How can I bypass Windows File Protection so I can replace the Registry files?

dcmega

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Jun 25, 2013
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My business partner recently tried to moving the user folders from the C:\ drive to the D:\ drive following a guide online, and it seemed to work fine for a few days. But now it appears it screwed up our software and desktop configurations in the process. We're both new to Windows 7 and did not know how to make a back-up System Restore point first. (They just made a backup of the registry file itself from inside regedit.exe, which is what I would have done, too.)

Unfortunately neither of us can seem to do anything with the backup registry file. We've tried to merge the old ane new registry versions. We've tried loading the old registry, as one would do a much smaller file of registry data, but it fails.

We did find that Windows 7 has a back-up of the individual registry files (SOFTWARE, SAM, USER, HARDWARE etc) that predates this blunder. We've tried to copy these backups and Windows file protection prevents us from copying the versions in the REGBACK folder, let alone replacing the live versions with the backups

Even in safe mode the files are completely protected and cannot be overwriten. We tried using Rufus to make a DOS boot disk but of course that OS cannot recognize the disk drives formatting. We've tried various free tools from @Active Uneraser (but we couldn't find where the windows install appears in the logical volumes with that tool).

So our question is this: How can we replace the registry files with the versions in the "RegBack" folder? Personally, I need some direction, a tool that will give me a command line interface that is free from the lockouts of the WFP but that will actually be able to read the dang disk. It will take over a week to reinstall everything manually and we have a big meeting in two days so that isn't an option. Its so frustrating to see the correct files but not be able to interact with them in any way. I'd be eternally grateful for a solution to this conundrum.
 

casper1973

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Dec 30, 2012
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You won't be able to replace the files while Windows is running because it's using them.

What I would do is create and boot from a Linux live disk such as Lubuntu. From here you can move the files at will. Linux doesn't care about Windows File Protection it just sees them as ordinary files.


You will be able to move the files I'm certain - whether it works is a different question entirely. I'm not sure a Regedit backup actually gets everything. I know it doesn't backup the security hives which means permissions could get screwed up.

For future reference a program called ERUNT is great for backing up and restoring the registry.
 

dcmega

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Jun 25, 2013
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Thank you, Casper, I'll give that a try and report back.