How to access the Registry

Anonymous
2016-01-02T13:42:26+00:00

My problem is that the Backup and Restore facility in the Control Panel (Windows 7) isn't working. I found a possible solution in a different forum (posted in 2009). The poster said to put the following into a Notepad file, then double click on it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

\WindowsBackup]

 "ValidConfig"=-

 [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

\WindowsBackup\ScheduleParams]

 [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

\WindowsBackup\Security]

 [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

\WindowsBackup\Status]

But I'm not clear on where exactly this is supposed to be placed. If it is supposed to be in the SOFTWARE.LOG1 or SOFTWARE.LOG2 hive, I can't access the folders even though I am the Administrator.

Can anyone help?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Recovery and backup

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-02T21:20:05+00:00

    Yes, I did!  In fact, I'm afraid I made a very silly mistake. I did the upgrade without doing a new backup of my HD. After the upgrade failed, I chose the option to return to the previous build. All the earlier restore points had been wiped out and the Backup facility wasn't working any more.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-02T20:40:47+00:00

    Well - at least we know what the error message is sort of ( I was wondering why nobody asked for that).

    Prior to this incident did you upgrade to Windows 10 and downgrade or make an effort to go back to Windows 7?

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-01-02T18:36:40+00:00

    Thank you both, but I'm afraid that neither solution worked. The Registry now looks exactly like it's supposed to in the superuser file but clicking on Backup and Restore in the Control Panel still produces no effect. (I have rebooted the computer in case something had to be read into memory.)

    By the way, there was an Automatic Scheduled Backup key above the SystemImageBackup but when I closed the regedit and opened the task scheduler, I got a ton of messages about various items being corrupt or has been tampered with. I did remove the Automatic Scheduled Backup key (after rebooting with it still there) but the Backup facility is still not operative.

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  4. Ramesh 181.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-01-02T15:00:34+00:00

    This page has full (manual)  instructions with screenshots on how to do reset the backup and restore configuration.

    Resetting Windows 7's backup parameters - Super User : http://superuser.com/questions/410329/resetting-windows-7s-backup-parameters

    The .reg file method also does the same.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-01-02T14:16:04+00:00

    Right click the desktop

    Create a new notepad file

    Copy the entries and paste into that file

    Save as *.reg

    Double click to import

    You will get a pop up that says importing can be dangerous (etc) click OK

    Done

    I doubt that will fix your backup issue and you should not edit the registry unless you absolutely know what you are doing as it can make the computer unbootible.  The above change is usually safe but as usual if you value your data you should backup &/or make a restore point

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