The vista system has started acting a bit squirrelly lately, so I began my troubleshooting by restoring registry file deletions. The last four out of seven backups failed to restore to the system registry. "Cannot import file____. Not all data was successfully written to the registry. Some keys are open by the program or other processes." All browser windows were closed, but various security apps were running in the background, could that have been the problem? If not, can I restore these files from Windows safe mode? TIA...Aces

Did you restore them in reverse order (ie oldest first)? And yes it probably is a good idea to turn off any security software just to make sure none of them are preventing registry access, or indeed to do as you suggested yourself and try restoring them in safe mode.

Hi JD...'Appreciate the reply. The order of restoration appears to be irrelevant for this particular problem. The safe-mode restore was ineffective, with the same error message. If this isn't bad enough, Windows system restore was not successful, even in safe-mode, due to an "unspecified error"! I guess the next step is a system repair. I'm rather dreading it, but It surely beats a clean re-install. I'm definitely grasping at straws here...any further ideas?

The order can be quite important, which order have you done it? (We are talking CCleaner.reg backups here aren't we?)

If no joy, best of luck with the repair install

Thanks for the reply. Yes...cc reg backups...all possible permutations on restore...no luck...maybe if I'm wielding a whip and a chair...seriously, if you have anything else, I'm all ears...

A FINAL NOTE: After extensive efforts in troubleshooting, I'm forced to conclude that at least this incarnation of CC does not like Vista, and I'm not sure I do either. I've used CC for years, with no adverse effects. Shoot, it even ran well on MILLENIUM...now, there's a testimonial! Today, Firefox was corrupted...tool-bars missing, bookmarks gone, window truncated, etc. System restore was no help, in either regular, safe, or recovery modes. As a last ditch effort, I tried a complete PC restore, but it wouldn't execute because it couldn't find my back-up files that I wrote earlier to the D-disk[a secondary internal hard drive]. I'm now looking at my second clean install for the month, with no available recovery of data. AARRRRGGGGGG Happy trails to all!

Hi again Aces,
Your situation leads me to believe that it is worse than you think.
You may need HiJackThis help.Start at this link.
http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?s=&...ost&p=75715
davey

P.S. Somehow I went right past your question about security apps in Post #1.You don't have multiple security apps running against each other in the background do you?
This can cause many strange things to happen.Especially if they are trying to "strangle",
"quarantine", "kill" or remove each other or whatever happens to be an innocent by-stander while they are at each other.
Some "real time" security apps say they can be run with other "real time" security apps. My experience tells me otherwise.They may not have been conflicting but 350 MB error logs convinces me not to do it.
This may be your problem and your solution.Other than the damage already caused.

Hi davey,
The only real-time scanners that I've run concurrently are Avast and Spywareblaster, but I've never had compatibility issues with these two while running prior versions of Windows. What is the most disconcerting here, is the failure to restore registry files that were selected for deletion by CC. The fact they were inappropriately targeted for deletion is cause for concern, but finding that they could not be returned to the registry is entirely unacceptable. I would be extremely hesitant to run the CC registry cleaner again after this experience. You think an HijackThis analysis will actually prove helpful at this point?

I would definitely run every scan I could including what is recommended in that link.Save the logs and submit them
You might try a couple of online scanners like Trend Micro's HOUSECALL 6 AND ESET
BE BACK WHEN I FIND THE LINKS.There are things out there eating up lots of maint programs and security apps.
I really don't think you have a problem caused by CCleaner.There would be many more reports like yours and there aren't any.
What is causing it is the mystery.Might as well find out before you have to do another system install.
P.S. Cross off any conflict between Avast and Spywareblaster from what I have read.
Do these steps first then the online scans later.
You may need HiJackThis help.Start at this link.
http://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=11000


http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/ ESET link free online

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ Trend Micro Housecall free online

You may be right concerning CC not being the culprit here, but I remain skeptical. Again, it's one thing to select-out files for deletion that are actually critical system files, if they can be restored at some later time. It's quite another thing, to not allow those files to be re-entered to the registry at any point! I've run two online virus scanners, and found 0 infections...re spyware...a few non-critical tracking cookies. In any case, I'm submitting these results to the hijackthis help moderators. Thanks for your time and assistance...