I'm afraid I don't quite understand how that program would help me make this Windows installation bootable again. Maybe by replacing the existing registry hives with older backup copies or something? Please explain, if you can.
If you can copy registry hive form shadow copy, you can replace it existing registry hives in C:\Windows\System32\Config folder.
Ok, that's what I thought you meant. At this point, I suppose it can't hurt to try. Would you suggest I replace *all* the hives, or just SYSTEM, SOFTWARE, or whatever?
Dude - that worked. Thank you!
I'm actually quite surprised. I had assumed that, like so many Windows installations that are blue-screening on startup, the problem was due to missing and/or corrupted system files that could using be repaired using SFC/DISM, etc. And I spent way too much time trying to do that. I never thought it could be registry-related.
From now on, I'm definitely going to add ShadowExplorer to my bag of tricks when dealing with non-booting Windows installations. I'll probably use it as my method of last resort, since I assume that restoring those registry hives from older backup copies could break certain things and/or introduce some instability.
In any case, all's well that ends well. I really appreciate all your help with this debacle. I owe you a beer!
An old thread but just wanted to say thanks for this solution - it worked for me too. I had tried everything, looked on various other forums and Reddit, did everything that was suggested but got nowhere. Was just about to wipe and reinstall but saw Freebooter's post and tried it. Couldn't figure out how to use ShadowExplorer from the recovery environment so used ShadowCopyView instead - wasn't enough to just replace the System and Software hives, I did a few more including Drivers which did the trick. Thanks again
Quote
