Backing Up Configuration Files

Why back up configuration files?

Have you ever installed a program, found out you didn't like it and 
uninstalled it only to find that now something doesn't work properly or you 
are getting error messages? This can partly be avoided by keeping current 
backups of your configuration files, especially immediately before 
installing software. Should you decide that you want to remove the 
software, or perhaps roll back to previous software this will help in the 
event that changes to the registry or .ini files didn't get undone after 
removal of the software. Perhaps you had trouble installing some new 
hardware and after the aborted attempt Windows won't boot? Your dog ate 
your system.ini file? Whatever the reason, it sure would have been nice to 
have a backup. 

There are a few different ways of doing this. If you have Norton Utilities 
or a similar utility package you can make a rescue disk set. If you are 
running Windows 98, this problem almost takes care of itself with The 
Registry Checker utility that automatically makes a backup of the registry 
and system.ini and win.ini (more on this further down on the page). You can 
make a registry backup using Regedit and export the entire registry 
database to a .reg file (doesn't get the .ini files though), or you can 
simply copy the files to a directory and when problems arise, boot to 
Command Prompt and replace them. 

Before we get started, we need to make sure that you can see everything in 
Explorer windows. As an educated Windows user, there is no reason that you 
should let windows hide files and extensions from you. To get Windows 
Explorer to show all files and not hide file extensions, open Windows 
Explorer and click the View menu and choose: Options (Win95 without 
Internet Explorer 4 interface) or Folder Options (Win98 or Win95 with IE4 
interface). Click the View tab and find the checkbox that shows all files. 
Also uncheck the box that "hides MSDOS file extensions". Now you'll be able 
to see hidden and system files and their file extensions. 

What Files Should I Backup?

Typically, you should back up the system registry, the system.ini and 
win.ini files, perhaps your config.sys and autoexec.bat files (if present 
or important) and maybe MSDOS.sys (which in Win9x is a text based 
configuration file unlike previous versions of DOS). If you have more disk 
space than you know what to do with, you could also copy the entire Windows
\System directory somewhere else in case you want to restore all the 
libraries. (this isn't really necessary, but would almost guarantee that 
you could recover from any software installation that went bad). 

Let's start with the system registry, it is a binary database of hardware 
and software settings contained in two files: System.dat and User.dat which 
are hidden and read only files. Make a folder on your hard drive and copy 
these files from the windows directory. Also copy win.ini and system.ini to 
this folder. If you are showing all files in windows explorer this is an 
easy task, you can just right click to copy and then right click on the 
destination folder and paste. It wouldn't hurt to copy Autoexec.bat, 
Config.sys and MSDOS.sys to this folder as well. Not very many programs 
would change your MSDOS.sys file, but maybe some "tweaking" utilities allow 
you to unknowingly make changes to this file, for example, to turn off the 
startup logo screen or some other feature of Windows. Does this all sound 
like a pain in the butt to do every time you want to install software or 
just make current backups of important configuration files? What's worse, 
when most of these files have attributes like hidden and read only, they 
have to be turned off before you can restore them using DOS. (You certainly 
cannot replace the registry while any Windows components are loaded). 

Create MSDOS Batch Files to Automate the Task

I am going to show you how to make (provide for you) MSDOS batch files that 
will do this for you flawlessly and easily. All you'll have to do is double 
click the batch file from anywhere in Windows when you want to create or 
update your backups. Also, you'll make a restore batch file that you 
execute from the Command Prompt (only). 
A batch file is basically a text based file that contains DOS commands that 
are executed in sequence when you run the batch file. Batch files can be 
very powerful and can use simple programming commands as well. I recommend 
that you never run a batch file unless you view it and understand the 
commands that it is going to execute. While I would never do anything to 
harm you, some cretinous wretch could wipe you out with a single command in 
a batch file. For that reason I am going to go through the batch file with 
you step by step and explain the commands. 

If you are running Windows 98 and are not interested in the batch files, 
scroll down because I will also be providing information on how to 
effectively use the Windows 98 Registry Checker and the Scanreg utility to 
backup and restore configuration files. I will also provide information on 
how to use Regedit (Win95 and Win98) to make an additional registry backup. 

