W
Will
Guest
I posted over many different threads a problem I had on a Windows system
where the SYSTEM32 folders suddenly disappeared, taking out the registry
with them. I recovered from this situation today as follows. I am
including this in a server thread because the recovery procedure would be
essentially the same (except for the lack of system restore points with
Windows 2003), and I am documenting for posterity.
1) I restored an old backup of the file system to a portable drive.
2) I restore an old backup of the system state to the same drive.
3) I booted the down system with ERD Commander and the portable drive
attached.
4) I copied over first the missing system files from several subfolders
under Windows including SYSTEM32.
5) I then copied over the system state files, except I did NOT copy over the
registry.
6) Finally, I used ERD Commander to inspect through the system restore
points hidden on the boot device, and I copied over the latest registry
files from the system restore. These all needed to be renamed, but thank
God they were not compressed or encrypted in some unique way to system
restore, and Windows was able to work with them on next boot.
7) I was at that point able to reboot the system.
8) I downloaded Windows XP SP3 and manually applied it. Windows Update was
NOT able to detect that the system state was older probably because I had
used an inconsistent (much more recent) registry in my recovery.
9) I ran Windows Update and applied all more recent updates.
10) I uninstalled and re-installed any device drivers that were complaining
on startup.
So far so good. The only casualty remaining is my Creative Soundblaster,
which refuses to uinstall without doing a blue screen, but that looks like
par for the course for Creative's drivers, which are generally way too
bloated and a nightmare to work with. I'm sure I'll overcome that one as
well if Creative ever responds to my request for a manual uninstall
procedure.
At this point I treat the system as suspect, and I'll plan on getting a
different system and doing a new install in the next six months. But for
now I have recovered enough functionality I can use the computer
productively and get another few months of service out of it.
Overall, this was a living nightmare to deal with. I would really
recommend to Microsoft that they expand the ERD Commander tool and give us a
much more robust environment for recovering failed systems. You shouldn't
have to do this much work to recover a computer.
I'd also recommend that Microsoft think more clearly about its licensing.
Windows operating systems are very fragile, overly complicated environments
in which one bad device driver install can render the whole OS unusable.
One Trojan that takes out a SYSTEM32 folder can make it impossible to boot.
It is not reasonable to only give people two reinstalls of one OS license
when the product fundamentally isn't up to the level of stability that such
an honerous license requires.
--
Will
where the SYSTEM32 folders suddenly disappeared, taking out the registry
with them. I recovered from this situation today as follows. I am
including this in a server thread because the recovery procedure would be
essentially the same (except for the lack of system restore points with
Windows 2003), and I am documenting for posterity.
1) I restored an old backup of the file system to a portable drive.
2) I restore an old backup of the system state to the same drive.
3) I booted the down system with ERD Commander and the portable drive
attached.
4) I copied over first the missing system files from several subfolders
under Windows including SYSTEM32.
5) I then copied over the system state files, except I did NOT copy over the
registry.
6) Finally, I used ERD Commander to inspect through the system restore
points hidden on the boot device, and I copied over the latest registry
files from the system restore. These all needed to be renamed, but thank
God they were not compressed or encrypted in some unique way to system
restore, and Windows was able to work with them on next boot.
7) I was at that point able to reboot the system.
8) I downloaded Windows XP SP3 and manually applied it. Windows Update was
NOT able to detect that the system state was older probably because I had
used an inconsistent (much more recent) registry in my recovery.
9) I ran Windows Update and applied all more recent updates.
10) I uninstalled and re-installed any device drivers that were complaining
on startup.
So far so good. The only casualty remaining is my Creative Soundblaster,
which refuses to uinstall without doing a blue screen, but that looks like
par for the course for Creative's drivers, which are generally way too
bloated and a nightmare to work with. I'm sure I'll overcome that one as
well if Creative ever responds to my request for a manual uninstall
procedure.
At this point I treat the system as suspect, and I'll plan on getting a
different system and doing a new install in the next six months. But for
now I have recovered enough functionality I can use the computer
productively and get another few months of service out of it.
Overall, this was a living nightmare to deal with. I would really
recommend to Microsoft that they expand the ERD Commander tool and give us a
much more robust environment for recovering failed systems. You shouldn't
have to do this much work to recover a computer.
I'd also recommend that Microsoft think more clearly about its licensing.
Windows operating systems are very fragile, overly complicated environments
in which one bad device driver install can render the whole OS unusable.
One Trojan that takes out a SYSTEM32 folder can make it impossible to boot.
It is not reasonable to only give people two reinstalls of one OS license
when the product fundamentally isn't up to the level of stability that such
an honerous license requires.
--
Will