Skip to main content

Can TIH 2011 selectively restore only the Windows 7 registry?

Thread needs solution

My Win7 system fails to boot, saying there is a non-recoverable error in the registry.

Fortunately, I had done a complete TIH 2011 backup of all my drives and partitions only about 12 hours before the error occurred.

Can I selectively restore ONLY the Windows 7 registry files from the backup?

Or worst case, could I restore only the Windows folder (presumably the registry files live somewhere in the Windows folder)?

Restoring the entire partition is not really an option... during the 12 hours after the backup, I created several files that are critical to not lose.

Or maybe I could backup those critical files (while booted from the TIH recovery disc), and then restore the entire partition?

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I'm a contract software developer who uses this computer in my job, and losing those files will impact the project I'm working on.

DadCat

0 Users found this helpful

I'd put the HDD into another computer and make certain to save the critical files thereon first. Indeed I'd save the critical files I KNOW ABOUT, and copy the whole harddrive somewhere else so I have everything including new files I might NOT know about.

Then I'd restore from backup, and finally copy-back those "critical files" individually from the other (safe) location.

David,

You can also do a file backup of your user content, then do the restore of the disk and partition backup, then restore the file backup.

If you want to try to restore the physical location of the files that make up the registry, you can try to boot on your recovery CD and restore the following files:
For each user:
%UserProfile%\Ntuser.dat
For Windows 2000, Server 2003 and Windows XP, also:
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Windows\Usrclass.dat
For Windows Vista and later:
%UserProfile%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Usrclass.dat