Backup Config Files - cfgbak.bat (Example)

@echo This batch file must run from within Windows 95 or Windows 98
@echo off
if EXIST c:\cfgbak\* goto next
echo CREATING DIRECTORY C:\CFGBAK
md c:\cfgbak
goto next

:next
attrib -h -s %windir%\system.dat
attrib -h -s %windir%\user.dat
attrib -h -s c:\msdos.sys
copy /B %windir%\system.dat c:\cfgbak /B /V /Y
copy /B %windir%\user.dat c:\cfgbak /B /V /Y
copy c:\msdos.sys c:\cfgbak /V /Y
attrib +h %windir%\system.dat
attrib +h %windir%\user.dat
attrib +h +s c:\msdos.sys
copy %windir%\system.ini c:\cfgbak /V /Y
copy %windir%\win.ini c:\cfgbak /V /Y
if EXIST c:\autoexec.bat copy c:\autoexec.bat c:\cfgbak /V /Y
if EXIST c:\config.sys copy c:\config.sys c:\cfgbak /V /Y
goto END


:END


The first line is telling you (will echo to your screen) that the batch 
file is to run from within Windows 9x and not from command prompt. The 
reason for this, is that I'm using the %windir% variable which if not used 
from within Windows, will return the root directory, which is not what we 
want and will result in file copy error messages. Not everyone's Windows 
directory is C:\Windows. The next line @echo off turns off the echo so the 
rest of the process won't make a mess of your DOS window. The @ tells it 
not to echo the echo command. 

Next, if the directory c:\cfgbak exists, the process will proceed to the 
commands defined under "next". If the directory doesn't exist, the "md" 
command that follows will create it. 

Next, we are removing the MSDOS file attributes necessary to copy the 
files. (you guessed it, the command is attrib) 

Next we are copying the two files that make up the system registry, and the 
file MSDOS.sys. Note the switches I am using with the copy command. The /B 
switch specifies that it is a binary file (by default, copy treats files as 
ascii). This switch is not really necessary under normal circumstances, but 
since these are very important files I want to take extra precautions to 
ensure that the files are written and verified correctly. Using the /B 
switch ensures that the entire file is copied, regardless of any file 
markers within. The /V switch verifies the source and destination files to 
ensure that they are identical (eg. not corrupted). The /Y switch 
suppresses prompting when files are overwritten. This is necessary because 
the batch file is to be used not only to create the backups but to update 
them on a regular basis. 

Next, we reset the MSDOS attributes that we changed. This is important so 
that the files are protected. Win.ini and System.ini do not have attributes 
that need to be removed and they are ascii text based files so we simply 
copy them. Autoexec.bat and Config.sys may not be present on your system, 
as if all your hardware is plug and play and you do not run DOS programs or 
load any real mode drivers they are not needed. If they exist, however, 
they will be copied. Note that if they are blank (0 byte) files, they will 
not be copied and you will see a "(0) files copied" line in the output of 
the batch file. This is nothing to worry about. 

You can either copy the text from the textbox to notepad and save it as 
cfgbak.bat (or any other name with the extension.bat), or you can download 
the zip file. Note that I left the batch file to restore the backups as a 
text file. (restcfg.txt) You will have to rename it so it has the extension 
.bat and/or edit it. (I did this just as a precaution, so someone doesn't 
immediately run it by double clicking) 

Download cfgbak.zip (cfgbak.bat and restcfg.txt) at 
http://www.PCNineOneOne.com/dloads/cfgbak.zip

How to Use this Batch File

Simply copy it to any folder in Windows or put it on your Desktop. Double 
click it at any time to create or update your backups. If you want to add 
more files to be backed up, or you want to change the location of the 
backup destination, I think I have provided you enough information so you 
can edit it yourself. Once again, feel free to Email me. Be careful with 
the placement of command line switches. 

Restore Config Files - restcfg.bat

Note that this batch file MUST run from Command Prompt Only. That is, press 
F8 before windows starts to boot and choose Command Prompt Only from the 
boot menu. Also very important, if your windows directory is anything other 
than C:\Windows you MUST edit this file accordingly. Change the destination 
of each command that copies a file to the windows directory. Be careful not 
to affect the position of command line switches. I cannot use a variable to 
represent the Windows directory in this case. If you accidentally double 
click this file from within Windows I have given you the opportunity to 
abort. Press ctrl+c (press and hold the ctrl key while pressing the letter 
c) If you followed my explanation of cfgbak.bat then you should understand 
the commands in this batch file. 

