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The Recovery Console allows one to copy and move files. It can be useful in the situation where the registry files have become faulty, making it impossible to boot Windows normally.

The active machine registry files are placed here:

%systemroot%\System32\Config\system
%systemroot%\System32\Config\software
%systemroot%\System32\Config\sam
%systemroot%\System32\Config\security
%systemroot%\System32\Config\default

The active user registry file is placed here:

%SystemRoot%\Profiles\<Username>\Ntuser.dat (WinNT4)
C:\Documents and Settings\<Username>\Ntuser.dat (Win2k/WinXP)

The initial registry files are placed here (Created at install):

%systemroot%\System32\Repair\system
%systemroot%\System32\Repair\software

If having used Ntbackup to create a System State backup, then a copy of the registry files will be placed in the following directory:

• Win2k (Also happens when creating a Emergency Recovery Disk):

  %systemroot%\System32\Repair\RegBack
  
  More Info MS KB Q231777

• WinXP:

  %systemroot%\Repair
  

If using WinNT4/Win2k then one can find a recent backup of the System-registry here:

%systemroot%\System32\Config\System.alt

More Info MS KB Q151247

Related Offline registry editing

More Info MS KB Q269075
More Info MS KB Q307545