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Q139437: Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility

Article: Q139437
Product(s): Microsoft Windows 95.x Retail Product
Version(s): WINDOWS:95
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): kbtool win95
Last Modified: 17-DEC-2000

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The information in this article applies to:

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

This article describes the Microsoft Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility.

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

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

This utility is located on the Windows 95 CD-ROM in the Other\Misc\ERU folder.

Backing Up Your Configuration
-----------------------------

To create a backup of your system configuration files, double-click the Eru.exe
file and follow the instructions on the screen.

You will need to choose a location for storing the backup information. By
default, the information is stored on a floppy disk in drive A. However, you can
choose to store the backup information in another location, such a local hard
disk or a mapped network drive. The files that are backed up by default are:

  Config.sys
  Autoexec.bat
  Win.ini
  System.ini
  Protocol.ini
  User.dat
  System.dat
  Io.sys
  Command.com
  Msdos.sys
  Explorer.exe

Note that the User.dat file that is backed up is the User.dat file in the Windows
folder. The User.dat file in the Windows\Profiles\<username> folder is not
backed up by default.

Custom Backups
--------------

If you want to back up only certain files, click the Custom button in the file
list screen. You can choose to back up only the files you want.

Restoring Your Configuration
----------------------------

To restore the backup information, start your computer at a command prompt and
then run Erd.exe. If you do not want to restore all the files, press SPACEBAR to
select or deselect files. Note that you cannot run Erd.exe within Windows 95.
You must run this utility at a command prompt. If you saved your backup
information to a network drive, you must be able to access the network drive at
the MS-DOS level.

To start your computer at a command prompt, restart your computer, press the F8
key when you see the "Starting Windows 95" message, and then choose Command
Prompt Only from the Startup menu. Then, change to the floppy drive or directory
containing the backup information and run Erd.exe.

Microsoft recommends that you use the Emergency Recovery Utility to create a new
backup each time you make significant changes to your system, such as adding new
hardware or software.

For information about a potential problem backing up files with the Emergency
Recovery Utility, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge
Base:

  Q141014 Emergency Recovery Utility Does Not Back Up Files

Note that the Emergency Recovery Utility cannot back up all the configuration
files if there is not enough room on the destination disk. If there is not
enough room on the destination disk, the Emergency Recovery Utility backs up as
many files as will fit, skipping the largest files first. For example, the
Emergency Recovery Utility usually cannot back up the registry files (System.dat
and User.dat) if you try to back up the configuration files to your Windows 95
Startup disk.

Additional query words: backup

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Keywords          : kbtool win95 
Technology        : kbWin95search kbZNotKeyword3
Version           : WINDOWS:95

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