Hi Zilla - I'm inclined to agree based on what I've seen in this thread -
backup your critical data and any downloaded sources for which you don't
have installation disks and try a Repair Install. (That may well not work,
BTW.)
I know this won't help much now, but for future reference, expecially if
you're going to stay with Win2k, you need Erunt/Erdnt:
Get Erunt here for all NT-based computers including XP:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/ You can set it up to take
a scheduled backup each night at 12:01AM on a weekly round-robin basis, and
a Monthly on the 1st of each month. See here for how to set that up:
http://home.t-online.de/home/lars.hederer/erunt/erunt.txt, and for some
useful information about this subject
The following tutorials are useful:
Installing & Using ERUNT
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
To see an illustrated registry restore procedure
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_erdntuse.html
This program is one of the best things around - saved my butt on many
occasions, and will also run very nicely from a DOS prompt (in case you've
done something that won't let you boot any more and need to revert to a
previous Registry) IF you're FAT32 OR have a DOS startup disk with NTFS
write drivers in an NTFS system. (There is also a way using the Recovery
Console to get back to being "bootable" even without separate DOS write NTFS
drivers, after which you can do a normal ERDNT restore. See erunt.txt for
detailed instructions. Basically, if you make your backup into a folder
inside your Windows or Winnt folder, you can restore at a Recovery Console
boot by copying the files from that ERDNT folder into the system32\config
folder. After a good boot, then do another normal ERDNT restore to also
restore the user hives also.) (BTW, it also includes a Registry defragger
program). Free, and very, very highly recommended.
Also, schedule a nightly System State Backup, including in it also any
especially critical data folders. Use an Erdnt recovery to get back to
being bootable, then do the System State Restore (which handles some other
things besides the Registry which are important.)
Here's the detailed proceedure for using the Recovery Console:
You can only do this from a DOS boot if your file system is
FAT32 OR you have NTFS drivers. However, you can do a partial restore to
get back to being bootable by using the Recovery Console if you've installed
it, and then do a full restore. (BTW, remember to re-install the Recovery
Console if you slipstream any of your SP's into a local i386 folder.)
Essentially, the approach is to put the ERDNT folder(s) where your nightly
ERUNT is saved inside %SystemRoot% and then use the Recovery Console to
first back up the existing hives in %SystemRoot%\System32\Config and then
replace them with the ones from an appropriate ERDNT folder. This won't
restore the User hives, but will let you boot so that you can then do a
normal ERDNT restore of all hives. You can do it manually or you can
automate the process by using a batch regcopy1.txt command in
Recovery Console where regcopy1.txt contains something like (in this case
E:\ is the %SystemRoot% for my Win2kProSP4 system, and I save to both a Temp
folder and a nightly named folder each night. Here I'm just using the Temp
which will have the last night's save in it.):
md tmp
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\system e:\winnt\tmp\system.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\software e:\winnt\tmp\software.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\sam e:\winnt\tmp\sam.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\security e:\winnt\tmp\security.bak
copy e:\winnt\system32\config\default e:\winnt\tmp\default.bak
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\system
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\software
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\security
delete e:\winnt\system32\config\default
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\system e:\winnt\system32\config\system
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\software e:\winnt\system32\config\software
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\sam e:\winnt\system32\config\sam
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\security e:\winnt\system32\config\security
copy e:\winnt\ERDNT\Temp\default e:\winnt\system32\config\default
See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545 (Be
very careful about your specific system's ERUNT naming conventions which can
depend upon just how your backup was saved, manually vs. a scheduled task.)
Hope some of this is a little helpful, anyway.
--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MVP, DTS, ASVOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
John John said:
If it's broken it won't do any good to stick it back to where it came
from. You would have to try to fix it first. I got thrown a loop by
Stubby mentioning KB307545, I forgot the motherboard change that initially
caused the problem. At this point I would return the hives to where they
came from except the SYSTEM hive then try a repair (In-Place Upgrade). I
think the installation might be beyond saving...
John
Ok thanks. When I load he sysem.bak hive, do I then call it "sysem" and
basically overwrie the "system" already in registry? Or I guess
similarly I can go to the recovery console and copy the system.bak file
back to system.
John John wrote:
That SYSTEM hive that you renamed to SYSTEM.bak and put in the tmp
folder, how big is it? Can you load it with regedt32? If the problem
was that it was really corrupt, you are pretty well out of luck. If the
problem was that it was too big you might be able to reduce its size and
reuse it.
I know that Microsoft now recommends to move all hives/key together but
I would have moved/replaced the SYSTEM hive only. With Windows 2000
there is no System Restore to then use and return the hives back to
newer versions, replacing the good hives with old ones, in my opinion,
doesn't help. You can try putting the other hives back where they were
and see what happens. With the SAM back in its place your user accounts
should be accessible again.
Other than that, you are going to have to salvage your files and wipe
this mess from the drive and start again from scratch. The Windows 2000
version of the article for this problem is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269075/
The success rate for fixing this problem depends greatly on how old the
replacement hive is. As you had never done an Emergency Repair Disk, or
otherwise backed up the registry you are now up the proverbial creek
unless you can fix the old SYSTEM hive.
John
Zilla wrote:
Thanks Jim, but I did NOT see anything on that page that I can use.
However I am further along than I was yesterday, though now my original
account is all messed up. I don't have my users anymore, Control Panel
Add/Remove Programs is empty, no mail accts, etc. How can I "restore"
my old system. Am I just screwed now?
I did NOT have a registry backup.
Jim Byrd wrote:
Hi Zilla - You may already be too far down the road, but you may find
something useful here just to suppliment Dave's advice:
http://www.motherboard.windowsreinstall.com/win2k.htm
--
Regards, Jim Byrd, MVP, DTS, ASVOP
My Blog, Defending Your Machine,
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
I guess I'm f'd if I didn't! Any other recourse to ge my Winnt (orig)
folder back to geting the files I want?
- Mail
- Documents
... besides manually copying these?
Dave Patrick wrote:
%systemroot%\repair\regback
assuming you made them before hand. This is a manual process in
Windows
2000
--
Regards,
Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect
:
| Ok I was able to get into my original WINNT folder, and am now
| following Part 2 of the article above. It talks about the _restore
| files in the System Volume Information. I don't see any _restore*
| files, being Win2k, and not WinXP? Where are the backup files for
Win2k?
|
