Backing Up The Registry

Sure we like to fiddle around with the XP operating system, but sooner or later it's going to happen; the system won't boot or it becomes corrupt.The sure fire way is to do a complete system backup. Alternately you can create a Restore point using system restore. Or as shown in the above article, do a System State backup, which we'll outline below.

Microsoft has a Knowledge Base Article - 322756 which outlines the proper way to back up these settings.

Start Backup:

Start==>All Programs==>Accessories==>System Tools==>Backup

Choose "Back up files and settings"

Select "Let me choose what to back up"

Check off "System State"

Choose a place to save your backup

The file size can be quite large, so choose a source with ample space. A CD-R would be a good choice. A Zip drive would not! I save mine on a spare hard drive exclusively for backup.

Completing the Backup!

If everything looks good, click "Finish".

The Backup Process

Depending on the media you chose to save your backup, it could take a few minutes to the better part of an half hour to complete, From the example above, a 338 MB file took a little over a minute writing to a 5000 rpm 8 GB drive. A drive that I had sitting around collecting dust.

Restoring Data

When restoring, we'll go back to the very first example here and instead of choosing "Back up files and settings", we're going to select the obvious, "Restore files and settings". There's not much we can screw up here since you'll have no choice but to overwrite existing files when restoring a System State. I may cover that at another time since you made it this far, but there's no need to explain in detail, the reversal of the backup procedure. But I will supply these images to ponder! ;)

Just choose the backup you wish to restore, click next:

Then we're met with this warning. Click OK:

So no matter what choice you make, we're always going to restore a saved state. After going through the motions as in backup, your system will be restored to it's previous glory! But, and a very big but, if your system refuses to start and allow you to use the Backup feature, then we're looking at repairing your installation. And that is for another day! :)