Restoring the windows 8 registry. Restoring the Windows system. Restoring system files manually

As we mentioned earlier, in some cases, when inconsistencies in the registry are detected, for example, inaccurate data was written, the system will try to repair itself during the boot process.

While poorly written software or drivers do not actually pollute the registry, they tend to cause the registry to become unstable due to their chaotic areas, which, when available, create system problems. To bring the registry into a safe state, Windows provides several useful tools, including System File Checker, Chkdsk, System Restore, and Driver Rollback. And also, to repair, clean and defragment the registry, you can use third-party utilities.

The System File Checker (SFC) is a rather old tool, still used on modern operating systems, which uses the administrative command line to work. SCF checks the integrity of every system file that exists within a Windows installation, including Internet Explorer.

A corrupted Windows system file leads to system instability and security vulnerabilities, as well as sub-optimal performance during normal operation.

To call SFC, do the following:

  • Insert the Windows installation DVD (but don't run).
  • Open an administrative command prompt.
  • Type sfc /scannow and press Enter.

All versions of Windows come with SFC, but if you are trying to run SFC on a system that has been updated with one or more service packs, you will need to prepare a DVD (or ISO image) of the Windows installation files that include the service patches. This is necessary so that SFC checks and uses to replace damaged, SP versions of system files.

Attention. The SFC check takes a long time. SFC, to ensure the integrity and recovery of the found damaged system file, checks each system file.

SFC is not meant to be used regularly in troubleshooting, only consider it when you encounter system instability issues.

Another well-known tool is Check Disk (ChkDsk and Chkntfs), which scans your computer's hard drives for errors and fixes them. The tool requires administrator credentials to run, as it runs on a low level of hardware and must have special disk access in case of installation problems.

To run ChkDsk, open an administrative command prompt, type the following command and press the Enter key.

Running the ChkDsk program on the system drive will cause the task to be scheduled the next time the system is rebooted.

Any hard drive that stops reading or writing data correctly is likely to corrupt files on the system. Usually, if the system detects corrupted data files, it will result in some data loss and eventually require the user to restore their files from a backup or file history. You should be interested in saving registry files carefully, as this leads to a system hang or, worse, a crash.

Whenever Windows tries and fails to read data from a corrupted system file, swap file, or registry, Windows displays an error message commonly known as the Blue Screen of Death. If this happens, you should immediately determine whether this is an isolated incident or the blue screen is an early sign of a likely disk failure, which will lead to the rapid spread of file corruption and Windows instability. Media failure can seem catastrophic, and it is, but it will typically display the aforementioned errors for a while, which is a typical symptom of bad unusable sectors. Most bad sectors are the result of physical damage such as overvoltage, physical damage, or manufacturing defects.

Software tools such as ScanDisk and CHKDSK are offered to the user to attempt data recovery. As a rule, once a bad sector is identified, the system marks it as bad and excludes its use for data recording.

In Windows 8.1, the Chkdsk tool runs automatically in the background and actively monitors the health of NTFS volumes.

If the system detects a corrupted file, NTFS under Windows OS solves most of the problems on its own, without requiring additional special tools, such as a recovery disk.

Attention. Under normal operating conditions, if you are using Windows 8.1, you will not need to run Chkdsk, since the operating system itself monitors the file system for damage, and the hard disk for bad sectors and fixes problems in the background.

CCleaner

Although we have already talked about the popular CCleaner tool from Piriform before, in this article it is worth recalling it again in relation to solving common registry destruction issues.

As previously mentioned, if any software application or device driver is installed or removed from the computer, problems with the remaining fragments of incomplete or outdated entries are inevitable.

Ccleaner will perform some or all of the following activities:

  • Scan the registry for unwanted/malicious entries
  • Remove unwanted/malicious entries to combat registry bloat
  • Delete or replace obsolete files
  • Back up the registry
  • Remove incorrect file and program associations
  • Repair the registry if any maintenance task fails
  • Defragment the registry to remove any free spaces
  • Repair or remove system files such as unused or shared DLL files, find device drivers that are no longer needed, and old ActiveX files
  • Will create a scan schedule to make sure the registry is scanned and errors are automatically repaired.

Many third-party registry cleaners remove unnecessary bloat and keys no longer relevant to the current system, and then defragment the registry files.

