Windows 98 Registry Recovery

[Guest_imported]

Every now and then, about once a month, when I open my computer the Win98 registry goes nuts and decides to be corrupted. It restarts and loads an older registry backup and all is supposed to be well.

Well, this is obviously not the case. First of all, it believes that the IE I use is 5.0, although it should be 6.0. All the programs that need a registration key to work (such as Operation Flashpoint) need to be either registered again or installed again. All passwords I've told IE to remember get lost.

I've tried WinRescue98 to make backups of the registry and user information files, but restoring those backups doesn't help. Also, restoring the newest backups made by Windows doesn't help.

I wonder, does anyone know which files I should backup? Is there a way to get rid of those annoying registy crashes?

 

[edfair]

the files are user.dat and system.dat ant the backup copies are the same name .da0. All in the windows directory with attribs of SHR so you will have to change that before you can copy them.
You are lucky it is only once a month. I have never been able to make any difference in the frequency. When any of mine start failing the only successful solution I've found is a reload.
During any automated backup I copy mine into another directory.
Ed Fair
efair@atlnet.com

Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply.

Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[cdogg]

Try a backup as soon as you've successfully re-installed all your applications (IE 6.0, etc...)

- Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Information
- Under the Tools menu, select Registry Checker and create a new backup when prompted

(alternatively, you can type "scanreg" at a DOS prompt)

The next time your system detects a registry error, it will restore itself to a copy since the time you backed it up.

You can also try using Regclean 4.1 from downloads.com

 

[reghakr]

cdogg is right.

In fact, your Win98 system should be backing up the registry once a day. Go to Start>Run, type msconfig, click the startup tab and verify that ScanRegistry is checked. There should be a history of the last 5 days.

There are no .da0 files in Win98.

If this happens this often, I'd take a look at your RAM chips also. Make sure they're seated properly or even remove one if your configuration allows for it.

reghakr

 

[Kento]

Does the registry error occur when starting the computer? You said "when I open my computer". I don't know if you mean when starting it or when actually clicking the 'My Computer' icon. Registry problems at startup can and do usually indicate faulty ram. You may want to look into that. But if the ram were truly bad you might get registry errors alot not just now and then.

 

[Guest_imported]

Yes, the error happens during the startup. I don't believe the reason is faulty RAM, since as Kento said, it doesn't happen _that_ often.

Restoring Windows backups that were created during the startup a couple days before the latest registry error doesn't have any visible effect.

Regclean or WinRescue (a backup utility) haven't helped me in this, either. They just don't seem to have any kind of effect on anything.

Thank you all for your help, although no real solution has been introduced so far.

 

[reghakr]

Timpsi,

I think I know exactly what your problem is. It pertains to DLL versions relating to Internet Explorer. You said "It should be 6"

That tells me you restored a registry with previous settings for Internet explorer. First I would try the repair of Internet Explorer.Go to Start>Run line>type
rundll32 setupwbv.dll,IE5Maintenance.

If that doesn't work,
I would suggest you go and either try the upgrade to 6.0 again or get the newest service pack 2 for IE5.5. Here's a link:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/ie55sp2.htm

reghakr