Author Topic: Selective restore (Read 12653 times)

DonGateley · « **on:** March 25, 2013, 03:36:40 pm »

Is there a way to view a backup (perhaps stored in a mounted full system backup image) with a regedit type program so as to export from a backed up key to a .reg file as you can do with regedit? A utility to convert a backup to a .reg file would probably do the trick because I'm pretty sure there are regedit type utilities that can operate on .reg files.

My system path was destroyed by something I installed and I didn't discover that for a few days during which the registry had evolved some. I don't want to restore a whole registry backup, just retrieve "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Environment" entry from the backup to a .reg file for restoration to the regstry.

In many, if not most, cases a full registry restore to some past state is far too drastic.

Thanks

Shane · « **Reply #1 on:** March 25, 2013, 05:11:20 pm »

If you used my reg backup there is a way to do it.

The regedit built in Windows allows you to load hive files. You can load any of the hives from the backup and get the reg keys you need

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc759303%28v=ws.10%29.aspx

Shane

DonGateley · « **Reply #2 on:** March 26, 2013, 01:20:56 am »

I don't much like sucking the registry backup into the registry just to access it and then delete it (the less large scale registry mucking the better) but if that is the only way...

I just tested it with the "system" hive per the MS instructions. First, nothing under the key name I gave it is remotely recognizable and now I can't delete it. Tried changing permissions then ownership recursively and both fail as well. This is just the kind of crap I want to absolutely avoid. Heavy sigh.

It appears this is not the tool I need.

If you included an option to convert (extract) the whole backup to a .reg file then Notepad (or better) could be used to get at specific info in a usable way. Please consider this a formal request for that.

Shane · « **Reply #3 on:** March 26, 2013, 12:03:00 pm »

Well the program is just a reg backup. And that's what it does

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If you included an option to convert (extract) the whole backup to a .reg file then Notepad (or better) could be used to get at specific info in a usable way. Please consider this a formal request for that.

There is a way for me to do that. There is a Windows API I can call that allows me to load a hive and work with it. The exact same way regedit does. But to put out a whole hive file to a .reg file would be rather big. Ever try to open anything bigger than 10 mb in notepad? lol

The regedit way has always worked perfect for me. Not sure why you had trouble with it.

Shane

DonGateley · « **Reply #4 on:** March 26, 2013, 03:43:21 pm »

Dammit! I just wrote a reply that could be helpful to others, tried to send it and it was lost because I hadn't yet logged in. It infuriates me when that happens.

In brief, the RegFileExport utility from NirSoft does part of what is needed.

Shane · « **Reply #5 on:** March 26, 2013, 05:26:45 pm »

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In brief, the RegFileExport utility from NirSoft does part of what is needed.

Excellent

Shane

DonGateley · « **Reply #6 on:** March 26, 2013, 05:55:13 pm »

I can't seem to find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\... anywhere. It's not in SYSTEM. Do you know what hive it is in?

Thanks

Shane · « **Reply #7 on:** March 26, 2013, 06:40:22 pm »

File SYSTEM is the system hive. Everything under system is in there.

Shane