Repairing a damaged registry can be a non-trivial task. Doing this when the PC fails to boot is even more difficult. This article details one sequence of repairs worth trying if you maintain back-up copies of the registry, and a Reimage review to show how this computer repair and maintenance software can be used when all other choices have failed.
Back in January I decided to clear some disk space on my PC by removing over a dozen applications. Alarmingly, after uninstalling the applications and rebooting the system I saw the blue screen fatal error (along with the code 0×80072EE2).
Researching the code pointed the blame at the registry file being corrupted. From advice found on the web, the following sequence of steps are worth pursuing to attempt a repair.
- Log onto the PC using another user name. If the hive is damaged for a single user then perhaps another account will work. Once in, create a new account or just use the working one.
- Start Windows in safe mode. Once in, try rolling back the registry to a backup copy. Obviously this only works if you maintain copies.
- Start Windows using the Windows boot disks. Once in, run the disk checks and any other system cans available. This is an admittedly long shot but research does suggest blue screen errors can occur due to software and/or hardware issues.
In my circumstance the above failed to improve matters (though they have worked for others). I resorted to using PC maintenance software to automate the analysis and repair. Reimage was the one product I found that could also remedy the problem when the system failed to even boot.
The products website provided a system boot application which I burnt to CD then used to get the PC running. Once in, Reimage can then scan for faults in the registry, DLL, device driver, etc. In my case, the registry reported over 40 identified faults which it then proceeded to repair.
Handling registry faults/changes should always be dealt with care so as to avoid the boot failure issue I experienced. It’s good to know though that corrective maintenance of a PC is still possible when it even fails to boot correctly.
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