Registry Error

[Zilladung]

Im getting a dialog box saying there was a problem with my system registry. It gives only one choice. SHut down and allow the registry to reinitialize. I've run scandisk and defrag. It did'nt help. Please advise.

Thanks

Zilla

[zipulrich]

In DOS (not the little DOS window, reboot in DOS), at a C: prompt type scanreg /fix
(note the space between "scanreg" and "/").

Post back.

[lynnm]

Hello dere

That won't work in W95. Scanreg first appeared in W98. Right Curch - wrong pew :)

That said - I have no suggestion to offer other than to go to the DOS prompt and see if you have user.dao and system.dao - If those files are available rename the existing user and system.dat files to user.old and system.old - Having done that rename the existing user.dao and system.dao using the extension .dat

The problem is that the odds are that you have tried to boot into Windows several times and therefore the backup files are likely to be simply copies of your existing - non functioning - user.dat and system.dat files.

It is worth a shot because you can't make the problem any worse by doing so and the alternative is a reinstallation of Windows. There is an outside chance that this will work and as I said earlier - You do not really have anything to lose.

[zipulrich]

Ooops!
:o
What forum is this?
What day is it??....

Sorry, Zilla

[smurfy]

This is one of those times when you need a backup copy of your Registry in order to recover. The "backup" copy Windows uses to restore the Registry is actually just a copy of the Registry as it was prior to your last shutdown. What you need to do, if you have a Registry backup made prior to your latest tinkering, is from DOS replace the current Windows files user.dat, user.da0, system.dat & system.da0 (0 = a zero not a capital o) with your backup copies.
If you do not have a backup copy of the Registry to use you are not totally out of luck however as there is a "hidden" file named system.1st in your root C. This is actually a copy of the Registry file system.dat as it was at the time Win95 was installed.

To use this file:

**From the DOS prompt!

1.Go to your Windows directory by entering;

cd windows

2.Un-Attrib your current SYSTEM.DAT file by entering;

attrib -r -s -h system.dat

3.Rename your current SYSTEM.DAT to something like SYSTEM.BAD file by entering;

ren system.dat system.bad

4.Move to your root directory by entering;

cd\

5.Un-Attrib the SYSTEM.1ST file by entering;

attrib -r -s -h system.1st

6. Copy system.1st to the Windows folder renaming it system.dat by entering;

copy system.1st to \windows\system.dat

7.Re-start your system

NOTE: You will need to install your 32-bit apps and any other programs or changes that modified your system registry but you will not need to go through a 95 reinstall. Your 16-bit apps should not need to be re-installed since they do not modify the registry. You will also retain your current desktop configuration.

**disclaimer** I am not sure how this will affect Windows95 systems with InternetExplorer 4 desktop update feature installed but if it prevents a reformat and reinstall it's better than nothing :D

[Junky]

Or go here: http://fonenet.com/dragon/down.html and download ers32 for win95. I have used it and it has saved my ars many, many times. It works very well! It is a good quality registry backup program...free.

[ 06 May 2001: Message edited by: Junky ]