The Scenario: Due to various reasons you may want to manually restore the registry from one of the restore points. I have used this because of viruses or because I just couldn’t get a computer to boot and suspect that the problem is in the registry. Sometimes this will fix the “File c:\windows\system32\config\system missing or corrupt” error but not always. IF the problem is related to a virus then you can almost guarantee that the virus has also infected the restore points. So this fix will NOT get rid of any viruses but it will sometimes bring the computer back to a usable state so that you can manually remove the virus.
The Warning: This is a very advanced fix. I am not responsible if you break your computer. This is for MY reference therefore if you use it you are on your own.
The Fix: Boot your computer into either the recovery console OR another boot disk. I use ActiveBoot, it is an excellent utility disk. It has saved my butt many of times. Once you are at a command prompt you need to do a couple of things.
First you need to backup the current registry files by renaming them. I like to rename them to filename.bak. Then you need to copy the files from a restore point to the location where the registry lies.
Technical information:
Files are located in C:\windows\system32\config
The Files are(they have no extension): system , security , sam , software and default.
The Fix(continued):
1. Naviagate to a Restore point.
a. C:
b. cd “system volume information”
c. dir /a:hs
Make note of the listed directory that begins with “_restore{”
d. cd _restore{number found from step c}
e. dir
Make note of a resore point that you want to recover from. I like to choose one from about a week ago.
f. cd RP
g. cd snapshot
At this point you are in a the directory for which you will copy the registry files from.
2. Backup old registry:
a. ren c:\windows\system32\config\system system.bak
b. ren c:\windows\system32\config\software software.bak
c. ren c:\windows\system32\config\security security.bak
d. ren c:\windows\system32\config\sam sam.bak
e. ren c:\windows\system32\config\default default.bak
All old registry files have been backed up to to files with the .bak extension.
3. Copy restore point registry files to correct place.
a. copy _registry_machine_sam c:\windows\system32\config\sam
b. copy _registry_machine_security c:\windows\system32\config\security
c. copy _registry_machine_software c:\windows\system32\config\software
d. copy _registry_machine_system c:\windows\system32\config\system
e. copy _registry_user_.default c:\windows\system32\config\default
Now reboot the computer and it will start using the old registry. You may see a brief screen that says something like, “Performing recovery”. Then the computer will be back up.
Obviously any programs that you have installed after the date of the backup that we used will no longer be installed. The files will be there but the program will not be installed.
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