Cannot load SOFTWARE Hive - no ERD - tools available to re..

maus wrote:

> I'm not sure about NT4, In XP and up there should be a hidden folder in the
> root directory "System volume information"( you will have to show hidden
> files and show protected system files
>
> within that folder is another one starting with _restore{xxxxx xxxx.....
>
> within that one should be several folders starting with RP# ( the hightest
> number is the most recent restore point )

Sorry, there is no 'system restore' or such like in NT4.

Has the owner of this machine ever run rdisk since the machine was built
? If so, you will find compressed (use 'expand from the command prompt
to decompress) copies of the registry hives in the folder \WinNT\Repair.
Obviously these are only as fresh as the last time rdisk was run.

Failing any success there it sounds like your only hope may be a
'parallel install' of NT4 and an attempt to manually copy and hex edit
to repair the corrupted registry hive off your broken NT4 installation.

There are some articles written by Mark Russinovich which describe how
registry hive files are constructed, they may help you in hex editing -
but I wouldn't be hopeful, the files are LARGE and the corruption may be
very difficult to spot

On NT4 you very quickly learn that there is NO substitute for regular
and thorough backups !

Calvin.
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