Windows System Restore is a useful feature to recover with the problematic changes that happened with your computer/laptop. But what if the computer can't boot and you don't want to install a new copy of windows.
Problems like
_registry_machine_software
_registry_machine_system
_registry_machine_sam
Problems like
- After installing antivirus or updating an antivirus the computer hangs on the login screen or hangs after the login screen
- Computer can't start in Safe Mode
Solution
- Bootable OS for accessing File system :-
The easiest way to
do this is to create bootable OS using CD/DVD or USB. This could be a Windows PE type disk
such as bartpe, reatogo, or hiren. Or even a linux flavor such as knoppix.
If those aren't available, you can also slave the hard disk
to a working system. The goal is simply to access the filesystem.
2. Backup Current Config Files:-
Go to C:\windows\system32\config and create a folder called backup. Copy everything in the config folder into the new backup folder just for safe keeping. If you don't want to copy everything (such as event log files), then only backup the following files: system, software, sam, security, and default.
Note:- Enable viewing Hidden Files
3. Access "C:\System Volume Information " and Backup Files
Change your "View" options to show details so you can sort the files/folders by date modified or created. Go to the most recent folder created BEFORE the issues had arisen. Inside that folder is another called "snapshot." Open it and copy the following to a temp directory:
_registry_user_.default
_registry_machine_security _registry_machine_software
_registry_machine_system
_registry_machine_sam
4. Rename Recovered System Files
Now in the temp directory, rename them to:
default
security
software
system
sam
5. Copy To "C:\Windows\System32\config"
Copy those 5 files to C:\windows\system32\config, replacing the existing files in that folder (permitting you backed them up in step 3).
security
software
system
sam
6. Reboot
Shutdown the OS you were using and/or reinstall the disk to it's original computer (if you didn't use a bootable OS CD/DVD).
Start the computer back up. It should now be booting with the system files you manually recovered from the system restore files.
Now you have successfully Manually Restored your computer.