Hi there....

Everytime ive ever used scanreg/fix or scanreg/opt i wind up with a copy named
rbad004.cab instead of rb004.cab (for example)
this has occurred to me on multiple Pc's over multiple installations over some yrs,
ive always ended up with a bad copy of the registry, even if i put a space before the switch,
what on earth am i doing wrong?

thankyou in advance

Michael D

That is quite normal.

It's a common misconception that rbad "always" means it was a bad registry.

If you run scanreg /fix it assumes (because you are fixing it) that the previous registry was bad, hence it stores it that way.

The space has no bearing on this. It is quite proper to use the space for any DOS switch but in most instances these days scanreg will work without it.

DerekW

Sorry, my wording was a bit off in #1.

When you run scanreg /fix it stores the new result as rbbad.cab leaving the previous backups in place. It may or may not still be bad (and it's usually better for it).

I agree the logic does seem a tad twised, so its not surprising it leads to confusion. Perhaps it should be seen as the attempted fix to a bad (or suspected bad) registry.

Whatever, it is how it has always worked so we're kinda stuck with it.

DerekW

So windows will in-fact read the bad registry?
and on the next calendar day create a new registry based on "rbad.04" ?
or (as i always thought) just use the previous one - rbad.03?
because if it reads the previous registry, your still in the same pickle prior
to repairing it?

Michael D

If you've run scanreg /fix your system will be running on the same registry which was saved as rbbad.cab but I must emphasise again that this may not necessarily be a "bad registry" now it's been fixed. How your system behaves will probably be your best guide to how good the registry happens to be.

On the next new boot day it will save the registry in the normal rb00x.cab sequence. This will be rbbad.cab modified by any changes that have since taken place. There are almost always minor changes (Windows postitions etc).

rbbad.cab will just sit there forever in addition to the other 5 unless you either use scanreg, or Windows decides to replace it for some other reason (such as a bad boot). The latter doesn't usually happen very often unless you have bad RAM or some other problem.

In the course of time there is no really good reason to keep rbbad.cab cluttering up the place but it does no harm. If you do scanreg /restore I'm not certain whether it even offers it on the list. I suspect not but I've never checked.

I expect you already know this but the .cab registry saves do not run the system in their own right. They are only used to re-create the registry if they are invoked. Your running registry is the files system.dat and user.dat although the .cab saves also inlude the current win.ini & system.ini in order to better restore the earlier situation if necessary.

DerekW

.... it would be best to read the last para above first (sorry I should have moved it).

Typo "include" not "inlude".

DerekW

Bottom line: ignore it or delete it - ain't no big thing

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

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Re #4, para 4, last two lines.

Got off my backside and checked. No it doesn't offer rbbad.cab when you do scanreg /restore

In fact I've got batch files to save & restore registries, which means I only restore known good ones. Can send zip if by any chance you are interested - use "Private Message" to give me email address.

DerekW

Thanks for the quick assistance Derek W
it's much appreciated, ive got the jist now,
as far as batch files go, i use a batch file
called "cabrest" it allows me to go back to any number (that ive set) currently 15 copies of the registry.
google "Cabrest" you'll find it

thankyou again
Michael D

Yep, I produced my own - same meat different gravy.

With mine I click an icon to save a good registry, then type regpaste from DOS to restore it and automatically reboot. I keep previous saves in folders, with notes about their installed states.

DerekW