Article ID: 132332 - Last Review: November 15, 2006 - Revision: 1.1

How to Back Up the Registry in Microsoft Windows 95

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SUMMARY

This article describes how to back up and restore the Windows 95 registry files.
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MORE INFORMATION

To back up and restore the Windows 95 registry files, use one of the following methods:
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Method 1

To back up your registry files, follow these steps:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Restart your computer.
To restore your registry files, follow these steps:
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Restart your computer.
Notes:
  • You may want to back up more than one version of the registry in case the registry becomes damaged but the damage is not detected until later. If you want to do this, when you are following the steps above, replace the .bu extension with .bu1, .bu2, and so on.
  • If you have more than one hard disk or a network drive is available, you may want to copy the backup files to the other drive so the backup files do not reside in the same location as the original registry files.

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Method 2

You can use the Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility to create a backup of your system configuration and registry files and restore these files in case a problem should occur.

For information about using the Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
139437  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/139437/EN-US/ ) Windows 95 Emergency Recovery Utility
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Additional Information

Windows 95 stores information about the hardware and software in your computer in the System.dat and User.dat files. The System.dat and User.dat files should be treated as a pair. You should back them up together as a pair and restore them together as a pair. These files are hidden, read- only files.

Note that if you are using user profiles, you should also backup the User.dat files located in the following folders 
   C:\Windows\Profiles\<username>
where <username> is the name of each person that logs on to Windows 95.

If the registry is damaged, various errors may occur, or your computer may not start properly. For information about troubleshooting registry problems, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
131431  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/131431/EN-US/ ) How to Troubleshoot Registry Errors in Windows 95
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APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Windows 95
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Keywords: 
kbhowto KB132332
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Retired KB ArticleRetired KB Content Disclaimer
This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.
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