Hello, dear admin, thank you for a really very useful, exclusive project, of which there are not so many in Runet. I studied the materials on your site for 5 days, learned a lot of interesting things, but unfortunately after this period of time I could not fix my recent problem on my laptop, so I would like to turn to you for help in the hope of finding out my problem and finally - then solve it. I apologize in advance that there will be a lot of "letters").

I bought an Acer Aspire v5-122p laptop 2 years ago with a preinstalled Windows 8 64-bit OS (I don’t remember the edition). Then after some time it was automatically updated to 8.1. The last 2 months there have been frequent freezes in the system, and I have been delaying everything with restoring the Windows system. A week ago, the system once again hung heavily and I had to urgently turn off the laptop by holding the shutdown button. After that, the following problem arose and is not eliminated. After turning on the laptop, the acer logo appears and the download icon spins for about 40 seconds and the message "There was a problem on your computer, you need to restart it" is displayed on a blue background. After this message, the computer restarts itself and "Preparing automatic recovery" starts, the download icon spins for 30 seconds and then everything disappears, there is nothing, the black background just glows without any messages, but the laptop seems to continue to work, but does not respond to any what actions, except for an emergency shutdown of the laptop. And so all the time.

I did not bother to make a boot disk, a USB flash drive from under the system, when the system was still working fine. Having studied the materials on your site, I tried to do the following. I downloaded images with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 English through mediacreationtool, in it I also made bootable flash drives separately with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 English, I also tried to make bootable flash drives through WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64 and rufus programs with these images. I did it according to your materials, initially I tried using these programs to make a bootable USB flash drive for UEFI BIOS with formatting in FAT32 with the GPT scheme, while changing nothing in the BIOS, UEFI was enabled with secure boot, boot priority was set to the first USB HDD, also specially by pressing on the f12 button, I could select a bootable USB flash drive connected to the laptop, as a result, after these manipulations, the acer logo and the boot icon did not appear for long, and after that the black background glows again without anything. I also tried to disable D2D RECOVERY, even then in the BIOS I wrote the path in the select an uefi file as trusted for executing item in usb1 the path to the BOOTX64.efi file, which is on the flash drive, but the result is the same.

Then I decided to go differently. According to the article "How to disable Secure Boot on an Acer Aspire laptop", I disabled secure boot on disabled by setting a password, then switched UEFI to Legacy in boot mode. I set boot priorities from usb hdd in the BIOS, then through the WinSetupFromUSB_1-4_x64 and rufus programs I formatted it in NTFS with MBR and made bootable flash drives. When I connected this flash drive to a laptop in usb 2.0 and by clicking on f12 I selected my bootable flash drive, the laptop rebooted, after a while the Windows 8 logo appeared with a blue background with a download icon, but it didn’t get to the points to install Windows and restore the system, black again background covered boot.

In this appearing black background, the whole problem is, for some reason I can’t start the bootable USB flash drives to the end with Windows.

But two other facts are noteworthy, when I write all sorts of programs like eset.nod32, Victoria and some other Live CD programs to a bootable USB flash drive, then everything is fine, they boot from the flash drive and there is no black background, not even any freezes.

These days, it got to the point that I even had to initially disassemble my laptop because of this problem, removed the RAM, hard drive. I disconnected the wires, the drive, cleaned the video card from dust, carefully applied new thermal paste, but unfortunately this did not affect the solution of this problem. And I wondered if it was a hardware or software problem.

I decided in the end to start a laptop without a hard drive with a bootable USB flash drive not from under UEFI, it turned out an interesting fact, the Windows 8 logo with a blue background, the boot icon, and finally the items appeared to install Windows and restore the system, i.e. there were no black screens, at that moment I decided to put the hard drive back in, there was no black screen, but when I tried to restore or install the system, there were such errors the disk is locked, unlock it and reboot, also the blue background "Your PC needs to be repeired" file:boot/BCD.......

As a result, I left for 1 day with experiments with the Victoria program from under DOS, SMART sort of gave the status to the "GOOD" disk, found 8 defective bad blocks during the test, ADVANCED REMAP sort of corrected them first, then when I re-passed again 6 pieces I detected and at the same addresses, but the SMART status for the disk like "GOOD" remained.

Therefore, now I am puzzled and cannot understand, after all, the black screen is a trick of the hard drive due to some kind of hardware problem or a software problem, but then what is this paradox with a black screen and how to get rid of it after all.

Those. at the moment I can’t achieve anything so that I can run the bootable USB flash drive to the end from Windows without a black background with a hard drive connected, and as I said earlier many other eset.nod.32 programs, Victoria with a LIVE CD with a connected hard drive start up normally without a black background.

