On 4/29/2012 2:40, andrel wrote:
> After a full reinstall your registry is emptied from everything you
> installed yourself. At least in some cases.

Right.

> RegEdit has import and export
> menu-items. One would assume these could be used to save and restore.

They're there to import and export specific subtrees of the registry. They 
aren't there as backup/restore, or it would likely be called 
"backup/restore". :-)

> warning people that these things are left overs from a debugging version by
> MS and not actually usable.

They actually work fine when used as intended. They're not intended to back 
up the entire registry, or there would be an option to delete what you 
didn't have in the export.

However, if you have specific software keys that get stored in the registry, 
exporting the specific subtree of the registry that stores the keys for that 
particular user and then importing it later after you've reinstalled the 
original software works fine. That's what I was referring to, not the idea 
that you'd try to restore the entire registry from an export.

Or, alternately, save it as text, and in the event of a disaster where you 
have not backed up your machine properly in the first place, you'll likely 
be able to spend a bunch of time to find the keys you need to restore, which 
I believe was the original complaint.

 > (Another minor detail, you need a working machine to use these)

That's becuase they're not backup/restore. :-)

> I assume there is a reason why he does not use the
> files in the regular backup dir.

Well, the ones in the regular backup dir are basically what "last known 
good" uses, and the ones in the system volume info are the ones that system 
restore uses, I'd guess. So the ones in the system volume info match the 
disk image stores in the system volume info, which I guess cuts down one 
possible problem there.

> You would want that if your windows system is corrupted either by a bad
> block or a virus but you still want to continue using the same machine with
> your familiar setup. If only to figure out what programs should be installed
> on a new machine, because your current system is provably vulnerable.

Well, if you have a bad block, you can correct that block (chkdsk /f /r) and 
then put the one bad file back. If you want to know what files are 
installed, it's pretty easy to figure that out looking at the start menu and 
the uninstall list. (That's how I do it when I want to move to a new 
machine.) Maybe I just work differently than most people, tho.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
   "Don't panic. There's beans and filters
    in the cabinet."

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