registry corrupted - cannot restore

[donnav]

Hi -

 

I hope I am in the right place - apologize if I am not.

 

I am in a real bind. I ran cc cleaner registry cleaner and in my ignorance I deleted all that came up. I did do a back up first. My computer does not work (and this is my work computer). I tried to open my backup, then I tried right clicking and clicking merge - both give me this error:

 

User\Donna\Documents\registry fix 10-12.reg

The system could not find the environment option that was entered.

 

 

Please, if anyone can help, I will greatly greatly appreciate it. I manage a website and am at a loss.

 

Thanks,

Donna

[kroozer]

Try merging while in Safe Mode.

[donnav]

ok, got excited, thought it was working. Now I have this error:

 

Cannot import C:\Users\Donna\Documents\registry fix 10-12.reg: Error accessing the registry.

 

 

Any other input??

THANKS

[kroozer]

A registry backup is saved in System Restore. Restore to a recent restore point. You may also have to conduct that in Safe Mode.

[donnav]

I have tried to do that but the only system restore point that shows up in reg and safe mode is from this a.m. I did the registry clean on the 12th. I did rename the file when I saved it - is that a problem? I have been reading over posts on this forum trying to solve this but haven't made any more progress as you can see, lol. Ugh, I will not be able to sleep if I can't get this solved!! Thanks for your help in this.

[kroozer]

Try Jamin's fix.

[Ishi]

When you opened System Restore, are you sure you showed up "show more restore points" in there? It should show more available restore points.

[hazelnut]

If you have another user on the machine try copying the reg fix over to that profile and see if it will execute from there. If not make one with admin rights and try. Delete the profile afterwards.

 

Are you having any other problems with the work machine?

 

What is the work machine's operating system?

 

When you say work machine, do you mean it belongs to your employer?

[Alan_B]

I did rename the file when I saved it - is that a problem?

DEFINITELY A PROBLEM if you altered the extension.

"cc_20080712_2132.reg" is a typical CCleaner backup name

"cc_20080712_2132.regx" Guaranteed to fail

"cc_20080712_2132.xreg" Guaranteed to fail

"whatever_you_type.reg" Should work O.K.

just ensure that you cancel any alteration to the trailing ".reg"

 

Is your computer a vital component of the Website content delivery system,

or is it only for "normal" office work ?

 

Perhaps you could temporarily change REG to TXT on the backup file and then use notepad to copy the content

then paste into your next reply.

That might give a clue of a corrupted file, or whether it is attempting to access keys with restricted access.

 

Final thought :-

When you use account X then Windows may prohibit access to other accounts,

and perhaps HKCU keys belonging to account X will get cleaned via Account X

but if you later use Account Y then access could be blocked against merging.

You might need to ensure that you are using the same account for restoring as you used for cleaning.

 

FINAL FINAL Thought

Windows is evil - it never tires of producing new gotcha's

[DennisD]

"Your computer does not work" means what exactly donna?

[donnav]

Wow - first let me say thanks to all for trying to help me out of this mess.

 

OK, now to business.

 

Yes, this is my employers computer. I manage the website and all my files are on it - I have backed them up; however, right now I cannot make any changes (and right now I am supposed to!). I am also the bookkeeper/office administrator so there is alot on there that I need to access!

 

My OS is Windows 7. I am the only user on the computer. I did not alter the extension when I saved the backup - only gave it another name "registry fix 10-12.reg" so I would know which file it was.

 

My task bar on the bottom has changed, can no longer see the battery life, will not toggle windows, stuck on desktop only. I always get the message that windows is not responding. I can no longer access the internet. I can open a document but as soon as I try to type anything it freezes. It is extremely, extremely slow.

 

I tried importing the file as suggested above, in safe mode also, still no luck. Same error message: Cannot import C:\Users\Donna\Documents\registry fix 10-12.reg: Error accessing the registry

 

When I tried system restore, I did check for more restore points, nothing came up.

 

I would love to copy the file to show you, I think that would be beneficial but I am not sure how to do it. I tried copying it to a flash drive to open on another computer to copy; however, I just realized that if I try to open it it just comes up for me to merge the files (and I sure do not want to mess with the computer I am on!). If you can walk me through how to change it to a text file that would be great.

