I accidently sent a couple of registry files to my recycle bin on my home computer (I believe one was called User.da0) and therefore I can only start up my computer in "Safe Mode" and cannot access anything. Is there any way of repairing this in this mode, I am running Windows 95. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi seanr24, and welcome to SAF!!

If you're not able to restore the files from the Recycle Bin while in Safe Mode, you'll have to go into DOS mode in order to attempt to restore the registry.

The "last known good" backups for User.dat and System.dat are the User.da0 and System.da0 files. If you deleted either or both of them, then you don't have a recent registry backup that you can use to restore the User.dat and System.dat files.

Here is what you'd do to restore User.dat and System.dat from the .da0 files:

When your computer is starting/restarting, keep tapping the F8 key in order to invoke the Startup Menu. At the Startup Menu, select Safe Mode Command Prompt Only.
Change to the directory where Windows is installed (usually the C:\Windows directory) by keying in, at the comand prompt:
cd Windows <ENTER>
Now key in the following commands, one at a time, hitting ENTER after each command:

ATTRIB SYSTEM.DAT -h -r -s
ATTRIB USER.DAT -h -r -s
REN SYSTEM.DAT *.OLD
REN USER.DAT *.OLD
ATTRIB *.DA0 -h -r -s
COPY SYSTEM.DA0 *.DAT
COPY USER.DA0 *.DAT
ATTRIB *.DAT +h +r +s

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart the computer

If the above doesn't work out for you, you can restore the registry back to when WIN95 first successfully started:

ATTRIB SYSTEM.DAT -h -r -s
REN SYSTEM.DAT SYSTEM.OLD
CD\
ATTRIB SYSTEM.1st -h -r -s
COPY SYSTEM.1st C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.DAT
ATTRIB SYSTEM.1st +r +s +h

Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart the computer

You will have to reinstall any applications, etc., that place entries in the registry.

If neither of the above work out, you'll have to reinstall Windows and all applications that place entries in the registry.

Welcome to SAF, seanr24!

User.dat and system.dat are the regular registry files for Win95. The user.da0 and system.da0 are the backups. If either of these are still on board, you can change the name of them so that you have the .dat files, and windows should boot. However, there are a couple other critical boot files, too, such as win.ini, system.ini, and protocol.ini. If you have the regular Windows 95 install disk, you may have to do an overinstall of the operating system into the same Windows folder that it is now in. This would restore windows without losing anything that you have added, IF there are still original registry files in the Windows folder.

Ooops! I see Patti typed a bit faster than I did.

QUOTE

Ooops! I see Patti typed a bit faster than I did.

Actually, all I had to do was a copy/paste (had this stuff stored in my "help" files) with just a little bit of typing involved

I've got a program with a lot of standard responses in it that I hardly ever use, called ClipTrak. It lets you save any text for retrieval later on. Need to start firing that up again. Let's see..... as I recall I have that hotkeyed on F9..... YES! here's an example of one of the items I have in it, that may be of help to seanr24......

Reload Win9x from the CD or Windows\Options\Cabs folder if on the drive.
If on the drive:
Boot to DOS, since Windows won't load, type at the prompt:

C:\Windows\Options\Cabs\setup.exe

If you need to do it from CD, you may need to install CD drivers for DOS. The easiest way to fix this is download and create a boot disk, with CD Rom support. You can get this from http://www.bootdisk.com , or from a system running Windows 98.

Load Windows right over the top of the existing install, and the files will be restored without the loss of any of your programs or data.

Yep, gonna have to start using these time-saving goodies.

Patti,

Does this procedure apply towards restoring my Windows regedit function? If so, are there additional keystroke commands involved?

Without my regedit, it seems some programs will not install correctly. I appreciate any help with this problem.

Thank you,

Wingnut

The above procedure should restore your OS to full operation, without losing any of your existing data. It's basically a missing or corrupted file replacement procedure of the original installation.

There may also be a file in the C:\ (root) directory called "SYSTEM.1ST" which is a copy of the very first SYSTEM.DAT file that was created when your Win95 was first installed. On more than one occasion I've pulled some needed information out of that, although I don't recall ever trying to use it in place of a corrupt SYSTEM.DAT. Might be worth a try if all else fails.