The Ultimate Registry Backup Guide!

This topic will show you how to back up the whole of your registry, if you need to tweak it in any way, these guides are for all operating systems as titled for every guide! B)

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Windows 95 Registry Backup Guide

Method 1
To back up your registry files, follow these steps:
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.
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.
Restart your computer.
To restore your registry files, follow these steps:
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.
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.
Restart your computer.

This is the second method if the first one fails.

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.

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This is the Windows 98 / SE and Windows Millenium Registry Backup Guide

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:
Click Start, click Run, type scanregw, and then click OK.
When you receive a prompt to back up the registry, click Yes.
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).

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This is the Windows Xp Home, Pro and Windows 2003 Guide to backup the registry.

This is for Windows Xp Pro.

How to Back Up Files and Folders
Note You must have permissions as an administrator or as a backup operator on your computer to back up files and folders. Also, backup operators and administrators can back up and restore encrypted files and folders without decrypting the files or folders.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup. The Backup or Restore Wizard starts.
Click Advanced Mode.
Click the Backup tab.
On the Job menu, click New.
Click to select the check boxes for the drives that you want to back up. If you want to be more specific in your selections, expand the drive that you want, and then click to select the check boxes for the files or folders that you want.
Click to select the System State check box.

Note If you want to back up your system settings and your data files, back up all the data on your computer plus the System State data. The System State data includes such things as the registry, the COM+ class registration database, files under Windows File Protection, and boot files.
In the Backup destination list, click the backup destination that you want to use.
If you clicked File in the previous step, type the full path and file name that you want in the Backup media or file name box. You can also specify a network share as a destination for the backup file.
Click Start Backup. The Backup Job Information dialog box appears.
Under If the media already contains backups, use one of the following steps:
If you want to append this backup to previous backups, click Append this backup to the media.
If you want to overwrite previous backups with this backup, click Replace the data on the media with this backup.
Click Advanced.
Select the Verify data after backup check box.
In the Backup Type box, click the type of backup that you want. When you click a backup type, a description of that backup type appears under "Description."
Click OK, and then click Start Backup. A Backup Progress dialog box appears, and the backup starts.
When the backup is complete, click Close.

This is for Windows Xp Home.

How to Back Up Files and Folders
After you install the Backup utility from the CD, complete the following procedure to create a backup of your files and folders.

NOTE: You must have administrative rights on your computer to back up files and folders.
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup.
After the Backup or Restore Wizard starts, click Advanced Mode.

NOTE: If the Backup and Restore Wizard does not start automatically, click Backup Wizard on the Tools menu to back up files.
Click the Backup tab.
Click New on the Job menu.
Click to select the check boxes next to the drives that you want to back up.

If you want to select specific files or folders, expand the drive on which these files or folders are located, and then click the check boxes next to the files or folders that you want to back up.
Click to select the System State check box that is located under My Computer in the left pane.

NOTE: If you want to back up your computer settings and your data files, Microsoft recommends that you back up all of the data on your computer plus the System State data that includes items such as the registry, the COM+ class registration database, files under Windows File Protection, and boot files.
In the Backup destination list, click the backup destination that you want to use.
If you clicked File in the previous step, type the full path and file name to which you want to back up data in the Backup media or file name box.

NOTE: You can also specify a network share as a destination for the backup file. Typically, backup files have the .bkf file name extension; however, you can use any file name extension.
Click Start Backup.
Under If the media already contains backups, perform one of the following steps:
If you want to append this backup file to previous backup files, click Append this backup to the media.
If you want to overwrite previous backup files with this backup file, click Replace the data on the media with this backup.
Click Advanced.
Click to select the Verify data after backup check box.
In the Backup Type box, click the type of backup that you want to create.

You can select any of the following backup types:

Normal
Copy
Differential
Incremental
Daily

When you click a backup type, a description of that backup type appears under "Description."
Click OK, and then click Start Backup.
When the backup is complete, click Close.

This is for Windows 2003 Server Family.

To Back Up Selected Files or Folders
Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Backup. The Backup or Restore Wizard starts.
Click Advanced Mode.
Click the Backup tab.
On the Job menu, click New.
Expand the drive or folder that contains the items that you want to back up. Click to select the check boxes next to the files, folders, or drives that you want to back up.
In the Backup destination box, specify the destination for the new job. To do so, do one of the following:
If you want to back up files and folders to a file, click File.
If you want to back up to tape, click a tape device.

NOTE: If a tape device is not connected to your computer, File is the only backup media type that is available in the Backup destination box.
In the Backup media or file name box, do one of the following:
If you are backing up to a file, specify a path and file name for the backup (.bkf) file. Or, click Browse, specify a file name and location where you want to save the file, and then click Save.
If you are backing up to tape, click the tape that you want to use.
On the Tools menu, click Options. Specify any additional backup options that you want on the appropriate tabs of the Options page. Click OK.
Click Start Backup.
If you want to set advanced backup options, such as data verification or hardware compressions, click Advanced. Specify the options that you want, and then click OK.
Review the settings on the Backup Job Information page. Specify whether you want this backup to replace the information that is already present on the destination media, or add this backup to the existing information.
Click Start Backup.

I will update this thread as best as I can, and if you have any problems with this just post in this topic, thanks for your time.

All information in this topic is from Microsoft's official knowledge database, so I made this topic for it to be easier to get to the registry guides without searching endlessly through the Microsoft Database, if I have broke any forum rules, terms or conditions on this site, could a moderator please feel free to email me and tell me what the reason is and if this is a conflict of any rules can a moderator please delete this thread, if there is just cause to do so, thank you again for your time and enjoy this guide. :) :)