Among all the known modifications of Windows operating systems, it is absolutely impossible to find at least one that would not be prone to errors and software failures and would be a standard of stable operation. Alas, we have to admit the obvious fact that even without taking into account the impact of various kinds of viruses, all systems of this line tend to “crash” at the most inopportune moment. And users are frantically looking for a solution on how to restore the nervous system after such stress.
Fortunately, Windows crashes can be de alt with, since all the latest popular modifications provide recovery tools to a he althy state. To date, there are several basic rollback methods, which can be used both by the tools of the systems themselves (including when booting from removable media), and by utilities created by third-partysoftware developers for this purpose. But first things first. Let's start with some general questions.
How to restore a Windows system of any version: general recommendations
Especial attention of every user of computers and laptops based on Windows should focus on exactly how it all works. Recovery is performed by creating snapshots of a working OS with all installed programs, settings and user information, which are periodically saved in a specially designated place on the hard drive. It is clear that when cleaning the hard drive from unwanted computer debris or when deleting large files, backups can also be deleted. In this case, system recovery will become impossible.
Alternatively, when using the manual data backup mode, they can be saved on removable media, after which they can be used for recovery. But let's see how to restore the system in one of the simplest ways.
A good method is to create a copy of the system registry in the form of a REG file, which can later be used to bring the OS "to life" using the appropriate editor, but called in case of failures from the command line when starting from external media.
How to restore the Windows 7 system with a standard tool
Now let's look at the other methods in more detail. How to restore Windows 7 or any other system usingthis standard means? Quite simply! To begin with, we will proceed from the fact that the operating system is running, or it can be started in safe mode if a normal start is impossible. The toolkit itself is located in the corresponding section of the Control Panel.
After activating it, a special "Wizard" will start, in which you will immediately be asked to roll back to a certain checkpoint (usually the latest one).
If this option does not suit you, because you want to select an earlier state of the computer, you can fully expand the list by clicking on the display all points button, then select the one you need and wait for the recovery process to complete. Please note that the rollback will not be performed in a running OS, but after it is restarted in the process of reloading.
Auto Rollback
All this is good, but it also happens that the system is exposed to such a critical impact that it is impossible to start it. How to restore the system of the 7th or any other modification in such a situation? For these cases (for example, when turning off / on repeatedly by long pressing the power button on the system unit or on a laptop), at a certain point, you can achieve that automatic recovery will be launched. This in Windows 7 will be reported immediately when the process starts. And in the eighth and tenth modifications, such an automated process will be carried out in the background, which can only be seen byincreased system boot time.
Recovery when booting the installation distribution
But now let's figure out how to restore the Windows 7 system if you have a disk or flash drive with an installation distribution recorded on them. Actually, there is nothing particularly complicated here. The main condition is to put the removable external media first in line for booting in the standard settings of the BIOS/UEFI primary input/output systems.
Probably everyone paid attention to the welcome window of the installer. After selecting the language, keyboard layout and currency format, the user enters the installation section. How to restore a Windows 7 system from this section? Elementary!
There is a special hyperlink at the bottom left, which you should click on, after which you will need to select the system to be restored and go directly to the rollback with the selection of the required time point that preceded the appearance of critical errors and failures. In case of a successful rollback, a corresponding system notification will appear on the screen.
Restore systems of the seventh version and below through the start menu
The described methods seem to be both simple and good, but, alas, they do not always work. If failures in Windows do not allow you to run standard tools, you can use a special menu that is called by pressing the F8 key at the very beginning of the boot. How to restore the Windows system from such a menu? Simple too.
Here, in order to simplify your task as much as possible, you can use the choice of loading the last working configuration (if, of course, such a backup was saved on your computer). What is most interesting, in this case, starting Windows from the corresponding copy is much faster than in the case of a standard rollback.
Using safe mode
How to restore a system version 7 and below using standard techniques, figured it out a bit. Now it is worth saying a few words about the options for action, if for some reason none of the above means of proper action had any effect.
It is believed that in such a situation, before proceeding with the use of cardinal methods or using all kinds of third-party utilities, you should try to boot the system in Safe Mode.
