Computer and Software Support


Registry backup win95, 98, ME

How to Export Registry Keys

You can follow these steps to export a registry key before you edit it.

Note Do not follow these steps to export a whole registry hive (for example, the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive). If you must back up a whole registry hive, back up the whole registry instead.

  1. Access REGEDIT (The page will open in a separate window)
  2. Locate and then click the key that contains the value that you want to edit.
  3. On the File menu, click Export.
  4. In the Save in box, select a location where you want to save the .reg file, in the File name box, type a file name, and then click Save.

The instructions above are from  Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 322754. This is not the entire article. I have the steps listed here, but if you want the entire article then click on the link. 

To backup the entire registry for Windows 98 and Windows Me

There may be situations where you need to edit the Windows registry. Before you edit the registry, you should make a backup copy of the registry using the following steps:

  1. Access Run or Search window
  2. Type scanregw
  3. Click OK.
  4. When you receive a prompt to back up the registry, click Yes.
  5. When you receive the "Backup complete" message, click OK.
     

NOTE: When you back up the registry, the Rb0x.cab file is created in the Windows\Sysbckup folder (where x is a number from 0 to 5). Each time you back up the registry, the oldest Rb0x.cab file is overwritten. Windows Registry Checker backs up the System.dat, User.dat, System.ini, and Win.ini files, as well as registry configuration information (including user account information, protocol bindings, software program settings, and user preferences).

The instructions above are from  Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 256419. This is not the entire article. I have the steps listed here, but if you want the entire article then click on the link. 
 

To backup the entire registry for Windows 95

To back up and restore the Windows 95 registry files, use one of the following methods:

Method 1

To back up your registry files, follow these steps:

  1. restart your computer. Press the F8 key when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, and then choose Safe Mode Command Prompt Only from the Startup menu.
  2. At the command prompt type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line:

    cd windows
    attrib -r -h -s system.dat
    attrib -r -h -s user.dat
    copy system.dat *.bu
    copy user.dat *.bu

    NOTE: This procedure assumes you do not have any files named System.bu or User.bu. If you do have files by this name, such as a backup of the System.ini file, select a file name extension that is not currently in use.

  3. restart your computer.

To restore your registry files, follow these steps:

  1. restart your computer. Press the F8 key when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, and then choose Safe Mode Command Prompt Only from the Startup menu.
  2. Type the following lines at the command prompt, pressing ENTER after each line:

    cd windows
    attrib -r -h -s system.dat
    attrib -r -h -s system.da0
    attrib -r -h -s user.dat
    attrib -r -h -s user.da0
    ren system.dat system.daa
    ren system.da0 system.da1
    ren user.dat user.daa
    ren user.da0 user.da1
    copy system.bu system.dat
    copy user.bu user.dat

    NOTE: This procedure assumes you do not have any files named System.daa, System.da1, User.daa, or User.da1. If you do have files by this name, select a file name extension that is not currently in use.

  3. restart your computer.

Notes:

  • You may want to back up more than one version of the registry in case the registry becomes damaged but the damage is not detected until later. If you want to do this, when you are following the steps above, replace the .bu extension with .bu1, .bu2, and so on.
  • If you have more than one hard disk or a network drive is available, you may want to copy the backup files to the other drive so the backup files do not reside in the same location as the original registry files.


 

Method 2

You can use the Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility to create a backup of your system configuration and registry files and restore these files in case a problem should occur.

For information about using the Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

139437 Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility

Additional Information

Windows 95 stores information about the hardware and software in your computer in the System.dat and User.dat files. The System.dat and User.dat files should be treated as a pair. You should back them up together as a pair and restore them together as a pair. These files are hidden, read- only files.

Note that if you are using user profiles, you should also backup the User.dat files located in the following folders 

   C:\Windows\Profiles\<username>

where <username> is the name of each person that logs on to Windows 95.
 

The instructions above are from  Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 132332. This is not the entire article. I have the steps listed here, but if you want the entire article then click on the link.