@echo This batch file must run from COMMAND PROMPT ONLY
@echo It will replace your registry & configuration files from backup
@echo Press any key to continue or ctrl+c to terminate process
@pause > null
@echo off
attrib -r -h -s c:\windows\system.dat
attrib -r -h -s c:\windows\user.dat
attrib -r -h -s c:\msdos.sys
copy /b c:\cfgbak\system.dat c:\windows /b /v /y
copy /b c:\cfgbak\user.dat c:\windows /b /v /y
copy c:\cfgbak\msdos.sys c:\ /v /y
attrib +r +h c:\windows\system.dat
attrib +r +h c:\windows\user.dat
attrib +r +h +s c:\msdos.sys
copy c:\cfgbak\system.ini c:\windows /v /y
copy c:\cfgbak\system.ini c:\windows /v /y
if EXIST c:\cfgbak\autoexec.bat copy c:\cfgbak\autoexec.bat c:\ /v /y
if EXIST c:\cfgbak\config.sys copy c:\cfgbak\config.sys c:\ /v /y
goto END
:END

How to Use this Batch File

This batch file should be copied to the root directory of drive C: so that 
you can simply type "restcfg" from the C:\> prompt. It MUST be executed 
from Command Prompt Only because the registry cannot be overwritten from 
within Windows. Either copy the text from the textbox to notepad and save 
it as restcfg.bat in the root directory (edit it first if necessary), or 
download the zip file. If you download the zip file, you will have to 
rename restcfg.txt to restcfg.bat after editing.
 
Warning! Make sure that your backups are current. If you restore an old 
backup it could be fatal if you've made major changes to the operating 
system or hardware since the backups were created. For example, if you've 
installed Internet Explorer 5 and restore your registry from a backup 
predating that, expect that your computer won't boot properly. An example 
of correct usage would be to make current backups immediately before 
installing new software, then if it doesn't go as planned UNINSTALL the 
software and if your system isn't right you can restore the configuration 
files. 

Download cfgbak.zip (cfgbak.bat and restcfg.txt) at 
http://www.PCNineOneOne.com/dloads/cfgbak.zip

If you are running Windows 98

The batch files I made will work equally as well as in Windows 95, however 
there is a much easier and automated method provided with Windows 98. Once 
a day (when your computer boots) by default, a backup of the two registry 
files as well as system.ini and win.ini is created in cabinet files 
(compressed archives) in the hidden directory \windows\sysbckup. By 
default, 5 backups are kept. If you want to have a look, make sure Windows 
Explorer is set to show all files and extensions and go to that directory 
and look for files named "rb00x.cab" where the x is a number. The ScanregW 
(Win32 version) runs at startup and checks the registry for corruption, 
compacts it when it detects wasted space, and makes these backups once a 
day. If at any time you want to make a current backup, simply go to 
start/run and type "scanregw" and hit enter. Click "Yes" to answer the 
question "Your registry has already been backed up today, would you like to 
back it up again?" 

Use Scanreg to Restore the Registry and .ini Files

There is a real mode command line utility called scanreg.exe that is used 
from the Command Prompt Only boot option that can be used to "fix" or 
"restore" a damaged registry (as well as make a backup if desired). 
To see the available switches, type SCANREG /? 

To attempt to repair a damaged registry, type SCANREG /FIX 

To restore a damaged registry and ini files (that is, replace them from the 
backup) Type the following command. This will allow you to choose the 
backup you want to restore from. 

SCANREG /RESTORE 

Here is an undocumented switch for scanreg that forces it to compact the 
registry by eliminating wasted space: 

SCANREG /OPT 

Change Default Behavior of Scanreg

You can make Scanreg include additional files in the backups, or change the 
location of the backup cab files, or make it keep more than five backups by 
editing the Scanreg.ini file in the Windows directory. Open it with notepad 
and you will see lines commented out with semi-colons that explain how to 
make these changes. Email Me for specific questions you may have. 

Additionally - Use Regedit to back up Registry

The registry editor, Regedit.exe, also provides a method for backing up and 
fixing or restoring the registry. Easiest way to open Regedit in the 
Windows directory is to go to start/run and type regedit and hit enter. In 
regedit, go to the Registry menu (where "File" normally is) and choose 
"Export Registry File". Make sure that the bullet "All" is checked under 
"Export Range". Save the .reg file (eg. RegBak.reg) in the root of drive C: 
for easy access. There are two ways that you can use this backup. At any 
time in Windows you can double click the .reg file to "merge" it with your 
registry. This may correct a problem, however it cannot remove keys, only 
add keys or change values of existing keys. If your registry backup is not 
current it could also cause problems, or perhaps add erroneous keys if 
you've since uninstalled software. To use this backup to restore a corrupt 
registry, boot to Command Prompt Only and type the following command. 

REGEDIT /C REGBAK.REG 

The /C switch tells it to completely rebuild the registry from the text 
based .reg file. This is also used to compact the registry. (eliminate 
wasted space) 


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