Thank you in advance for your response.

Due to the presence of viruses, inconsistencies in drivers or software, the OS may fail. If your Windows crashes, don't panic. The situation can be corrected by returning the state of files and programs to the moment when the PC was working properly.

While running OS Windows 7, 10 or 8, certain errors and problems may occur. As a result of such failures, a new launch of the operating system in operating mode becomes impossible. In this case, it is not at all necessary to do a laborious reinstallation of the OS. It is enough to perform a system restore.

OS recovery using the recovery environment

At work, we use the following scheme of actions:

  1. We restart the computer, press the F8 key during boot;
  2. Troubleshooting;
  3. System restore, OS restore point selection;
  4. click "Further" and again "Further";
  5. We press the button "Ready", reboot the system (in the Menu, select boot with the last known good configuration).

There are several ways that you can resort to resuming the operation of the OS. Some of them are based on reverting to saved settings. Others simply clear the data.

You can perform "resuscitation" of the OS in one of the following ways:

  • by selecting restore points;
  • using the command line;
  • through safe mode;
  • using the recovery environment;
  • using an image/boot disk.

Restoring the operating system using system "resuscitation" checkpoints is one of the most affordable, effective and popular options. To apply it, you need to make a series of clicks:

  1. Panel "Start";
  2. "System Restore";
  3. "Further";
  4. "Select a restore point";
  5. "Ready".

This operation will fix the problems with the computer, undo the changes and return the system to a working state that allowed the PC to boot normally. Loss of data, files and documents does not occur during such recovery. All data is saved. The operation is reversible. You can roll back the system to a previous state of the computer and use a different restore point.

Many people ask themselves how to make a recovery point on their own (manually) in order to choose it in the future? To do this, in the same menu "Start" - "System Restore" You can create such a point yourself at any convenient and suitable time for you. It will be saved with the current date, which can only be remembered.

From a restore point

In computer engineering, there is such a thing as a restore point. These are saved PC settings. As a rule, saving occurs automatically with each successful OS boot. The easiest way to resume Windows 7 is to use exactly this data.

Press F8 when the computer boots up. This command will bring up a menu of system startup options. Next, select the Last Known Good Configuration option.

You can also use another method. Enter the properties of the My Computer folder. Find the System protection line, clicking on which you will open the dialog box of the same name. Click Recovery - Next. We set a key date, indicate the disks that are subject to correction, and confirm the actions. After rebooting, the PC should work normally.

No restore points

You can fix OS problems without having restore points. To do this, you will need to resort to the LiveCD program. It needs to be downloaded and written to a USB flash drive with the .iso extension.
Further, all actions will take place in the BIOS. You need to configure boot from a flash drive. To do this, in the Boot section, select USB-HDD in the First boot device line.

Before proceeding directly to recovery, copy all the necessary files to a removable drive. The LiveCD program provides a special menu for these purposes.

We will fix the system error using the backup copy. Connect the flash drive, open the folder Windows\System32\config\ . Files with the names default, sam, security, software, system must be moved to any other folder. In their place, we transfer similar files from the RegBack folder and restart the computer.

The described method will only help if the problem is related to the registry.

Command line

You can resort to "reviving" Windows 7 from the command line if the PC begins to freeze or work slowly, however, the system boots up. Enter the menu "Start" and using the right mouse button, launch the command prompt as an administrator. Issue the rstrui.exe command, which will open the System Restore program. Click "Further". In the next window, select the desired rollback point and click again "Further". Upon completion of the process, the PC should work normally.

You can enter the utility in another way. We go to "Start". To call the command line, press "Run" and write the CMD command. We click on the found file CMD.exe and wait for the launch. Next, enter rstrui.exe on the command line and confirm the action with the Enter key on the keyboard.

It is not always possible to play it safe and create OS restore points in advance. There may be problems that block the option of such a "resuscitation" of the PC. Then you can use another, no less effective and easy option - restoring the Windows system using the system itself.

Based on the diagram:

  1. Icon "My computer"- right mouse button "Properties";
  2. "System Protection";
  3. In a new window, click "System Protection", restore button;
  4. "Further";
  5. Choose a restore point according to the date;
  6. Specify the system disks to be restored;
  7. Confirm the operations and reboot the system.