 

Again, I am deeply appreciative of everyone's help.

 

Donna

[Super Fast]

Donna, have u tried this?

______________

 

Sometimes, a user profile will mess up.

Go to the control panel, & under users/user accounts, try creating a new Administrative account.

 

Once this is created, try logging out of the account you are on, then logging into the account u just created.

Then, navigate to the C:/Program Files area & locate the program(s) you wish to run & see how they run.

 

If they work like they are supposed to, you can copy all the desktop items from the old desktop to the new desktop, start menu items from the old user account to the start menu folder on the new account, & mozilla folder from the application data folder of the old account, into the new one.

______________

 

Once you have verified that all is working properly, I would keep the old account for a while to ensure I have everything copied over & working correctly, & then u may decide if you want to delete it say, a month later or so.

 

Try this, & let us know how it works!

[donnav]

I am not able to add another user account. I can get into my control panel but once I click on manage accounts, nothing happens.

[Ishi]

Perhaps, you can try enabling the built-in Administrator account on Windows 7. Log on to that built- in Administrator account and use that to rescue your files from the C:\Users\Donna\Documents directory. To unlock the this built-in Admin account, open the Run command on the Start Menu. You may also type Run on the search bar in case its not there.

 

On the Run command, type lusrmgr.msc, press ENTER. There you see a Users folder, open it and when you see the Administrator account, right click it, then Properties and uncheck the option that says "Account is disabled". Click OK. Log off then you can now see the built-in Administrator account.

 

Other things I would consider doing would be to:

 

1. Do a thorough malware scan.

 

2. Type cmd on the Run command to open the Command Prompt. Once there, type sfc /scannow, then press ENTER. You'll have to be a little patient with this.

 

3. Use a Linux bootable USB flashdrive to open a Linux into your machine and use that to save any files, then copy them to a portable drive.

 

4. If all hope fails, sadly, you may need to reinstall.

[Super Fast]

I am not able to add another user account. I can get into my control panel but once I click on manage accounts, nothing happens.

Are you unable to create an admin account, even in safe mode?

[hazelnut]

What happens if you right-click on the ccleaner reg backup and select 'run as administrator'? (this gives it higher privileges even if you are admin in Windows 7)

 

If that doesn't work you can right-click on the reg file and select edit this should open it in notepad where you should be able to copy and paste the entries into this thread. Make sure you don't change anything when doing this

[Alan_B]

If you manage to edit the file with notepad,

you can safely use the option File => Save As

and save it with the new name "registry fix 10-12.TXT"

after which any notepad accidents will not damage the *.REG original.

 

Here is THE START of one of my registry backups :-

REGEDIT4

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations]

"Num"=dword:00000003

"InstallPath"="C:\\Program Files\\COMODO\\COMODO Internet Security"

"Signature"=hex( :15,51,a0,f0,37,84,cc,01

"BaseVer"=dword:0000287b

"LastFullScan"=hex( :9f,78,3a,a5,21,58,cc,01

"Active"=dword:00000000

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations\0]

"UID"="{D916D9A7-BC3B-4B6A-ABF6-71E94D7A878E}"

"Name"="COMODO - Internet Security"

"Version"=dword:03016295

"ProductVersion"="5.5.195786.1383"

"Signature"=hex( :25,4e,36,e1,9b,c4,cb,01

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations\0\AV]

 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations\0\AV\Profiles]

"Num"=dword:00000003

There is another 1000 lines I have omiited.

 

The only line which matters is

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations]

 

That would indicate which part of the registry was affected from which we may guess how sensitive Windows might be to damage in that area.

We do not need any "Num"=dword:00000003 etc.

We do not need any keys which descend, i.e. start the same but with a "\0" etc appended, e.g.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations\0]

 

I am taking a guess that there were three issues together, numbers 10, 11, and 12, hence the name "registry fix 10-12"

In which case there may be two more interesting keys that commence with something other than

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Software\COMODO\Firewall Pro\Configurations....