Registry backup with ERUNT

[MS WinXP Home 2002 - SP3; OE 6; IE 8; MS Office Pro; Avast Antivir Free; Dell Dimension XPS T448MHz Pentium III; 640 MB RAM; Windows Media Player; Adobe Reader 9.3.3; Adobe Flash Player 10 Activex..]

Hello, and I hope I'm in the right forum for a special backup?

I installed the ERUNT program to backup my registry which it did, but was shocked to see that it made 5 icons!!! So when I wanted to see the folder where it said it had saved the backup, I didn't know which one to open. I did try all of them but didn't see that backed up folder.

Would anyone know how I can find that blessed folder that ERUNT made? I know if I try to backup again it will probably be the same thing...

Thanks ever so much for your suggestion. As soon as I know it has been properly backed up, I plan on using the ccleaner. Adela

 

When you executed erunt, and came to the area where you assign where you want erunt to place the folder containing the backup, where did you assign it to be put? If you assigned a place, go there, and look for a folder with a date as the name(month/day/year you made the backup). If you did not assign a place, erunt will assign a default one. On my windows 2000 pro computer, the default for the erunt backup is in C\Winnt\erunt\and a date(month/day/year). The default might be different on your XP system.

 

I've got no idea how you did the backup. :-o

To make a registry backup with ERUNT:

Run ERUNT:

It should be in "All Programs"

Click on ERUNT.

Leave it on the default setting for now.

It will make automatically a backup of your registry which will be in Windows\ERDNT and assigns the same date as when you do the backup.

One can also make a backup to another location, a CD or other media.

I usually leave a few copies on my machine and a burn the latest to a CD.

See the pic where it is located.

 

Thank you so much Jordan River and Oma for both your kindness in showing me so clearly how to find it and I did find it by entering through Windows Explorer as I didn't see it in All Programs, but, it shows ERUNT by itself without a + on the little box at the left. I double clicked on it and it shows 2 icons: one it's the ERUNT company, undated, the other dated today when I created it, but it's a DAT file. I have another icon in my desktop, the ERUNT Setup, so I guess I have only 2 icons after all...

Jordan, I wanted to assign it to the desktop, easiest to find, but didn't find it in the "browser" option, so I let it go on without me...

Oma, I appreciated the screenshot which helped me go to the Windows Explorer. I did the backup, if I remember, more or less as you listed it, but the folder I found there was called ERUNT and not ERDNET. Could this mean something? Also I don't have a CD burner so I just let it go on default and I do remember that it said it would be saved in Programs, etc.

I must've done something wrong and maybe I should delete it and start from scratch again do you think?

Thanks a lot again to both for your great help! Adela

 

Can you can find the file "erdnt.exe" by doing a file search in Windows Explorer?

 

Hi and thank you plastidust! I immediately went to search erdnt.exe and after a long search it gave no results. However, I didn't see the option of searching in Windows Explorer so perhaps that's the reason? Do you happen to know why Search doesn't give this option? But thanks again!

I forgot to add in my previous message to Jordan River and Oma (for whatever it could mean) that I do have another ERUNT in my All Programs but on double clicking on it, it shows these 4 items: Documentation, Erunt Home Page, NTREGOPT, and Uninstall Erunt.

Adela

 

Let me ask this, when you run erunt do you get a window like the one in the thumbnail attached below? Also, if you're not using the Windows Explorer search, what are you using that didn't show any results for your search? I'm just trying to get a picture in my head of whats going on.

 

I understand and appreciate your questions. Yes, the window when I ran the backup looked exactly like the screenshot you sent me. I clicked on the right hand box to browse for the Desktop but didn't find it, as it happens many times in similar situations.

I did the search that it opens from the Start Button. it gives you quite a few otpions to start the search but not the Win. Explorer. Is there another place where to search within this program? There is an "Edit" button but it only gives 2 options: "Select All" or "Invert Selection"...

Adela

 

Try clicking on "My Computer" then click on "File" option at the top, select the "My Computer" from the "File" menu. In the sub menu that appears should be a "Search...", try selecting that and typing in "erdnt.exe". It will probably take some time.

As oma said, just choose the default setting that erunt displays when you choose to backup. At least for the time being.

 

No, you will not find erdnt.exe because it doesn't exist (not on my machine anyway)

Go to All Programs, hover the mouse on ERUNT, it will then show 4 items. You click ONCE on ERUNT.

Then you will get the little screen pop up as shown with plastidust picture.

