"Jose" <jose_ease@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:2d9935e4-0ff8-41ec-b0b9-dd201578a7b1@m3g2000yqf.googlegroups.com...
On Jan 10, 1:50 am, "Jo-Anne" <Jo-AnneATnowhere.com> wrote:
> "Bill in Co." <not_really_h...@earthlink.net> wrote in
> messagenews:eDSPn7bkKHA.2132@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...> Jo-Anne wrote:
> >> I'm about to make a change in the registry on my new WinXP computer.
> >> I'd
> >> like to back up the registry first. In Googling how to do it, I came
> >> across
> >> a Microsoft knowledge base article (KB322756) that said creating a
> >> Restore
> >> point in System Restore would work. Is that sufficient?
>
> >> Thank you!
>
> >> Jo-Anne
>
> > Sure. More than sufficient (i.e, it backs up a bit more than the
> > registry, too).
>
> Thank you, Bill! This'll be my first effort at doing anything with the
> registry...
>
> Jo-Anne
<<Making a RP is a good idea, but what if you make your changes and the
changes keep your system from booting if you wanted to use the RP?
What would you do?
There is no undo or quit without saving when using regedit and if you
ever hear somebody saying "oops...", that could be a problem.
Here is a tool that just does the registry which will make emergency
registry recovery a little easier if you need it. I use it
(sometimes) when I am about to make registry changes that I will not
remember how to undo them if something goes wrong.
Before making any changes to your registry, back it up with this free
popular just the registry tool:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
Recovering just the registry from an RP on an unbootable system can be
done, but it is a little awkward, requires a genuine bootable XP
installation CD or a bootable Recovery Console CD.
I would not put all my faith in a Restore Point until you have never
used one to test your mechanism. Test your process from end to end to
make sure you can create a RP on demand when you want, reboot with no
changes and then restore to the RP you made previously and reboot
again. Does everything work?
Make a RP
Reboot
Restore
Reboot
Good?
If all is good, you will have some confidence about making the changes
since you know you can undo them if you need to (a psychological good
feeling).
Finding out SR doesn't work when you need it is not the right time to
receive this information!
Here is one of many articles about SR from MS about SR:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/getstarted/ballew_03may19.mspx
>>
Thank you very much, Jose, for all this information! I will definitely get
ERUNT for all three of my computers. Shortly after I bought this netbook, a
month ago, I needed to do a System Restore; in fact, I did it twice, and it
worked fine both times--so I'm reasonably comfortable about it working. I
also have imaged the hard drive on an external hard drive with Acronis.
My big problem is that I don't yet have an external CD/DVD drive, so I can't
make a bootable CD. I've been dithering about what drive to buy, but I
should just go ahead with it. Unless there's a way to make a bootable flash
drive? Or perhaps a bootable external hard drive? (Western Digital, the
manufacturer of my external hard drives, has some sort of software, I think,
that makes the hard drive appear to be an optical drive.)
Thank you again!
Jo-Anne