Restoring Windows 7 using Safe Mode

This method is preferred if the usual system boot is not possible. Then, after pressing the PC power button on the system unit, hold down the F8 key to call "Launch Menu". One of the menu options is "Safe mode". Select it and press Enter on the keyboard. As soon as Windows loads, we perform the algorithm of actions that we described earlier.

System Restore Windows 8/8.1

If you were able to start the OS, you can resume Windows 8 via "Options". Hover over the upper right corner and enter them. Click on "Changing computer settings". Chapter "Recovery" will offer several options:

  1. "Typical Restore with Information Preservation".
  2. "Delete data and reinstall OS".
  3. "Special Option".

Decide exactly what needs to be done. Then follow the menu prompts.

If you choose the latter method, in the window that opens, click on the diagnostic item. You will be offered the following options:

  • "Restore";
  • "Return to original state";
  • "Extra options". This item includes the ability to roll back to the desired resume point.

To resume Windows 8.1 press Win+R and call sysdm.cpl . In the system properties window, on the tab "Protection" specify the required system drive. Click "Restore". Clicking "Further", you will be able to see a list of rollback points. Select the one you want and click "Search for affected programs". Changes that have been made to the PC since the selected moment will be deleted. End the process by clicking "Ready".

In the case of working with Windows 8, there may be problems, incorrect Internet operation, etc. To fix this, you can use the classic recovery method through restore points.

Another option is to roll back the system. To do this, open the menu "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Windows Update". Choose an item "Uninstall updates". You can do the same using the command line.

So, in the list of updates that opens, we remove those of them, from the moment of installation of which (we look at the date) problems and malfunctions began. Delete unnecessary files and reboot.

In Windows 8.1, you can perform a factory reset. Important files will not be affected during this operation. The method is effective, but for its implementation, the OS needs to boot without any problems. We use the algorithm:

  1. Right side of the monitor - "Options";
  2. "Change settings";
  3. "Renewal and Recovery" - "Recovery";
  4. "Recovery without deleting files".

If you cannot log into the system in the usual way, you must use the disk with the system. Load the installation disk, select "System Restore". We press the button "Diagnostics", And "Restore".

If you're having problems with Windows 10, press Windows + Pause. Go to "System Protection" and press "Restore""Further". Select the desired indicator and click again "Further". When finished, press "Ready". The computer will automatically restart and the changes will take effect.

One of the advantages of the "dozens" is the ability to return the settings to the factory settings. This helps avoid having to install the system first. To reset your data go to "Computer Settings""Update and Security""Recovery""Reset your computer". Click "Begin".

You can take care of the possibility of rollback in case of failure in advance. Resume points can be created manually or configured to be automatically created at the desired frequency. To do this, in the settings, in the Update and security item, select the Backup service. Specify where to save copies, click Add disk. After selecting a device, the function will be activated.

You can restore the Windows 10 system again through the use of restore points. In this case, the system will be rolled back to the moment when it was freely loaded and worked without failures. This recovery method is described at the beginning of the article.

If the OS is not loaded, then a warning table appears on the screen with the key "Additional recovery options". Click it and choose "Diagnostics" - "System Restore". We make a choice of a Windows restore checkpoint, we are waiting for a system rollback and reboot.

If such operations did not help and the computer continues to work incorrectly, you can roll back to the basic settings. Some programs and utilities, personal PC settings will be reset, and personal data will be deleted.

This technique is used extremely rarely if the other options described above do not help. The algorithm of actions in this case is as follows:

  1. "Start" - "Setting options"- tab "Updates and security";
  2. Paragraph "Recovery"- button "Begin";
  3. Choose to delete all files or save some of them.

The system rollback after that will take 40-90 minutes.

Resume using the installation disc

One of the radical methods of fixing the error involves using the installation disk. After running it in BIOS, click System Restore. In the Troubleshooting section, select the desired action. Then follow the system prompts to complete the process.

The registry is a large database that stores all the settings necessary for the normal operation of the operating system. You can view it through the registry editor, which is available in Windows. Any user can enter it if his account has administrator rights.

And if you made any changes, or the computer turned off by itself, for various reasons, or you accidentally pressed the wrong key and deleted a parameter or an entire registry branch, then this may not have the best effect on the computer.

And yet, if this happened, let's figure out what are the ways to restore the registry of Windows 7 and Windows 8, for the normal operation of the computer.

With a backup

As you probably guessed, this method is not for everyone. If you previously backed up the registry through "File" - "Export" - read on, if not - go to the next method.

