Problem when using ERUNT to restore Windows 7 registry:

[Mcd73165]

Hi. I've always used the ERUNT program to backup and restore the registry in my previous system which was Windows XP Pro and it always worked flawlessly. With Windows 7 however, I've found that it restores the registry but it always seems to create a problem in the Task Scheduler. What happens is when Task Scheduler is opened I'll get one or more errors saying that "task name" error: The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with. For example "mcupdate" error: The task image is corrupt or has been tampered with. Other than that problem, all else seems ok. I assigned a drive letter to the 100Mb System Partition as per the following information I got from the ERUNT website: A problem has been discovered which on many systems causes ERDNT and NTREGOPT to display a "RegSaveKey: 3" error when optimizing / restoring the BCD00000000 hive. The cause is that after a clean install of Windows 7, the BCD part of the registry which contains Windows' boot configuration data resides on a hidden system partition with no drive letter assigned in Explorer. You can simply ignore this error and continue, or as a workaround, open Disk Managemant in Control Panel and right-click on the partition displayed as "System Reserved" to assign a drive letter. I don't think that would cause the problem I get when restoring the registry. Any input will be much appreciated! Thanks. Mark

 

[The Howling Wolves]

First thing first...
Welcome to Seven Forum!!
Up in the right corner you will see a search box. Try searching for you problem as it might be found there.
I am not familiar with ERUNT so just be patient and someone will come along and help you.

 

[Mcd73165]

Problem when using ERUNT to restore Windows 7 registry: Reply to Threa

Thanks for the welcome and your reply. Mark

 

[SledgeDG]

Your best Option would be to wait for an update and use restore points in the meantime or follow the advices in the quote.

Did you switch off the UAC as suggested?

ERUNT and NTREGOPT in their current versions 1.1j are still compatible with Windows 7, but as in Vista, they will only work correctly if you turn off User Account Control in Windows' Control Panel (move the slider to the lowest position).
Also, a problem has been discovered which on many systems causes ERDNT and NTREGOPT to display a "RegSaveKey: 3" error when optimizing / restoring the BCD00000000 hive. The cause is that after a clean install of Windows 7, the BCD part of the registry which contains Windows' boot configuration data resides on a hidden system partition with no drive letter assigned in Explorer. You can simply ignore this error and continue, or as a workaround, open Disk Managemant in Control Panel and right-click on the partition displayed as "System Reserved" to assign a drive letter.
Future versions of ERUNT and NTREGOPT will of course have these issues fixed.

-DG

 

[Mcd73165]

Thanks for your reply,SledgeDG. UAC is off and I followed the advices in the quote (A problem has been discovered which on many systems causes ERDNT and NTREGOPT to display a "RegSaveKey: 3" error when optimizing / restoring the BCD00000000 hive. The cause is that after a clean install of Windows 7, the BCD part of the registry which contains Windows' boot configuration data resides on a hidden system partition with no drive letter assigned in Explorer. You can simply ignore this error and continue, or as a workaround, open Disk Managemant in Control Panel and right-click on the partition displayed as "System Reserved" to assign a drive letter). I generally use ERUNT in the event that System Restore doesn't make a successful restoration. As I said in my OP, the ERUNT registry restoration works except for some scheduled tasks getting corrupted. I expect that this one may never get figured out.
Mark

 

[SledgeDG]

You're probably right, Mark..That seems to be a known bug which hopefully is fixed in the coming update.
I cant imagine, the software guys losing too much sleep over it
Hope it's going to be released soon.
Happy Holidays

-DG

 

[Mcd73165]

ERUNT version 1.1j has been around for a very long time and doesn't seem like it will be updated at this point (Of course I could be wrong). It's probably one of those annoyances that have to be lived with. Take care and Happy Holidays to you and yours too, Sledge.
Mark

 

[Mcd73165]

I made corrections (edited) my original post where I was saying Task Manager by mistake (2 instances) instead of Task Scheduler which is what I meant to say. Please see my original post titled Problem when using ERUNT to restore Windows 7 registry.
Mark

 

[zdoe]

i know i'm picking up on a bit dusty thread, but maybe you're still there. i've not had much luck with erunt - having loved it through the xp-years, i still set it up to autobackup, and also did some manual runs.

however, now twice i've tried to actually USE the backups it created, and both times i get a non-booting BSD system, which is not fun at all given that there's no real repair-install options unless your're alredy on your desktop.

so what could be going wrong when erunt does its restore?

and - for future reference - if erunt doesn't work, what WOULD? i've so far never succeeded with system restore, so my 1st inclination is to just keep it disabled.

 

[A Guy]

Interesting to learn Erunt may not work to restore. I've not had a need. I count on my system images (Acronis, Paragon). That would be the best option if indeed Erunt may not work well in 7.

