How to repair a damaged XP registry?

Try a System Restore from a time when it was OK.

Thanks, but that was the first thing I did. It restored to the earliest restore point I could find (a couple of months ago) and got rid of a few things but the directory didn't get fixed.

Format the hard drive and re-install windows

then spend a couple of days updating

Regards

Tony

Google for CClean - it's very good (and free) but if reg. has a total wipeout that's another matter. In fact last resort might need reinstall. If you do, try a repair from the ditrubution CD first. That (if it works) can often leave much software where it is (so may not need a reinstall) - but you will need item by item checking afterwards.

ps Backup before fix is a good maxim.

You could try re-instating the shadow copy of the registry.

in a command prompt do a:

dir %SystemRoot%\repair

Then

dir %SystemRoot%\system32\config

Have a look at the file sizes of the files:

system software sam security default

These are each of the main registry hives. If the backup looks similar in size or larger than the version in the config directory its probably worth a try.

Boot the machine into recovery console if possible (F8 at startup). If its not there then grab yourself a copy of BartPE, make a boot disk and boot from that.

In the config folder make a backup folder, and copy each of the files listed above into it.

Now overwrite each of the files in the config folder with the versions from the repair folder.

Reboot and see what happens. If the situation is no better, then you can overwrite the registry files with the backups you made to get back to where you are now.

Some laptops have the original clean version of Windows on a hidden partition. Which allows you to do a fresh installation easily. Check in the BIOS pages.

Thanks John, in general the repair files are smaller than the config files:

sam: 20480 in both system: repair 1,175,552; config 5,767,168 software: repair 8,628,864; config 23,855,104 security: repair 28,672; config 45,056 default: repair 229,376; config 274,432

... is it still worth replacing the config files before going for a format and reinstall (which I would STRONGLY prefer to avoid!)?

For some reason I can't see the original posting, so I'll reply here.

It may seem a silly suggestion, but has the OP tried scrolling down?

I've had a couple of XP machines where the program list is truncated, but when scrolling down (a long, long way) there is line after line of whitespace and then the rest suddenly flash past in a block, then the rest is blank all the way to the end. It doesn't seem to affect the operation of the computer in any way though, it's just a pain getting to the program your looking for.

SteveW

Well if you make a backup of the original files first there is no harm in trying - however you may find you are stepping too far back into history to be useful.

Well, what exactly are the symptoms apart from the list of programs? If its pretty terminal, I'd be tempted to use a reinstall of Windows and of course that huge time waster, the updates and service packs... However if its just programs that are the problem its possibly easier to run eusing registry cleaner and see what it looks like there before making a final decision. What on earth do people do to their machines?

Brian

The chances of this working in XP are pretty low. What one needs to do is establish what the person actually did to cause the problems in the first place. a system file check might help if the original disc is available. It really depends on what in the registry is damaged, If its merely softwre installations, get the portable version of revo and use it in its most agressive mode and then reinstall the offending programs.

Brian

Thanks to all for the suggestions - it's now fixed. Here's the succesful sequence:

- reverted to earliest restore point

- ran malwarebytes - no problems

- Corrected an autocad displayicon flag error in the directory

- ran regpair

- ran ccleaner

- battled for hours to fully remove AVG (including the official remover tool), manually removed all identifiable references and files, ran the latest AVG installer then ran it again to uninstall

- installed MSE

- installed zone alarm ... now sitting back and waiting for phone calls about the inital ZA alerts.

alt.os.windows-xp