Restoring windows to earliest restore point


  1. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate
       #1

    Restoring windows to earliest restore point


    I was wondering if windows had an emergency restore point which might date back to real early in time.
    I made some really bad registry changes which had no backup as well as no restore point dating early enough to fix the problem.
    So I was wondering if it is possible that windows keeps a hidden restore point which I might be able to access through recovery mode or some way to return windows to a really earlier state or even to its defaults again.
    Please help me.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 17,796
    Windows 10, Home Clean Install
       #2

    You may want to give a repair install a try
    Repair Install - Windows 7 Help Forums
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #3

    richc46 said:
    You may want to give a repair install a try
    Repair Install - Windows 7 Help Forums
    What if I don't have an installation disk or a copy of the os (and i can't download the iso from windows because my key is OEM). Can you give me any help on getting a legal copy perhaps?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 17,796
    Windows 10, Home Clean Install
       #4

    For a small charge, if still available, you could get a disk from the company that sold you the computer.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 16,149
    7 X64
       #5

    There may be copies of the registry hives in windows\system32\config\regback.

    You would need to boot into pe to copy them into windows\system32\config.

    As described in this tutorial.

    Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery - Windows 7 Help Forums

    You can borrow my boot media, which will let you see what you are doing rather than relying on commands .

    boot media 17514x64-v4.iso



    PhKozman said:
    I was wondering if windows had an emergency restore point which might date back to real early in time.
    I made some really bad registry changes which had no backup as well as no restore point dating early enough to fix the problem.
    So I was wondering if it is possible that windows keeps a hidden restore point which I might be able to access through recovery mode or some way to return windows to a really earlier state or even to its defaults again.
    Please help me.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #6

    SIW2 said:
    There may be copies of the registry hives in windows\system32\config\regback.

    You would need to boot into pe to copy them into windows\system32\config.

    As described in this tutorial.

    Startup Repair Infinite Loop Recovery - Windows 7 Help Forums

    You can borrow my boot media, which will let you see what you are doing rather than relying on commands .

    boot media 17514x64-v4.iso
    Thank you for taking time to respond, my system turned out to have the repair system option so I was easily able to enter the command prompt option and overwrite \Windows\System32\config files with the ones in RegBack. However, I think the files in RegBack weren't a clean version as I noticed their size was very different then the ranges described in the Infinite Loop Recovery article, although I didn't care much. But when I rebooted, I noticed nothing changed, I even opened the registry to check if a specific key disabling Windows Defender (which I had purposely set) still existed as proof, and bitterly enough nothing had changed at all, as if the RegBack files were no different. Can you help with this?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 16,149
    7 X64
       #7

    If you are certain you overwrite the hives with copies in regback, the only other thing is hoping you have shadow copies

    You could try

    ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista

    If you don't have shadow copies, you are out of luck.
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #8


    I think I might have found shadow copies in RegBack [not sure [see the frame attached]]
    I have no idea how to use the copies [assuming these are shadow copies in the first place], I tried copying them to a dir but it appears empty and I don't know how I would use these files with their strange extensions. Please help
    Last edited by Preflight1452; 30 Sep 2017 at 16:44. Reason: adding image
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 16,149
    7 X64
       #9

    They are dated30/9/17 so probably too recent to help.
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate
    Thread Starter
       #10

    SIW2 said:
    They are dated30/9/17 so probably too recent to help.
    How about the ones which say edited in 2016?
      My Computer


 

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