G? N? General: Loss of data? Es due to op? Rations hive questions
The Windows registry is a database, comprising of several parts called registry hives.
A hive is a logical group of keys, subkeys and values in the registry which has a set of supporting files containing backups of its data. When the Windows operating system like Windows 2000 Professional starts, it uses such hive files as the building materials which are located in %systemroot%\system32\config folder. The System hive contains all the system settings, irrespective of the user. The System Hive consists of System Configuration Information, required at the time of boot process like Services to be started, Hardware Profiles, Drivers to be loaded and Software Settings. For proactive action and to minimize data recovery needs, Windows 2000 keeps a duplicate copy of file as system.alt.
SYSTEM hive size issues
The topmost limitation of this hive is its size, beyond which it can cause problems during the system boot up process. The SYSTEM hive size is typically around 3 MB. The hive size may increase if large amount of computer resources are shared or large number of programs are added or removed from the system. Also, if the file is corrupt or extremely fragmented the file size may increase and that can cause a logical crash and thus data loss. In such a scenario, to possess the Data Recovery skills is must for a user. For example, Windows 2000 Professional may fail to start and may prompt:
¡°Windows 2000 could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINNT\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEMced startup options for Windows 2000, press F8.¡±
The reason why this limit exists is the fact that the available RAM is less. During the boot process, about 16 MB is available for the whole procedure, which is shared between NT kernel, NT loader, HAL, boot drivers and System hive itself. The chances of file fragmentation are large which can make it corrupt.
However, if the file corrupts or increases in size and system doesn¡¯t boot, the first option is registry defragmentation using certain applications. You can also restore from backup or reinstall Windows.
? You can use Recovery Console to defrag the file. You need to access %systemroot%\System32\Config folder through CD command, rename the system file to system.old and then use command:
¡®copy system.old system¡¯
It is done to create a new file. The method is applicable if system has sufficient contiguous space, but you will lose all the earlier system settings.
? System.alt is the backed up file, which contains all the system settings. You can use Windows 2000 installation CD or floppy disk to start your system and then Recovery Console. For multiboot systems, we need to select the appropriate Windows installation by typing the number as shown on the screen. Then, we need to type the Administrator password.
? You can copy the backup file using the DOS command copy as:
¡®copy C:\winnt\system32\config\system.alt C:\winnt\system32\config\SYSTEM¡¯
where the Windows operating system is installed in C: (otherwise ¡®Drive Letter¡¯ :)
? The user needs to confirm the action by pressing Y. You can also copy the file by doing a parallel Windows reinstall.
? If none of the mentioned solution solves the issue, you can use Windows reinstallation as the last measure. But, this will delete all the data in the primary partition. For recovering lost data you need to restore backup or use Data Recovery Software.
The Data Recovery software are the powerful applications to scan and recover lost data. These applications use advanced scanning algorithms which can examine full hard drive for lost data and are able to perform complete Data Recovery.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is the finest Data Recovery Software able to search and recover lost data through most powerful procedures. This Data Recovery Software is compatible with FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems. It recovers data in all logical data loss cases. Stellar also offers different Data Recovery Software for various other operating systems such as Linux, Mac OS, UNIX, BSD and Novell Netware.
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