Among all the known modifications of the 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 for stable operation. Alas, we have to admit the obvious fact that even without taking into account the effects of various viruses, all systems of this line have the ability to “fly out” at the most inopportune moment. And users are starting to frantically search for a solution on how to restore the nervous system after such stresses.
Fortunately, Windows crashes can be dealt with, since all the latest popular modifications provide recovery tools to a healthy state. Today, there are several basic methods of rollback, which can be used and the means of the systems themselves (including when booting from removable media), and utilities created by third-party software developers for this purpose. But first things first. To start, let us dwell on some general issues.
How to restore Windows system of any version: general recommendations
The special attention of each user of Windows-based computers and laptops should be focused on how exactly all this works. Recovery is carried out by creating snapshots of a functioning OS with all installed programs, settings and user information, which are periodically stored 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 backup mode, data can be saved on removable media, and then 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 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 when a command line error occurs when starting from an external medium.
How to restore the Windows 7 system with a standard tool
Now consider the remaining methods in more detail. How to restore the Windows 7 system or any other system using standard tools? Quite simple! To begin with, we will proceed from the fact that the operating system is working, or it can be started in safe mode if a normal start is not possible. The toolkit itself is located in the corresponding section of the “Control Panel”.
After its activation, a special “Wizard” will be launched, in which it will immediately be offered to roll back to a certain control point (usually the last one).
If this option does not suit you, since you need to select a computer state earlier, you can fully expand the list by clicking on the display button for all points, then select the desired one and wait for the recovery process to complete. Please note that the rollback will not be made 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 subjected to such a critical impact that its launch is impossible. How to restore the system of the 7th or any other modification in such a situation? For these cases (for example, when you repeatedly turn off / on by long pressing the power button on the system unit or laptop), at some point, you can achieve that the automatic recovery will be launched. This will be reported in Windows 7 immediately upon starting the process. And in the eighth and tenth modifications, such an automated process will be performed in the background, which can be seen only by the increased system boot time.
Recovery when loading the installation distribution
But now let's figure out how to restore Windows 7 if there is a disk or flash drive with the installation distribution recorded on them. Actually, there is nothing particularly complicated here. The main condition is to set the removable external media first in the queue for loading in the standard settings of the primary BIOS / UEFI input / output systems.
Probably, everyone paid attention to the welcome window of the installer. After choosing the language, keyboard layout and currency format, the user enters the installation section. How to restore Windows 7 from this section? Elementary!
At the bottom left there is a special hyperlink, 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 choice of the necessary time point, which preceded the appearance of critical errors and failures. In case of a successful rollback, a corresponding system notification will appear on the screen.
Restoring 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 crashes in Windows do not allow you to start standard tools, you can use the special menu, which is called by pressing the F8 key at the very beginning of the download. 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 take advantage of the choice of downloading the last workable configuration (unless, of course, it was saved as a backup 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 the system version 7 and lower using standard techniques, a little understood. Now it’s worth saying a few words about the options for action, if for some reason none of the above means of proper action has not taken.
It is believed that in such a situation, before embarking on 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 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 toolkit of the command console (for example, the simplest rstrui.exe command). We will dwell on them separately.
Rollback Options in Windows 10
If with the seventh version everything is already more or less clear, then with the tenth modification many users have rather serious difficulties. No, you can, of course, use the recovery section in the “Control Panel”, however, in the “top ten”, the main tool for setting system parameters is the new section “Settings”. But how to restore the system on Windows 10 & amp; raquo; using such tools?
There are two options here. Returning the computer to its original state allows you to restore the system to the moment of a “clean” installation, and all programs installed after this will be automatically deleted. But when you select this action, you can save the user file by selecting the appropriate item at the start of the rollback.
You can also use the item to select specific download options. Upon restart, 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 with the F8 key.
In general, in order not to be tormented each time with a choice or not to move from one section to another, you can do much easier by returning the standard version of invoking the boot menu using the F8 key. To do this, in the command console that starts as the administrator, the line bcdedit / set {current} bootmenupolicy legacy is entered and the enter key is pressed. After executing the command at reloading, the standard method will become available for use.
DISM Toolkit
With how to restore the system of the 10th modification, it seems, too, there should not be any special difficulties. Now we can proceed to consider the most powerful tool - command line tools.
Ordinary users are in no hurry to use them, and very often motivating this with the complexity of use. Yes, indeed, some teams may raise questions, but if you do not be too lazy to figure them out, you simply will not find the best 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 “health state” of the computer.
The second command performs system recovery. And although it is argued that to carry out a quick rollback, it is enough to perform one of the presented commands, this is not so. The best option is their consistent use in pairs.
Command line actions: checking 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 means to perform the rollback can be recorded on a removable external medium and boot from it. In this case, you can 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 disk checks and many more additional operations.
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 which has no analogues in the GUI as a separate program, or in third-party utilities.
Now a few words about how to restore a hard drive system (file or primary markup with low-level formatting). On the same command line, either on the working system or when starting from an external boot device, use the chkdsk command with the addition of several attributes like the combination “/ x / f / r” (without quotes).
All attributes are available in the help system (chkdsk /?).
What to do if the bootloader is damaged?
In the same way, the question of how to restore the system if the damage affected the bootloader and boot sectors is simply solved. In this case, the Bootrec.exe tool is used, also supplemented by special attributes, which are shown in the image above.
Usually the first two are used in pairs and give an instant 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 understandable. But what can be used as an additional tool? Despite the fact that the main system components seem to be put 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 due to additional downloads from the Internet. As already clear, connection is required without fail.
Using third-party applications
You can recommend applications like AVZ, Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD), Acronis Backup & Recovery, Symantec Backup Exec or Windows Repair as the most powerful programs that allow you to roll back to the working state of Windows.
All of them are approximately equivalent to each other, and the process of system recovery is maximally simplified due to the almost complete automation of the actions performed.
Brief conclusions
So, to summarize, we can give all users without exception one important piece of advice: take the time and effort to study the command line toolkit, since it is this powerful tool for eliminating most of the known problems in Windows systems, which are equal today, despite the abundance of narrowly targeted software, simply can not be found. It really is. And some functions, as mentioned above, work only on the command line or in a similar PowerShell console.