RESTORE FILES AND SETTINGS FROM YOUR FAIL-SAFE BACKUP
It doesn’t matter how diligent you are prior to reinstalling Windows, there’s always a file, app or setting that slips through the net. That’s where your fail-safe drive image earns its corn, as nothing is truly lost. First, you need to mount the image as a virtual drive in Windows—the process varies according to the drive image tool you use, but Hasleo users should open the app and select Restore, then choose ‘Browse image to restore’. Select your failsafe drive image—when the partitions appear, choose ‘File mode’, which allows you to browse the image by drive letter and folder to locate the folder or files you want to restore. Choose where to restore the data to (we recommend copying them first to a neutral spot— say a ‘Restored’ folder— before moving them back to their original location) and click Proceed.
Restoring Registry entries is a little trickier— first, you need to obtain the old Registry files (or ‘hives’) from your backup. You’ll find them in the following locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE \SAM— Windows\system32\ config\SAM
HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE \SYSTEM - Windows\system32\ config\SYSTEM
HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE \SOFTWARE - Windows\system32\ config\SOFTWARE
HKEY_USERS \.Default - Windows\system32\ config\DEFAULT
HKEY_CURRENT_USER - Users\
Extract them all to your Restored folder, then open Registry Editor (press Win + R, type regedit and hit Enter), and select HKEY_ LOCAL_MACHINE from the list. Select File > Load Hive. You can then browse to your Restored folder and load the Registry hive you need (typically HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_LOCAL MACHINE\ SOFTWARE.
Browse these keys for the missing settings, export them to your hard drive as .REG files and then double-click each file in turn to reimport it back into the Registry.