 

[zdoe]

i love system images as well, but doing a full clone of the partition takes quite a bit of time compared to clicking on the erunt icon.

who's used the win7 system imager - does THAT actually work?

 

[A Guy]

I've used the Win7 imager, but prefer Acronis. Acronis is really quite fast, works within windows, so I can just surf while it's running. restores in about 8 to 10 minutes for me. Have never had the need to restore with Erunt, but have been using it for several years. A Guy

 

[severedsolo]

I've used the Win7 imager, but prefer Acronis. Acronis is really quite fast, works within windows, so I can just surf while it's running. restores in about 8 to 10 minutes for me

+1. not to mention the fact that Acronis Images take up less than half the space a Windows Image does.

 

[zdoe]

ok - i'll jump on the acronis bandwagon once i'm actually back to a booting 7-system.

as for erunt - i just found out that the version i'd used was from 2004, e.g. before mr. lederer claims to have developed 64 bit compatibility.

in any case, i'm sure that the registry backups it creates are pristine, but something else is preventing their use. i suspect it has something to do with either a permissions issue, or user accounts not being backed up / restored correctly - or not matching what the registry backup has.

on both BSOD-instances the "other open user accounts" option was selected. the automated erunt backups don't seem to have backed up the main user account. they have 2 user account directories, one of them i think \default, but not sure about the other.

also, the BSDs i get when attempting to boot with the erunt-backed-up registry happen at the point when the system is starting to load the user-specific desktop.

 

[Mcd73165]

Hi, zdoe. Sorry to hear that your system got messed up from ERUNT. I use the most current version but it causes the Task Scheduler problems I originally posted about. There is another registry backup program called RegBak that I've been using but as of now have never tried to restore my registry with it. The download package for it includes 32 bit and 64 bit versions and works exactly like ERUNT. ERUNT worked perfectly with Windows XP but even though it claims to be compatible with Windows 7 64 bit systems there seems to be some flaws. The way I fixed the problems it caused to some of my Task Scheduler tasks was to do a System Restore. The thing is though is that I always used ERUNT in the event that System Restore fails so the situation seems to be reversed. I've found that System Restore has never failed if done in the Safe Mode. However, you can't undo the restore if done in Safe Mode. Good luck and thanks for your reply (better late than never).
Mark

 

[zdoe]

Mcd73165 - in my current situation, of course, i can't get to safe mode to try the restore points.

now i re-read your concerns at the head of this thread - suggest:
- remove the hidden partition. it's a bad idea to begin with, as it complicates system-cloning. i don't have one - if the disk is already partitioned when you install 7 it doesn't create it, but stores that info on the OS-partition. i'm sure there's a way to do this after the fact.
- tasks - haven't played with 7 enough to know for sure, but my understanding is that the tasks are an .XML file that you could backup / restore separately.

all of this of course is assuming that the rest of erunt backup/restore actually works, which is currently NOT my experience.

 

[SledgeDG]

The fun part is, if you look around, everybody suggests you export the registry via regedit and re-import it in case of accidents either via double click on the reg file or through file/import
Completely ignoring the fact that in case of a real corrupt registry the comp wouldn't boot anymore so there is not much to double click .
I guess for now a System restore point would be the way to go (even if it saves more than just the registry)

-DG

 

[zdoe]

DG - even if it's conceptually faulty (your latest user data will be lost), i wouldn't mind system restore saving more stuff, if it actually worked. in by current BSOD i could see a list of restore points, but the system wouldn't let me restore to them.

i DID just also try to restore a .reg backup from the winRE command prompt. this could work in theory as the registry is not open in the OS. but after importing a good chunk of it, the system reports "could not be imported." not sure if it then reverted back, or kept the entries it already imported. in any case, still BSOD. and importing a .reg would only fix the problem if it actually overwrote the keys where the problem is, which is not sure as it could be in keys added since the backup. the way to go would be to reCreate the registry from the .reg backup, but don't know how to do such a thing.

whether it's erunt or some similar replacement for it, that's the way to go.

 

[Mcd73165]

Zdoe, thanks for your advice. I assigned a drive letter to the hidden System Partition (a long time ago) and had no problem with creating an image with Marcium. Above and beyond that, I'm not going to mess with it. I've never tried restoring the image however. I wish that someone could update ERUNT so that it definitely would work flawlessly on Windows 7 64 bit machines. It would be nice to hear from someone that has done an ERUNT restoration on a Windows 7 64 bit system and had no problems with it. Good luck getting your system running again zdoe and thanks to all that have replied or have gotten involved with my thread. Much appreciated.
Mark

 

[zdoe]

ok - now i've actually specifically tried it with the 2005 erunt - every recovery-attempt so far results in BSOD.

e.g. - i'm done with erunt until there's an update, which appears unlikely.

go to revo! bulgaria rules. not as elegant/no nonsense, and no command line to initiate the backup, but it works. & kudos to gregrocker who told me about it.