Comments on: How To Fix The Windows Registry Hive Error

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 22:08:34 +0000

In my experience it is usually indicative of a failing hard drive, or at least file system corruption for some other reason that should be repaired first…. but this method is a glorified way of replacing the hives straight from the \system volume information\rpxxx\snapshot directories which works just fine. Also, the method Carl suggests of loading the hive in regedit can also work in some circumstances, but in my experience (and I do rarely use that method because I’ve had bad luck with it) I’ve had the hives become corrupted again soon after. Again, this is usually due to a failing hard drive causing bad sectors, which is the case in the vast majority of my experiences.

Typically I will repair the drive with a factory diagnostic (if applicable,) clone the drive to a new one (if applicable,) replace all 5 registry hives with a recent backup (no matter which was corrupted,) and use a program I wrote which runs chkdsk until no errors remain. You can write this with a simple batch file as well, if chkdsk returns any errorlevel other than zero, re-run it. Naturally you will want to do the chkdsk part from your WinPE based boot CD, laptop, or tech bench system you are using to swap the registry hives.

Microsoft has officially documented the registry hive swap with a ton of unneeded steps (starting with a parallel windows installation of course,) but curiously with running system restore from safe mode AFTER swapping the hives. I’ve found this step to be unneeded if the system restore backups are recent, but it’s not a bad idea if you really want to go the extra mile. I guess it’s just in case you’ve recently installed new drivers or windows udpates… which you can always do again anyway.

By: Richard

Richard — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:21:55 +0000

Worked PERFECTLY !! Thanks!

By: Col Ward

Col Ward — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:05:11 +0000

Thanks, you helped me save my mom’s computer!!

By: jomz kulit

jomz kulit — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 03:20:16 +0000

GREAT!!! I like this tool…

By: Computer Repair, Service, Support, and Consulting - C! Tech Solutions

Computer Repair, Service, Support, and Consulting - C! Tech Solutions — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:59:51 +0000

I’ve done this in the past, but manually. It kills me to think of the time I could’ve saved if I’d known about this at the time.

By: FIREWALKER2

FIREWALKER2 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:34:56 +0000

I THOUGHT MY PC WAS ON THE WAY TO DISASTER TILL I READ THIS ARTICLE. I WAS ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY RECOVER BACK TO WINDOWS DUE TO THE HIVE ERROR. THE INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDED WAS RIGHT ON PAR. TANKS

By: Internet Age

Internet Age — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:05:29 +0000

The problem is with most regisrty fixing software, they’re all on trial versions and they only offer to scan your system and report back but require you to register to proceed fixing the registry. So if there’s any open source registry cleaner you know of, please send us a link.

By: Carl Farrington

Carl Farrington — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:04:13 +0000

I have a better technique which involves repairing the registry hive in only a couple of minutes.
I do like the look of this Registry Restore Wizard though, it saves the effort of hunting through the System Volume Information directory manually and renaming the files in there.

Anyway, here’s my trick way to fix a corrupt registry hive:
http://www.css-networks.com/?p=53

By: cis4smack

cis4smack — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:06:56 +0000

Does that only work if they have restore point enabled? What if it is disabled would you be able to restore the registry? Or does that even matter?

By: lonagcio

lonagcio — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:15:42 +0000

i will definitely try this method. Every time i think this site is awesome, you guys prove me wrong. This site is more than awesome. It’s the BEST!!!