Click OK and again click OK and it will backup your registry and put the backup under Windows\ERDNT with today's date on it. That's it.

You can navigate after the backup to Windows\ERDNT to verify that it's there. You can always move it later, but just try it first this way. After that you can always copy it, delete it, move it or burn it. It's smart though to leave a copy there in Windows\ERDNT in case something goes wrong with the registry and you can then easily restore it there.

Here is a link that perhaps may explain it a bit better than I can. It's from the author of the program. http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

I've attached some pics. One pic will show the date of my today's backup and if you click on it you'll see more files in there.

The pic with the ERDNT and the red arrow pointing to it is the file that you can use to restore the registry. Sorry that the sequence of the pics is out of order.

 

Hi again, clicking on "My Computer", the "File" has greyed out all 4 options that don't apply anyway. I thought I'd try next to "File" the "Edit" button which also had all greyed out except for 2 options also not applicable. Also tried the "View" which has an "Explorer" button and in its menu there's a "Search" but....on clicking on it, it took me back to the same search I had used. Im sorry to put you through this plastidust, I think I'm going to have to start the backup from scratch and keep my fingers crossed that this time I'll do it correctly...

Thank you SO much for your your efforts! Adela

 

I'm stumped for the moment, don't understand why so many options in the "File" menu are grayed out and there is a discrepancy here about "erdnt.exe" too that I don't understand. Follow oma's advice. The key thing here is, if you take the default settings of Erunt, a "C:\Windows\Erdnt" folder should exist with a sub folder under that with the name of the date of the backup as in oma's screen shots.

This is where the real confusion begins for me. To restore the backup, I run a program file called "erdnt.exe" which is placed in each backup folder when it is created.

Oma, what the heck?:-o

 

"Go to All Programs, hover the mouse on ERUNT, it will then show 4 items. You click ONCE on ERUNT."

Oh Oma, thanks so much for everything, and those wonderful screenshots too. I do have the ERUNT in my All Programs and do see the 4 items when I hover the mouse over the word but...nothing happens when I click on it! Should I try running it from the ERUNT setup that's on my desktop, maybe? If so I'll try again....

I'm terribly embarrassed that after all of you going through so much to help me, I still can't do it correctly... :-(

 

And I have the ERDNT without the "exe" and that works as well I think. Could be that you have the exe version of ERUNT and I have the Zipped version or the other way around? :confused I just don't remember what version (zipped or exe) I downloaded. :banghead Its that long ago. That would make a difference I think. Not to worry as long as the ERDNT recovers the registry regardless if it shows an exe after it or not. ( I think)

 

Do you click on the one (of the 4 items) that says ERUNT with the nice little icon in front that says ERU NT? That's the one I showed in one of the pics with a red block around it? Because that's the one you need to start off with. No don't run from the setup on your desktop. It's just the setup of the program ERUNT afaik.

Don't worry, we'll help you along or perhaps some other MG may come along to help out.

Read the authors instructions, take your time going over it and you'll see in the end how easy it really is.

Did you download and install the exe. or the zipped version of ERUNT?

EDIT: Now I need to go to sleep. It's way past my bed time.

 

I am going to try to think out of the box here, to find this registry back up, I will warn you that I am not familar with the progam, but these are my ideas. Go do a search and refine the search to look for but not nessicarily all of these:
1. progams accessed during the date/time you did the backup
2. all progams containing text with ".bak" as backup.
3. search all files pertaining to ERUNT.
another idea would be:
4.use a program like WinDirStat to look at treemaps that ERUNT is using.

I don't know if this will help you but you will be looking for a needle in a haystack it sounds like.:-o

 

Oma, strike what I said about the difference between you not having an "erdnt.exe" while i do. Figured that part out(maybe?).:confused My folder options are set to show extensions for known file types. I can't remember what I downloaded either, the zipped or the exe, but suppose it could make a difference. Yep sure been quite some time.

Take you time Adelap and follow oma's instructions carefully. If still no joy:

I'm still stumped on why so many options are grayed out and why when clicking on the Erunt option from "Programs" nothing happens. So, and maybe I'm way off base here but it looks like the ERDNT folder isn't being created. That would mean either you're running something other than the ERUNT backup program or something is preventing it from working. If you can Adelap, try doing a search on just the word "ERDNT", without the quotes.

Wondering if you could answer another question too. The first line in your first post reads:

Does that "Avast Antivir Free" mean you have Avast and Antivir installed or does it mean Avast antivirus Free? If just Avast, have you run any scans lately? If both Avast and Antivir then you need to uninstall one of them. Having two AV's installed can cause all kinds of havoc.

