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How to Backup the Windows Registry
In simple terms the Windows Registry can be thought of as a file containing an extended inventory of all your PCs hardware and software.
When Windows starts up it consults the Registry in order to know how to relate to your specific hardware and software.
It's a file that's essential to Windows. If it gets corrupted Windows won't be able to function properly.
And it does get corrupted; rather too often actually. That's why it's good practice to have a backup copy.
Easy, you say, I'll just copy the file to another location.
In Windows 95, 98 you can do just this. The Registry consists of two files system.dat and user.dat located in the Windows folder and you can simply copy these to another folder to create your registry backup. ME adds a third file, classes.dat, but it too can be simply copied.
This simple approach won't work with Windows NT and later versions as the Registry files are locked by the system and can't be easily copied.
Windows addresses this by providing automatic backup of the Registry as part of the automatic System Restore feature. This feature is enabled by default when Windows is installed.
If you have left the System Restore feature enabled on your PC then your Registry is automatically being backed up. If it gets corrupted Windows will automatically try to recover it from previous restore points.
However, many users, me included, turn the System Restore feature off as it is a notorious disk space hog. Once turned off, your Registry is no longer being backed up.
Thankfully, there are a number of utilities that will back up your Registry. One of the best is also free. It called ERUNT.
ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility for NT) will backup the Registry for all Windows systems from NT onwards. It also allows you to recover from backup either through a special recovery program or through the Windows Recovery Console.
And it's fast, very fast.
With ERUNT it's also possible to set up automatic Registry backups using the Windows Scheduler.
As a bonus, ERUNT includes another utility NTREGOPT that allows you to defragment your Registry. To be frank, I've never myself seen any performance improvement from registry defragging but then again it does no harm either.
ERUNT is easy to use but it's not intended for raw beginners. Raw beginners will most likely have System Restore enabled anyway so they won't need to back up their Registry.
Freeware, Windows 95 and later, 773KB
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt
Gizmo
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Comments
I've never thought about using ERUNT because I've been using the Eusing Registry Cleaner (also recommended by Gizmo) for years and it creates a "backup" as a single .reg file.
My system is Win XP SP3. Yesterday, for the first time ever, I looked at the size of this backup. It was ~69 MB. Is that okay, considering that I run the cleaner after uninstalling software? (Admission: I don't know anything about this registry business but if it can be beneficial, I don't mind learning!)
@ vasa1,
- I use also Eusing. However to do a "Full Registry Backup" it is not suitable with it. Why?
1. It is in AINSI or Unicode format (.reg format); not in binary format. This is crucial (the Registry storage is done in binary format).
2. All versions of RegEdit contain serious bugs which cause you to loose registry data of certain kinds. Furthermore, registration files do not store any class information, security descriptors and make no distinction between volatile and non-volatile keys.
3. The best way is to use ERUNT; if you have a problem (e.g. a corrupted Registry) by any reason, or you want to restore the entire Registry - the way is ERUNT. If your PC doesn't boot and you have a boot disc like BartPE, you can restore all registry easily, clicking in 'ERDNT.EXE' that is usually in "C:\WINDOWS\ERDNT" (pls see also post #52462 by LRC1962, e.g).
«Is that okay, considering that I run the cleaner after uninstalling software?»
Yes is Ok. All the Registry is there (but not in binary format, that is better to backup; it's a .reg file). Eusing after cleaning the registry does a backup file for removed files also, that is good if some annoyances the user see in their OS after the cleaning process).
Thanks, mojoMo! It looks like the safe thing to do is to have ERUNT and to backup the registry as a safety precaution.
You are welcomed, vasa1.
I have Paragon backup and recovery installed. Would ERUNT &/or NTREGOPT supply additional services for me or would it/they just be redundant? Any info appreciated. Thanks
I just used ntregopt for the 1st time, & WOA NELLY, I cannot believe it. My PC is running like brand new. I happened to glance at my swap usage, & it's gone down from 40%-45% down to the mid 30%. I don't know why this happened, but it did. My PC had been running terribly slow, especially w/Firefox.I knew I needed more memory (only have 756mb's) & still do because the memory usage is in the 80% up to the high 90's% most of the time. But, because the swap usage has gone down so much,it's not being slowed down. So, YES, I think you can get some advantages out of Erunt & Ntregopt.
