Backing up and Restoring Windows NT/2000/XP/ Server 2003 Registries Manually
If the boot partition of Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 is formatted using the FAT
file system, you can easily back up the system registry manually by booting the computer
under an alternative operating system (for example, MS DOS or Windows 9x/ME) or
even using the boot diskette. When this is done, you will be able to copy registry-hive
files to the backup media using any method of copying (for example, you may use both
Windows Explorer and the command line).
If the Windows NT/2000/XP or Windows Server 2003 boot partition uses NTFS, you
may have some difficulties using this method of backing up the registry (however,
contrary to information provided in some sources, this isn't always the case). You may
sometimes need to format the Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 boot partition using
NTFS (this may be required by the security rules adopted by your company or by certain
software products, which need to be installed on NTFS partitions). However, you may
wish to continue using a manual method of backing up the registry. The simplest method
of avoiding any possible problems is a parallel installation of the operating system.
Microsoft officially recommends this method of improving system reliability. This tip
can be found in both the Resource Kit documentation and in Microsoft Knowledge Base
articles. If you follow this recommendation, though, you'll need to consider the
compatibility aspects of NTFS 4 and NTFS 5. You can also use shareware or freeware
NTFS drivers, which can be downloaded from the Internet).
To back up Windows NT/2000/XP/Server 2003 registry manually, copy the files
contained in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Config folder to the backup media. Note that
you need to use backup media of sufficient capacity, since the contents of this folder
almost certainly won't fit on a 1.44 MB diskette.
Selection of removable storage media for transporting your files (for system
administrators and technical-support personnel these, most probably, will include
recovery tools, drivers, system updates, diagnostic utilities and, certainly, backup files,
such as registry backups) is very important. Till recently, ZIP disks and CD-Rs were used
for this purpose. Over the past few years, however, newer and better media have become
more and more popular. If you need a portable toolkit for emergency situations, such

[*]

Default.sav Software System.log
Sam Software.log System.sav
Sam.log Software.sav Userdiff
[*]
This file was eliminated in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. It is only present
in earlier versions of Windows NT/2000.

Note When backing up the registry manually, don't forget to create
backup copies of user profiles, which are stored under
%Systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\<Usemame> folders.
To create backup copies of user profiles for each user quickly,
log in as the Administrator and copy the Ntuser.dat files for
each existing user profile (more detailed information on user
profiles will be provided in Chapter 10
.
Restoring the registry from a backup copy that was created using this method requires
booting the computer under an alternate operating system. After rebooting, you simply
need to copy the registry files from the backup media back to the
%SystemRoot%\System32\Config folder.