installed utility) wipes
out every thing I had installed after purchasing the laptop and restore my
laptop back to its original state when the machine was shipped to me. And
this happens without having inserting any CD or diskette.

I really like this capability and just wonder if I can do the same thing:
Having the machine back to a given point where I want it to be. For example,
after receiving this laptop, I make a connection to the Internet and upgrade
Windows with the latest patch. Now, I don't want to press F12 to have the
system restore my machine back to its original. Rather, I want it to restore
itself back to the point where I had update its Windows XP with all of the
latest patch, as of today.

How can I do that?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

If I understand your question, XP's System Restore feature does what
you want. It lets you take a snapshot of the system state and go back
to a saved snapshot later.

Note: System Restore doesn't change personal data files (such as
Microsoft Word documents, browsing history, drawings, favorites, or
e-mail) when doing a restore.

For information, go to Start | Help and Support and search for "System
Restore".
--
Best Wishes,
Steve Winograd, MS-MVP (Windows Networking)

Please post any reply as a follow-up message in the news group
for everyone to see. I'm sorry, but I don't answer questions
addressed directly to me in E-mail or news groups.

Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
 
I will follow your advice. Thanks again!...

--------------------------------------------------
"Doug Knox MS-MVP" <[email protected]> escribió en el mensaje
Restoring to the original Registry backup may get you into the system, and
at least let you back up anything you need to. If there are things you
simply can't afford to lose, it definitely can't hurt.

And you're correct, if HKLM is corrupt, then it applies to all users. If
its just the user portion of the Registry, then using a different account
would/might allow you the ability to salvage what you need.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart
Display\Security
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
 
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