 

Hi Oma, my computer is missing the 2nd item shown in your figure which is - ERUNT "with the nice little red icon in front"... you show 5 items while I show only 4, which is why I'd like to delete everything I did, including the installation and start over again...

Documentation
ERUNT Home Page
NTREGOPT
Uninstall ERUNT

I downloaded it from MajorGeeks and so sorry I don't know whether it was the exe. or the zipped version... (my computer tech knowledge is more than limited...

...and of course, you must go get your rest. Sweet dreams and thank you all ever so much! Adela

 

Hi plastidust! You've done it!!! I searched ERDNT, as you suggested, so see the bombastic discovery! I found several ERDNT and a few ERUNT and...one "8-8-10". This last one gave a long list of all my documents, etc. (though I don't know why since it was supposed to backup only the registry).

Now I wonder which one is THE Backup File, also (1) how to get to it, and (2) which ones I can delete? About 9 years ago and again 5 years ago I seem to have used this program, so some of these I could delete? Or would ccleaner do it?

In case it might help you sort out your .exe questions, while I typed on the search, ERDNT, the system changed it to ERDNT.exe.

I thank you and all the others so very much! A warm hug to all! Adela

Oh I'm sorry, it's a mistake I made. I only have Avast Free. Thanks for catching it for me!

 

Hello and thank you Spookydoo! As you can see, I'm just about getting to the bottom of my big puzzle so hopefully I won't need to do more "excavations". Thanks again for giving your help too! Adela

 

Well, let's not delete anything yet. Need to figure out how you can get ERUNT to function correctly for you every time you use it, to avoid you having to go through this again.

But first, the folder named 8-8-10 should be the folder containing your actual reg backup. In that folder you should see a file named ERDNT or ERDNT.EXE. Compare what you see to oma's pix and mine. To get to that folder/file,

• double click on your "My Computer" desktop icon. When Windows Explorer(actually it's the file manager for Windows Explorer) pops up,
• click on the [+] next to the "Local Disk (C)" in the tree on the left. This will expand the folder listings for drive C:.
• scroll down to the Windows folder. Again click on the [+] next to the Windows folder name.
• scroll down until you see the ERDNT folder and click the [+] next to the ERDNT name. Should see folders using dates as names. Look for 8-8-10.
• click on that folder name and you should see something very close to the pix that oma and i posted.

You're looking for a file with the name of ERDNT or ERDNT.EXE and it should have an icon with the green letters ERD and right underneath those in black italics the letters NT. This is the file you would run(double click) to perform the restore.

 

As per plastidust.... don't delete anything in the ERDNT folder!!

Look at my 1st pic out of the three I posted in a previous post. That's the RESTORE icon. That's where you click on to do a restore in case you need to restore the registry in the future. The registry data is in other folders. Since I don't know which folders (or all) ERUNT uses to restore the registry I'd well leave all folders alone!!!

The icon used to make a backup of your registry is located in "All Programs", hover over the ERUNT icon and then you see the selections on the right one of which is ERU in red and NT in black. Click on THAT one, the second from the top. (I showed you a pic of that screen) Then you should get a pop up of the program to do a back up. Just click ok with the popups you get and the registry will be backed up in the default mode. Just follow plastidust's instructions in his last post in how to get to the backup after you've backed up the registry.

I don't understand anything of what you are saying about grayed out items. If it pertains to ERUNT you may want to attach a picture in your next reply to see what's going on.

 

This is in addition to my previous post.

You can delete an entire folder like the ones you see in one of my previous pictures. For example, I can delete the July dated folder and/or the August dated folder. But NEVER go inside a dated folder to delete individual stuff inside there. Look at picture #3 to see that there is a lot of stuff that's inside the August 8 folder. Don't touch that. If you want to delete a folder, just right click the folder with the date on it and select delete.

Hope this helps.

 

Dear Oma and Jordan River:

Finally my page looks exactly like Jordan's picture and your first and third pictures. But my All Programs is still missing Oma's middle picture showing the name ERUNT with the little square icon with red color ERU, and black color NT, in front of it.

Clicking on "8-8-10" gave 9 icons (while you and Jordan have 11(?)). One says: ERD NT with the green color and all, but there's no ERUNT button. Clicking on it doesn't do anything because I'm missing that right name for some reason.

Oma: Thank you for warning me to be careful not to delete from inside the dated icon, I only deleted the entire icons with very old dates.

