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Q132332: How to Back Up the Registry in Microsoft Windows 95

Article: Q132332
Product(s): Microsoft Windows 95.x Retail Product
Version(s): 
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbtool win95
Last Modified: 29-MAY-2002

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows 95 
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SUMMARY
=======

This article describes how to back up and restore the Windows 95 registry files.

MORE INFORMATION
================

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 " (without the quotation marks)

  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 " (without the quotation marks)

  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:

  Q139437 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.

If the registry is damaged, various errors may occur, or your computer may not
start properly. For information about troubleshooting registry problems, see the
following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  Q131431 How to Troubleshoot Registry Errors in Windows 95

Additional query words:

======================================================================
Keywords          : kbtool win95 
Technology        : kbWin95search kbZNotKeyword3
Version           : :
Issue type        : kbhowto

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