Backing up Your Data - The Registry

Most people think about backing up their files/system about 5 minutes too late (usually just after something goes wrong). If you have lots of important data on your computer (work files, pictures of your family, important emails etc..), then you should always try to keep a recent backup for that fateful day when something does go wrong.

The following few pages will briefly outline how to backup and restore both your operating system and important data files.

Making a backup of your system registry

If altering just one key, or several values under one key, you can make a backup of just that key by doing the following:

Open regedit (start>run>regedit), right-click the key that you're going to modify (or its parent key), and then choose 'Export' from the right-click menu :

You can then choose a name for the backup file, and then save it:

You can also make a full backup of your entire registry by opening regedit, and then clicking "File>Export", and then ensuring that "All" is selected under "Export Range". You can then give the file a name and click 'save' as before:

To restore the registry backup you have made, simply double-click the file, and choose 'yes' to this question:

To confirm that the file contents have been added to your registry, you should see a message like this:

Please note that making a backup of your entire registry and then restoring it again at a later date is not really recommended due to the subtle changes that Windows makes in the background - where possible either backup just the key(s) that you are changing, make a system restore point, or backup the entire Windows partition with disk imaging software.

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Navigation:

• Backing up your Data
  • Backing up your Registry
  • Backing up your system files with Microsoft System Restore
  • Making a backup of your documents using Windows Backup
  • Making a full backup image of your hard disk