System Restore: access the System Volume Information Folder Part III

Part III on this page:

Inside the System Volume Information Folder

You can now open it and examine its contents: You'll find a _restore{xxxxx... } folder where xxxx... denotes a unique security identifier and a tracking.log file (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10

Opening this reveals individual RP folders with a number denoting individual restore points in successive order and other log files (the folder names in blue are archived) (Fig. 11). The number of RP folders may be different in your computer depending on the number of restore points present.

Fig. 11

Each RP folder has a snapshot folder inside (some folders with A000xxxx are omitted; Fig. 12).

Fig. 12

The snapshot folder contains files for system folders which correspond to the registry keys which will be restored by system restore using this system restore point (Fig. 13). It is possible to extract further information from the files in the SVI folder using a tool (srdiag) but this is for the technical support personnel.

Fig. 13

The snapshot folder files

The snapshot files and their corresponding system folders and registry keys are shown below (%SYSTEMDRIVE% is the drive letter of your Windows installation). They can be used for repair using the Recovery Console or in System Restore.

Snapshot file: _REGISTRY	System folder in: %SYSTEMDRIVE%\ WINDOWS\system32\config\	Registry key
_MACHINE_SAM	sam	HKLM\SAM
_MACHINE_SECURITY	security	HKLM\SECURITY
_MACHINE_SOFTWARE	software	HKLM\SOFTWARE
_USER_DEFAULT	default	HKU\.DEFAULT
_MACHINE_SYSTEM	system	HKLM\SYSTEM
_USER_USERCLASS_S-1-5-xx and _USER_NTUSER_S-1-5-xx	systemprofile	HKU\S-1-5-xx

Reference:

How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry That Prevents Windows XP from Starting

The Registry Keys and Values for the System Restore Utility

HOW TO: Restore the Operating System to a Previous State in Windows XP

Troubleshooting System Restore in Windows XP

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore in Windows XP

Fixing a problem

System Restore overview

Understanding System Restore

Disaster Recovery Tools: System Restore

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Last updated 21 Dec 2003