So, you have a backup. Press the combination Win + R, the window will open "Run". In the "Open" field, write regedit and click "OK".

The Registry Editor window should appear. In it, go to the "File" tab and select from the menu "Import".

Explorer will open, find the previously created backup in it and click "Open".

Wait while the files are copied.

Using System Restore

A system restore can be done using restore points. You could create them earlier, when the system worked stably and everything suited you. Or they could be created automatically by the system: when making changes to the computer configuration, before installing drivers, and so on.

Let's first consider, how to restore the registry if the operating system boots. In Windows 7, go to "Start" - "Control Panel".

Here we are interested in the point "Recovery".

In the next window, click "Starting System Restore".

Now you need to select a restore point. If there are several points, and you are in doubt, look at the date the point was created - did your computer work normally on these dates ?! - choose it. Clicking "Search for affected programs", you can see which programs will be removed as a result of recovery. Click "Next".

We confirm the rollback of the system to the selected state by clicking "Finish".

All data, including the registry, will correspond to the state that was at the time the selected restore point was created.

If you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, read the article: Windows 8 restore point and system rollback. There you will be interested in the second part. The actions will need to be performed the same as described above.

If the OS does not start

Restore the registry if the computer does not turn on is also possible. In the Windows 7 operating system, when the computer boots, press, at intervals of 1 second, the F8 button. A window will appear "Additional download options". In it, use the arrows to select the item "Computer Troubleshooting".

In the next window, select a language and click "Next".

Select your account, it is better that it has administrator rights, then enter the password if you have set it when logging in, and click "OK".

The following window should appear, select the item in it "System Restore".

A recovery window will open, click "Next" in it and repeat the steps described in the paragraph above.

If you have Windows 8 installed on your computer, you can press F8 or Shift + F8 when loading, but you are unlikely to see a window for additional download options. It is best to use a system recovery disc or a bootable USB flash drive. You can create them on any other computer with Windows 8 installed.

Follow the link and read the article how to restore Windows 8. Everything is described in detail there. You should have the following window. Then go along the path: "Diagnostics" - "System Restore", and select the desired restore point.

Through the command line

In Windows, the files that are responsible for the operation of the registry are stored in the following path: C: (your system drive letter)/Windows/System32/config . The RegBack folder is also located there, it stores backup copies of all registry branches. They are updated by the system automatically, depending on the settings, every 5-10 days.

We need to do the following: delete the DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE files that are in the config folder and replace them with similar files from the RegBack folder.

We will not be able to do this in the operating system, since it will be necessary to replace the files responsible for its operation. Therefore, you need to use the advanced boot options, and open the command line.

In Windows 7, press F8 when booting the system. Then you need to do everything as described in the paragraph above. In the window "System Recovery Options", select an item "Command line". As a result, the command prompt will start as an administrator.

In Windows 8, you can open the command prompt using the combination . This is described in detail in the article: Windows 8 Safe Mode. Read the paragraph: enter safe mode using the combination Shift + reboot. When the next window appears, select "Command line".

If the computer does not turn on at all, due to changes in the registry, then read the paragraph: enter safe mode using the system recovery disk (you can create it on any computer with Windows 8 installed).

So, we launched the command line. Now enter the following commands line by line. Press "Enter" at the end of each line. First, let's create a badreg folder on the system drive, copy all the files of our non-working registry into it. Then we will safely delete the DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE files from the config folder, because we have copies of them. And lastly, copy the backups from the regback folder to the config folder.

MD c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\default c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\sam c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\system c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\security c:\badreg
copy c:\windows\system32\config\software c:\badreg

delete c:\windows\system32\config\default
delete c:\windows\system32\config\sam
delete c:\windows\system32\config\system
delete c:\windows\system32\config\security
delete c:\windows\system32\config\software

copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\default c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\sam c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\system c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\security c:\windows\system32\config\
copy c:\windows\system32\config\regback\software c:\windows\system32\config\
exit

After you enter the exit command, the command prompt window will close and the computer will restart.

I hope one of the ways will help you restore the registry in the Windows 7 or 8 operating system.

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    Discussion: 16 comments

    I enter commands in the line as shown, for some reason it says: “the system could not find this path”, what should I do?

    Answer

    1. Most likely, you have the DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SYSTEM, SOFTWARE folders in a different path, but not c:\windows\system32\config.

      Answer

      1. And what to do?

        Answer

        1. You need to find out the path to the specified files. Do you have the 32 bit version installed or the 64 bit version?