[nuuuge]

i have a 75mhz with 16 mg ram and the registry is corrupt. when i boot it asks me to restore the registry from a backup and i don't have one. i have tried doing what windows help says to restore with attrib -h -r -s system.dat etc. but when i hit enter after each command it says bad command. any pointers? thanx, nuuuge

[Bryan]

Assuming you running W95, is this what you tried? If so, try it one more time. If not, try it.

Restart the Pc and keep pressing F8 during the bootup. You should get the StartupMenu with 6 options. Take the option for a "Command Prompt Only". At the command prompt type in the following

cd c:\windows
attrib -h -s -r system.dat
attrib -h -s -r user.dat
attrib -h -s -r system.da0
attrib -h -s -r user.da0

ren system.dat system.xx0
ren system.da0 system.dat
ren user.dat user.xx0
ren user.da0 user.dat

attrib +r +h system.dat
attrib +r +h user.dat

cd c:\
win

I doubt your running W98, but if you are let us know. With W98 it is extremely simple to restore the registry plus it keeps the last five good days registries backed up for you.

[This message has been edited by bhesson (edited 09-04-2000).]

[nuuuge]

hi, it looked like it was going to work and then it said that it couldn't restore the registry or there was no back up copy available. this pc was given to me so i have no w95 disk or anything. i have another pc that is a p. bell that has a recovery floppy and a master disk with w95 on it. can that be used in any way? if i was to start from scratch and reformat would i have to buy ms-dos and a w95 disc? i've never done it that way but i'm willing to learn. can you recommend a book that will walk you thru it? if i was to reformat the hard way what could i expect to spend and where could i get the stuff? thanx, nuuuge

[Bryan]

Not sure about the PB recovery disk or CD. Maybe someone else will know. Here is a guide for an install.

http://www2.1starnet.com/evictor/freshstart.html

[nuuuge]

i'd like to save whats on the pc without reformatting. is it possible to restore the registry when the pc says it cannot find a backup? thanx, nuuuge

[Bryan]

I can answer your question if you can give me the information I need.

Restart the Pc and keep pressing F8 during the bootup. You should get the StartupMenu with 6 options. Take the option for a "Command Prompt Only". At the command prompt type in the following


cd \
attrib -h -s -r system.1st

cd windows
attrib -h -s -r system.dat
attrib -h -s -r user.dat
attrib -h -s -r system.da0

After typing each attrib command and pressing enter after each,

Which ones come back with the response "File not found"?

Which ones don't come back with that response?

Do this,

cd \
cd c:\windows\options\cabs

Does it find C:\windows\options\cabs??

dir c: /p

Does it display anything on screen after the Directory command??



[This message has been edited by bhesson (edited 09-06-2000).]

[nuuuge]

i get file not found after attrib -h -s -r system.da0. i get invalid directory after cd c:\windows\options\cabs??. after dir c:/p i get a full directory and there is a file at the very end called REG.

[Bryan]

What happened after this statement?

cd \
attrib -h -s -r system.1st

[nuuuge]

the hard drive clicks a couple times and it goes to a c:\>

[Bryan]

Then if you don't get an error saying file not found then it may be there. That is a copy of the registry when W95 was first installed on the PC. It may get you back into Windows but you will have to reinstall all of the software programs, make any changes since it was new and other settings may need to be redone. It's your only shot at getting back up. Any data files will still there though. If you want to try it do this

Boot to the Command Prompt, type in the following and press enter after each.


cd c:\windows
attrib -h -r -s system.dat
ren system.dat system.xxx
cd \
attrib -h -r -s system.1st
ren system.1st system.dat
copy system.dat c:\windows
cd c:\windows
attrib +r +h system.dat
cd \
win

[nuuuge]

it worked fine, thank you very much. one more question: how do i get rid of the w95 logo screen at startup?