I did and so was able to get to the famous ERD NT, etc. as above indicated, but I don't know how to bring to my All Programs that particular missing button which you show in your middle (or 2nd) picture, as ERUNT with the little square icon with red color ERU, and black color NT, in front of it.

Any ideas? Thank you both so very much! I feel terrible taking so much time from you so if you wish to give up please do so as I understand... ) Adela

 

Think I found it. The one icon you say is missing in "All Programs".

Navigate to Program Files. (Click on my Computer, Right click on C (local disk) and choose explore. That will take you to the tree where you will find the Program Files. Click on Program File to open it.)

Locate the ERUNT folder and click on it to open it.

In that folder you'll find the ERD (Red) NT (black) icon. (I put a RED box around it) Double click on it to verify that you see the popup screen to make a backup of the registry. Just click on cancel if you don't want to make a backup of the registry.

If that's the correct one, then there are several options. Right click on the icon and it will offer you: Pin to Start Menu, send to the Desktop, copy or create a shortcut. It will be your choice where you want it. I'd pin it to the Start Menu or send it to the Desktop or Documents, to anywhere you can have easy access to doing the registry backups. But don't MOVE the ORIGINAL FOLDER from it's location!!

I've included a pic so you can see where it is located by putting a red box around the 3 main points.

 

Oh Oma, thank you once and over again! But I think I'm a lost cause! I did find the ERUNT...but it shows only 2 icons while your picture shows 14! I wanted to make a screenshot so you could see what I have and discovered that my paint program had disappeared, so I googled to get it and it did reappear (my crazy computer!), and you can see it here.

What I did wrong...is a puzzle to me. I know I did make the backup yesterday and lost it, how? I only know I'm going crazy! Is there a light at the end of the tunnel for me? That's the 64 million dollar question. :confused

Thank you again for your patience and kindness, but I can't continue to take your time so Oma, please feel free to not answer.

With gratitude and best wishes, Adela

 

Remember that the registry backups are in Windows under ERDNT and their dates?

The last ERUNT pic I showed you is in "Programs". That's where all the programs should be. I've got no clue as to why there are missing files/icons in there as your pic show having only 2.

What I propose you to do is to remove all of ERUNT. Do you have an uninstall feature of ERUNT in the "All Programs" ? If so, uninstall and after that do a search for ERDNT and ERUNT to make sure that all pertaining to ERUNT has been deleted. Reboot after that. If not having the uninstall feature, you would have to a search to remove all folders of ERUNT and ERDNT.

Download and install ERUNT anew. Then follow this thread through and check everything to see if all is okay now. Also, read up on the author's link that I posted earlier.

Here's the ERUNT download link: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1267.html

Let us know the outcome will you?

 

Hi Adelap. Although I have not carefully read every word of this entire thread, I think
I can tell what's happening here.

First, to avoid confusion, lets clarify a little terminology and such.

• directory and folder refer to the same thing.
  The 'folder' terminology is often used as its easier for people to understand.
  Most people are familiar with manila folders and putting stuff into the folder.
  A manila folder icon is used to indicate a directory. Files are said to be 'inside' the folder.
  
• Searching for ERDNT will find More than what you are actually looking for, as
  there are a number files that begin with ERDNT. Some are in the Program folder
  and some are created during Each Backup procedure.
  
• There is no single Backup File. Each backup is contained Separately within it's
  own folder. The Parent Folder for ALL of the backups is by default named
  ERDNT which itself is in the C:\WINDOWS folder (Windows XP Home).
  
• The individual backup folders each contain 11 objects.
  Ten files and one folder, which has 1 or more sub-folders.
  

If you still have Very old backups, ie several years old, then 'Yes' you can delete
those as they are now obsolete.

NO, to my knowledge, CCleaner will Not delete any of those backups.

Relating to the 'EXE' or 'ZIP' questions:
Since you have an entry for Start -> All Programs -> ERUNT
you must have downloaded the 'EXE' since this is an installation program and it will make
those entries for you. If you download the 'ZIP' version, then you unzip that file and put
the contents of the 'zip' file in any directory you choose. You then have to make the
desktop shortcuts yourself.

Since you are missing the ERUNT item, which is the actual backup program, it seems that
something went wrong during the install process.
I suggest that you:

• Uninstall the program:
  Start -> Control panel -> Add or Remove Programs
• Reboot
• Download the installation file:
  ERUNT 1.1j
• Re-install the program

If you still have any missing items, that is, if you do not see all five items as shown in
Oma's 2nd image, you can create desktop icons to use instead.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As I was writing this, I just loged in and noticed that there are additional posts in this
thread which I had not seen. I'll have to review that before doing any more.

