When i look at my scanreg cab files for restoring they all say " not started" How can i get my system to backup the registry automatically? victor

Run MSCONFIG, click the 'startup' tab and make sure ScanRegistry is checked.

Goodmorning, I ran msconfig and scanregistry is checked and then i went back to scanreg/restore in dos and all 5 backups say not started. Something is stopping those backups from starting. Thanks for your response... victor

Ensure your c:\windows\scanreg.ini file looks like this; ============================================= ; ; Scanreg.ini for making system backups. ; ;Registry backup is skipped altogether if this is set to 0 Backup=1 ;Registry automatic optimization is skipped if this is set to 0 Optimize=1 ScanregVersion=0.0001 MaxBackupCopies=5 ;Backup directory where the cabs are stored is ; <windir>\sysbckup by default. Value below overrides it. ; It must be a full path. ex. c:\tmp\backup ; BackupDirectory= ; Additional system files to backup into cab as follows: ; Filenames are separated by ',' ; dir code can be: ; 10 : windir (ex. c:\windows) ; 11 : system dir (ex. c:\windows\system) ; 30 : boot dir (ex. c:\) ; 31 : boot host dir (ex. c:\) ; ;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3 ;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3 ============================================= I add the following two lines at the end so the mentioned files are included with the backup cab files; Files=30,config.sys,autoexec.bat,winboot.ini,io.sys,msdos.sys Files=11,vmm32.vxd The VXD line is important as it can save a lot of grief if you get the dreaded VXD error. This usually means a reload of the O/S. It's a good day when you learn something

I may have missed something, my scanreg.ini looks like this: ; ; Scanreg.ini for making system backups. ; ;Registry backup is skipped altogether if this is set to 0 Backup=1 ;Registry automatic optimization is skipped if this is set to 0 Optimize=1 ScanregVersion=0.0001 MaxBackupCopies=5 ;Backup directory where the cabs are stored is ; <windir>\sysbckup by default. Value below overrides it. ; It must be a full path. ex. c:\tmp\backup ; BackupDirectory= ; Additional system files to backup into cab as follows: ; Filenames are separated by ',' ; dir code can be: ; 10 : windir (ex. c:\windows) ; 11 : system dir (ex. c:\windows\system) ; 30 : boot dir (ex. c:\) ; 31 : boot host dir (ex. c:\) ; ;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3 ;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3 victor

It looks fine to me. In case you misread my earlier post, mine looks like this; ; ; Scanreg.ini for making system backups. ; ;Registry backup is skipped altogether if this is set to 0 Backup=1 ;Registry automatic optimization is skipped if this is set to 0 Optimize=1 ScanregVersion=0.0001 MaxBackupCopies=5 ;Backup directory where the cabs are stored is ; <windir>\sysbckup by default. Value below overrides it. ; It must be a full path. ex. c:\tmp\backup ; BackupDirectory= ; Additional system files to backup into cab as follows: ; Filenames are separated by ',' ; dir code can be: ; 10 : windir (ex. c:\windows) ; 11 : system dir (ex. c:\windows\system) ; 30 : boot dir (ex. c:\) ; 31 : boot host dir (ex. c:\) ; ;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3 ;Files=[dir code,]file1,file2,file3 Files=30,config.sys,autoexec.bat,winboot.ini,io.sys,msdos.sys Files=11,vmm32.vxd It's a good day when you learn something

Just for info, go in to c:\windows\sysbckup and tell us what .cab files you see there (they start with rb, usually 5 of them)? Might also be worth double clicking them to see if each one contains these files: system.dat system.ini user.dat win.ini [The .dat files are your registry, all four are normally restored] DerekW