Sometimes when things go wrong, booting into Windows becomes difficult. As a tech, I often run into situations where the aftermath of an infection or a severe system file corruption prevents me from reaching the Windows desktop on a troubled PC.<\/p>\n
My first step in such situations now is simple. I boot to a remote operating system of my creation, open up the\u00a0system32\\config<\/strong> directory, and copy the registry hive files to a backup folder inside of the config folder. The following files, of course, are the registry hives:<\/p>\n Once these files have been backed up, I navigate to any recent backup of the hives in the config folder (most often the one in the \u00a0RegBack <\/strong>subfolder will work) and simply copy those same files from that folder directly into the config folder. This essentially replaces the registry hives with older, working copies of those hives.<\/p>\n On XP machines, it’s a bit more complicated. \u00a0You’ll have to actually manually navigate into a restore point folder and copy the backup hives from there. \u00a0These are pretty easy to get to, however. \u00a0Look for the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\\System Volume Information <\/strong>folder, and find a recently-dated\u00a0_restore{GUID}RP#\\snapshot\u00a0<\/strong>folder inside it (the “RP” indicates it’s a restore point). \u00a0In this folder, simply copy the five hive files to the system32\\config<\/strong> folder and rename them to match the hive files you removed above.<\/p>\n Generally, once this is complete, the PC is once again bootable. I highly recommend starting in Safe Mode next, however, as some of the drivers (whether filesystem\u00a0or <\/em>device) may not be accurately catalogued after this procedure. From there, repairs can be carried out to correct any remaining issues with startup applications or drivers.<\/p>\n It isn’t technically necessary to replace\u00a0all <\/em>of the hives to correct boot problems, but it’s good practice.<\/p>\n If you’re looking for computer help in the Louisville area,\u00a0look no further<\/a>. \u00a0Call me today and get it done right!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sometimes when things go wrong, booting into Windows becomes difficult. As a tech, I often run into situations where the aftermath of an infection or a severe system file corruption prevents me from reaching the Windows desktop on a troubled … Continue reading \n