It is quite possible that the start will be successful, and after that it will be possible to get access to all the tools that were mentioned above. In addition, you can use the recovery tools offered by the Shell Toolkit (for example, the simplest command rstrui.exe). We will dwell on them separately.
Rollback options in Windows 10
If everything is already more or less clear with the seventh version, then with the tenth modification, many users have quite serious difficulties. No, you can, of course, use the recovery section in the Control Panel, but it is in the top ten that the main tool forSystem settings settings is a new "Settings" section. But how to restore the system on "Windows 10» using such a toolkit?
There are two options here. Resetting the computer to its original state allows you to restore the system to the point of a “clean” installation, and all programs installed after that will be automatically removed. But when choosing such an action, you can save the user file by selecting the appropriate item for this at the start of the rollback.
You can also use the option to select special download options. When restarting, a menu will be displayed in which you can select a specific action or go to the analogue of the start menu, which in earlier systems is called by pressing F8.
In general, in order not to suffer with the choice every time or not to move from one section to another, you can do it much easier by returning the standard option to call the boot menu using the F8 key. To do this, in the command console, starting on behalf of the administrator, the line bcdedit / set {current} bootmenupolicy legacy is entered and the enter key is pressed. After executing the command, when reloading, the standard method will become available for use.
DISM Toolkit
It seems that there should not be any particular difficulties with how to restore the system of the 10th modification. Now we can move on to the most powerful tool - the command line tools.
Ordinary users are in no hurry to use them, and very oftenmotivating this by the complexity of use. Yes, indeed, some commands may raise questions, but if you are not too lazy to deal with them, you simply will not find a better tool for bringing any system to life. How to restore the system through the command line?
First of all, pay attention to one of those tools that many simply do not know about. The above command scans the "he alth status" of the computer.
The second command performs a system restore. And although it is claimed that executing one of the presented commands is enough to carry out a quick rollback, this is not so. The best option is to use them consistently in pairs.
Command line actions: check system files and hard drive
Quite often you can meet questions about how to restore the system through BIOS. No way! The question is completely incorrect. Another thing is that the tools for performing a rollback can be written to removable external media and booted from it. In this case, you can also use the above standard recovery tool when starting from a disk or flash drive with an installation distribution. However, it is still better to use the command line (Shift + F10), since it can not only restore the operating system itself, but also check the status of system files, perform a disk check, and many more additionaloperations.
How to restore the system with checking system files and components? To do this, use the universal sfc /scannow command, which works only on the command line, and has no analogues either in the graphical interface as a separate program or in third-party utilities.
Now a few words about how to restore the hard disk system (file or primary layout with low-level formatting). In the same command line, either on a working system or when starting from an external boot device, you should use the chkdsk command, supplementing it with several attributes like the combination "/x /f /r" (without quotes).
All attributes are available in the help system (chkdsk /?).
What should I do if the bootloader is damaged?
In the same way, the question of how to restore the system if damage has affected the bootloader and boot sectors is solved in the same way. In this case, the Bootrec.exe tool is used, also supplemented with special attributes, as shown in the image above.
Usually the first two are used in pairs and give an immediate effect, however, if the sectors are damaged, the third command is executed, but its execution works in 99.9% of cases.
Additional actions after recovery
How to restore the system, in general terms, is clear. But what can be used as an additional tool? Although the main systemiccomponents seem to be in order, some important dynamic libraries may still be missing or damaged. In this situation, the best solution is to use the DLL Suite utility, which can just restore them by downloading them from the Internet. As it is already clear, connection is required without fail.
Using Third Party Applications
Some of the most powerful Windows restore software is AVZ, Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD), Acronis Backup & Recovery, Symantec Backup Exec or Windows Repair.
All of them are approximately equivalent to each other, and the system recovery process itself is simplified as much as possible due to the almost complete automation of the actions performed.
Summary of conclusions
So, to sum up, we can give all users without exception one important advice: take the time and effort to study the command line toolkit, since it is this powerful tool for fixing most known problems in Windows systems, equal to which today, despite the abundance of highly specialized software, there is simply no one. It really is. And some functions, as mentioned above, work only in the command line or in a similar PowerShell console.