These are 2 very different types of programs with 2 very different purposes. ERUNT only backs up your registry. It does a great job. It is very useful for restoring your registry if it gets corrupted. In a lot of ways, it is much like System Restore; only a little better in my opinion.
Paragon Backup & Recovery is probably a file/document program and might even be an imaging program. It backs up files/documents. It might even create an image of your system, which you can use to bring your system back exactly to the way it was when you made the image.
If you are only making backups of your files/documents, then I think ERUNT could be useful. However, if you are making image backups, then I see little need for ERUNT.
Sorry Kendal, I just got this reply. thanks for the info. If I read U correctly. them my Paragon program. which can do Backup and Imaging has it covered, and ERUNT would be redundant for me. I also have REVO Uninstaller Pro as well, and it does a systems backup whenever I install or uninstall something using it's program.
Erunt - don't leave home without it. Got home last night and found a missing or corrupt ~/system file message on a black screen. That means the reg files. Took a lot of searching and fussing to get me into safe mode (only time this has happened to me. Went to my Erunt saved files ran the restore program and was back in business 5 minutes later. Beats to pieces the procedure you would have to go through in the same circumstance using System Restore and from what I have read it is not always reliable.
I've been using ERUNT, including NTREGOPT, for a long time now on both XP Home SP3 and Vista HP SP1, however, I cannot get the AUTOBACK automatic backup feature to work on Windows 7 Starter. I have run the two programs successfully and reinstalled, and also tried to make a shortcut to it myself, but no go: when I reboot my Windows 7, it tells me AUTOBACK is a command line utility, does not run it, and when I look the shortcut is gone from Startup. Any advice?
Please see this link for a discussion about Erunt and Windows 7. It might be your answer:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/faq.htm
I should add that Windows 7 UAC is off. In addition, while AUTOBACK works on Vista, UAC stops it and you must click the system tray icon for blocked startup programs to tell the computer to let it run; the use of Norton UAC was of no help in this.
Does anyone know if you should use NTRegOpt or PageDefrag first (assuming you wanted to use both)?
While deragmenting the registry will not normally bring you any perceptible performance increase. it does have one certain advantage, and that is it reduces registry size, which makes it quicker to back up.
In my opinion this is also the only advantage of a "cleaner" for the registry.
NOTE: NTREGOPT does not "clean" or alter the registry, it merely optimises it to remove free spaces and thus reduce the size.
To quote the developer;
QUOTE
The program works by recreating each registry hive "from scratch", thus removing any slack space that may be left from previously modified or deleted keys.
Note that the program does NOT change the contents of the registry in any way, nor does it physically defrag the registry files on the drive (as the PageDefrag program from SysInternals does). The optimization done by NTREGOPT is simply compacting the registry hives to the minimum size possible.
UNQUOTE
http://download.cnet.com/Mz-Registry-Backup/3000-2094_4-10882793.html?ta...
i have been using this for maybe a month now, i find it very simple to understand and easy to use,
Thanks, I thought undoubted would betoken alright now the download domicile says veritable is Vista compatible.
Ntregopt is still one of the best defrag and compact registry utilities, it does the job in a single pass and it's compatible with NT/2000/2003/XP/Vista. I tested it against Registry Mechanic v8 and Auslogics Registry Defrag scoring 99,7%-100% against both, and performed better than Winaso and Resplendence Registrar built in defraggers. Other popular registry defraggers include Quicksys, Page Defrag and Free Registry Defrag, but I did not test them.
NTREGOPT says "This program optimize the registry files of your Windows NT/2000/XP system."
Does this mean it is unsafe for Vista?
I'm using it for the past 8 months without a single problem. 2 of my favorite apps.
I have absolutely no problems using NTREGOPT in Vista. You should run it elevated though, or run using Scheduler: http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/optimize-windows-xp-vista-registry-reg...
Thanks, I thought it would be alright since the download site says it is Vista compatible.
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