Using Reimage To Fix Windows When The Registry Has Been Damaged
As Windows has become more stable it is becoming less common to see the blue screen fatal errors so prevalent in older operating systems. In the event of a blue screen error occurring due to registry problems then the following steps detail an approach to follow for attempting repairs, culminating in a Reimage review to show one way to use software to automate the repair process.
After recently seeing a blue screen error with the code 0xc0000218 my research pointed to the issue being due to a corrupt registry hive (keys relating to a specific user). I collated the following sequence repairs based on best practices and online advice.
- Use another Windows account. The hive might only be damaged on one account so other users may not see the problem. Log in, salvage your personal data and create a new account for yourself.
- Start up in safe mode (hit F8 as the system is booting). Once logged in you can scan your system for viruses, replace the registry with an old version (if available) or run registry repair software (there are many free and commercial ones out there).
- Use the Windows boot disk to start the machine and run any available checks. This is a long shot, especially with registry issues, as system checks are not specialised enough to resolve most registry issues. It is worth trying all the same.
- Resort to PC maintenance software, such as Reimage, to boot the system, scan for & resolve the issues.
Most software for corrective maintenance has bootable disks (usually to download from their sites) that can start up PCs that experience a blue screen in start-up. I resorted to using Reimage (partly due to cost, but also due to their site stating their software could fix the exact error code I was seeing) and it resolved my PC problems.
The key take away lesson from this issue was to (a) always maintain back-ups of your registry and (b) don’t reinstall Windows until you have attempted every avenue of repair.