Cheers

P.S
On the developer's Frequently Asked Questions page he suggestes Disabling
System Restore. IMHO, I strongly disagree. Do not disable System Restore.
I use both.
If you are going to do Both before a critical system change, do the ERUNT FIRST. Otherwise, if you use the restore point created Before the ERUNT backup, the ERUNT backup may no longer be there, based on My Actual Experience.

 

I second that.

 

Hello and thanks a million to all!!!

Oma: I was planning, as you well suggested, on uninstalling the entire project and starting from scratch.

mjnc: I enjoyed the useful explanations you give on the ERUNT case. I'll keep this in my handy email for when I need it, as well as the entire thread from which I learned so much. You say:

Although I intend to delete the whole installation, etc. and start over, did you mean that it's possible in the present stage to "create desktop icons" for the missing fifth item? How would one do it? If not, it's ok, I'll go ahead with deleting and re-downloading, installing, etc. anyway.

Again, my eternal gratitude for all the wonderful help you kind and knowledgeable people gave me when I most needed it! Adela

P.S. mjnc: Just one more little question that's eating me up to know... lol! After I found ERUNT in WINDOWS and PROGRAMS, do you happen to know why, on clicking on it, I got only 2 icons whereas Jason and Oma got 14??? Just crazily curious. Thanks!

 

Excellent!

I wouldn't do that this time though since it's better to remove the possible corrupt ERUNT program. However, in future, as previously posted by me, you can right click the missing registry program starter - in this case - ERU (in red) and NT (in black) and create a shortcut to the desktop. I've included a pic to show you how and WHERE to do it. One can create shortcuts to the desktop with any software program that executes that program. In this case it's the one I mentioned above. If in doubt, you can always double click an icon and see if that would start to execute a program. As previously said, you can get out of the program by clicking the cancel button.

Perhaps mjnc can help you out with an answer to your question. Perhaps you show 2 icons because your ERUNT program could be corrupt? I wouldn't know.

You're very welcome Adelap. Don't hesitate to post if you have any (further) questions now or in the future. We're here to help and someone will always be here to answer your queries to the best of our ability.

 

Thank you for those fantastic screenshots too Oma!!! How do you do all those red borders, etc.? (never mind) lol! They'll help me a lot now that I'm going to start from the beginning.

As to creating desktop icons now, you're so right that I shouldn't and I won't. But it's a good thing to know...

As to my P.S. question, I hope mjnc won't bother answering as it's only to satisfy my curiosity and not a necessary step to resolve a problem. :-o

I'm off to do my big deed now and again a big hug to everyone who so generously helped with my problem!!!

Adela

 

No you can't. When I posted that, I didn't realize that those items were missing in the program folder.
You can't create the desktop icons because there is nothing there to link to.
The desktop icons would actually be 'links' to the real objects in the program folder, which presently are not there.

As I suspected, something went wrong with the install process, therefore the actual executables, the ones that have an '.exe' extension are not there.
Some other files are also missing.
The one that is labeled 'internet shortcut' is a Web address.
It is the developer's Home page for the ERUNT and NTREGOPT utilities.

 

I agree with all former sounds like you will have to start over with this ERUNT program, like someone in another post said. I had a corrupt virus program back in the year 2002 "jumping at it's shadow" at start up and had to reinstall it.:banghead

 

THANK YOU mjnc and Spookydoo (loved your little head banging on the wall, lol!)! Adela

 

Hello All! Just to tell you that thanks to all of you, kind techies, I've been able to uninstall, then reinstall ERUNT, and now it's all done beautifully, complete with the famous missing fifth item, the date, the little icon showing ERU(red) NT(black and all! lol! I then proceeded to scan with the ccleaner, though it didn't speed up a little my computer as I was hoping, but at least I feel "clean" now.

I still see 11 items as opposed to the 14 of Jordan and Oma, but it might have to do with our different computers.

While I KNOW it's there, I couldn't test the Restore as I wouldn't be able to tell what registry items I had in the backup anyway...they all look alike to me! lol! So, I'll find out if/when something's wrong and I need to restore. So far so good.

A BIG HUG AND BIG THANK TO YOU ALL!!! Adela

 

Thank you Adelap for letting us know that all is okay now. You did it!! :cool