Alright I'll start off by saying sorry for making so many threads in the Computer Help forum but my computer is a nuisance and I'll be one if I have to. I THINK I finally figured out what the problem is with my images and Windows Explorer and PSP program. I was googling some stuff and I noticed that missing/deleted registry files can cause images to mess up and screw up the computer and a while back I ran some registry programs and spybot and me being a retard didn't know what I was doing so I think (well, I know) I deleted some registry files but I don't know which I deleted, how to get them back, where exactly the registry files are, etc. I'd use system restore but that caused a big mishap on my old computer and we had to get a new one and I googled some information on it and it tells me that system restore isn't that effective anyway so can anyone help me out?
Its simple.... your gonna have to reformat. The age old debate of why WINDOWS isnt more like a MAC where you cant touch the registry unless your the 'super-user'. Anyways to answer your question, once you delete registry keys thats it there gone forever. A system restore is only for going back to previous states such as before you installed DIVX lets say. Its just to prevent a bad install thats all. Your pretty lucky you didnt touch the 'kernel' which is the engine of WINDOWS because if youd have, you wouldnt have been able to even boot your PC to windows.
Recommendation: Burn any files that you dont want deleted permanently to a CD or USB Flash Drive and install windows again. Its the only solution left now that you had to touch the registry. Lesson learned: never touch the registry unless you know how to.
Is there anyway I can reformat without losing all of my files? I have 6000+ files of my own and not enough cd's to burn them to. There are really important files so I can't exactly just forget about them.
There is a way to do it, if you place your windows installation cd in while in windows, you can select to create a backup file on your hard drive and what that does is simple take every file thats there right now and it will place it in save it to your hard drive and once your done reinstalling windows you can go into your C: drive and go into the backup files. You need to select to reinstall windows in order to do this. The downside is it will take up space but you can always delete the folder.
Sweet, would you mind explaining that really really well to me, like step by step?! I just want to get this right so I don't screw up and lose my important pictures/music because then I'd flip out. Thank you.
Well, while you're writing this possibly loooooong and time consuming detailed description on instuctions....I have a bigger problem. I have to find my recovery cd (or disk, whichever.) I've looked high and low for the damn thing and can't find it.....
If you have WINDOWS XP PRO then all you have to do is click on start>run and enter (Ntbackup.exe) no brackets.
Step 1) Then when the wizard comes up click next.
Step 2) Make sure 'Backup files and settings' is selected and click next.
Step 3) On this screen select 'Let me choose what to backup' and click next.
Step 4) Choose what Files and Folders you want to backup by checking them off. Once you have finished doing so click on next.
Step 5) Choose where to save the backup files by clicking on browse then name the backup file to what ever you want. (To do this step you need to make sure you know the final size of the entire backup because if you dont have enough Hard Drive space then you wont be able to save anything.)
Step 6) Click next and then click on finish.
WINDOWS XP HOME:
Step 1) Insert your Windows XP CD into the drive and, if necessary, double-click the CD icon in My Computer.
Step 2) On the Welcome to Microsoft Windows XP screen, click Perform Additional Tasks.
Step 3) Click Browse this CD.
Step 4) In Windows Explorer, double-click the ValueAdd folder, then Msft, and then Ntbackup.
Step 5) Double-click Ntbackup.msi to install the Backup utility.
After you open up the backup wizard you can simple follow the steps in the WINDOWS XP PRO to backup your files.
Now all you have to do is burn the backup to a cd if it fits or dvd if you have a dvd burner.
If you have an email address that allows you to transfer huge amounts, you could zip your folders and send them to yourself. I did that for all my picture files when I was moving it all to my laptop.