[perfume]

When a fresh install of an NTFS Windows XP Pro(SP3) is done, the registry is in what i call a" Virgin state",meaning except for the Microsoft defaults, there are no 3rd party software,etc installed. To Back up this Virgin Registry and to restore it ,i seek the options available from you all!

I read a fascinating article http://www.web-articles.info/e/a/tit...your-registry/,in which the author states that ideally a computer must have two XP systems, but on different directories (drives?). Just forgetting about a"restore and backup", suppose the pc crashes, how does one get to access the second registry which was backed up? (Especially for those without restore disks?) Kindly post your suggestions. Thanks very much.

PS: How do you install the second copy(XP PRO) of the installation disk onto another drive or a directory on the same internal disk?.I have never done it before.I would like to emphasise the ability to access the backed up registry.

[aasimenator]

I have done this a few times & its just a waste of hdd space
instead you can create a ghost backup of it which will be much more convenient.

Anyway regard your question here is how to do it
after you do a fresh install on 1st partition of the hard drive Back up the registry any way you want to
open computer management create a new partition
Reboot from XP CD & Chose the partition you created to install another copy of XP on that partition.
So if on of the partition crashes you can still start xp using the other partition.

I read the part that you mentioned from the article. the author is say that you should restore the backup not from the original Xp partition but the partition you create as a backup drive. you can use any 3rd party tools for this.

[perfume]

Dear Aasimenator,
Thank you! I do take regular backup and restores using Macrium Reflect. What i do, once a fresh install is done and the necessary programs,like FF3, Opera, MBAM, SAS,KIS2009, Ccleaner, Defraggler,VLC Player and Winamp(a necessity for me) are installed ,i take the backup onto the External Hard drive.Period. Incremental backups have created a few problems for me,so after a month, i take another B&R,mainly for the MS updates and newer versions of the above softwares.

Now here's the lowdown. When we can all take Backup and Restore using whichever software we like ( Free OR paid), why does Microsoft come up with an article as late as 2007 as to how to perform a registry backup alone?http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756

When the registry gets corrupted, we restore what? The registry alone or fall back upon the B&R which we have? Why ERUNT?

[Elvandil]

The fresh registry is backed up automatically after an installation. That is the one that is usually used for recovery from a corrupted registry.

System Restore backs up the registry in every restore point.

Restoring an old registry is not of much use except for recovering files. If it is too old, almost nothing will work right. I back up the registry on each boot with ERUNT just because placing a copy in a root directory makes them more easily accessible if they need restoring. ERUNT keeps 7 copies and automatically deletes older ones as new ones are made. They can also be restored by running erdnt.exe from a boot CD like UBCD4Win.

"C:\Program Files\ERUNT\Autoback.exe" C:\ERDNT\#Date#-#Time# sysreg curuser otherusers /noconfirmdelete /days:7 /alwayscreate

Generally, the restore points are enough.

[aasimenator]

The simple way to put this is. when you installing a application System Restore point is created which creates a backup of the registry, so if the application fails to install / changes system files wrongly you can do the system restore.
This same way applies to the registry back/export .i.e if auto system restore doesn't work

If the registry alone gets corrupt you can restore the registry only. but whatever apps you have installed after the registry was backed-up you'll have to reinstall it again.

Try different backup utility like norton Ghost or Acronis Disk image they wont let you down.

The best practice is that you create a bootable CD (LIVE CD) like BartPE & which contains such Utilities & then Restore as & when needed & also to create backup outside the OS to that no system files are loaded

[perfume]

Dear Elvandil and aasimenator,
Thank you for the erudite and rich info'. I posted this question mainly because the"restore points" which i manually created were not respected by my OS and it went to the previous restore point. So i had to do a B&R of the C drive which restored things to normal. Can you help me out there?

Dear Elvandil,
i am a novice when it is""C:\Program Files\ERUNT\Autoback.exe" C:\ERDNT\#Date#-#Time# sysreg curuser otherusers /noconfirmdelete /days:7 /alwayscreate". Kindly elaborate please.

The link provided by Elvandil is a must read!http://www.ubcd4win.com/

[Elvandil]

Originally Posted by perfume

Dear Elvandil and aasimenator,
Thank you for the erudite and rich info'. I posted this question mainly because the"restore points" which i manually created were not respected by my OS and it went to the previous restore point. So i had to do a B&R of the C drive which restored things to normal. Can you help me out there?

Dear Elvandil,
i am a novice when it is""C:\Program Files\ERUNT\Autoback.exe" C:\ERDNT\#Date#-#Time# sysreg curuser otherusers /noconfirmdelete /days:7 /alwayscreate". Kindly elaborate please.

The link provided by Elvandil is a must read!http://www.ubcd4win.com/

That is the command line needed to get ERUNT to make a registry backup of all the system and user hives on each boot, keep the last 7, and delete the older ones.

Just install ERUNT, create a shortcut to the Autoback.exe file that you will find in its installation folder, and then in the properties of the shortcut, change the target to:

"C:\Program Files\ERUNT\Autoback.exe" C:\ERDNT\#Date#-#Time# sysreg curuser otherusers /noconfirmdelete /days:7 /alwayscreate

Drag the shortcut to the Startup folder in your Start Menu and it will run on each boot, storing a copy of your registry in a dated folder inside C:\ERDNT.

[perfume]

Dear Elvandil,
Thanks a lot!