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I am having a problem with the software hive getting corrupted. I have read  
  
that this is likely because the hive is being written to at shutdown  
  
resulting in it being corrupt at the next boot.  
  
I do not have a current backup of the hive and I would like to know if there  
  
is a way to restore the Software hive through regedt32.exe or some other way  
  
using the corrupted hive. Thanks!  
  
I do know that the problem is not hardware related, so it must be a problem  
  
with the hive.

If the software hive is corrupt, it may be possible to rename the software  
  
hive found in;  
  
%windir%\system32\config\software  
  
to software.old  
  
then copy the most recent backup found in  
  
%windir%\repair\regback  
  
as  
  
%windir%\system32\config\software  
  
If that fails you can copy/ use the file  
  
%windir%\repair\software  
  
This file is an image of the hive at the time the OS was installed, so you'd  
  
have to reinstall all software. This being the case you might just as well  
  
blow it away and start a new install. (note: this would at least allow you  
  
to start the OS to make any necessary backups prior to wiping the drive.)  
  
To start the Recovery Console, start the computer from the Windows 2000  
  
Setup CD or the Windows 2000 Setup floppy disks. If you do not have Setup  
  
floppy disks and your computer cannot start from the Windows 2000 Setup CD,  
  
use another Windows 2000-based computer to create the Setup floppy disks. At  
  
the "Welcome to Setup" screen. Press F10 or R to repair a Windows 2000  
  
installation, and then press C to use the Recovery Console. The Recovery  
  
Console then prompts you for the administrator password.  If you do not have  
  
the correct password, Recovery Console does not allow access to the  
  
computer. If an incorrect password is entered three times, the Recovery  
  
Console quits and restarts the computer. Note If the registry is corrupted  
  
or missing or no valid installations are found, the Recovery Console starts  
  
in the root of the startup volume without requiring a password. You cannot  
  
access any folders, but you can carry out commands such as chkdsk, fixboot,  
  
and fixmbr for limited disk repairs. Once the password has been validated,  
  
you have full access to the Recovery Console, but limited access to the hard  
  
disk. You can only access the following folders on your computer: drive  
  
root, %systemroot% or %windir%  
  
Make sure write cache is not enabled.  
  
Possible Data Loss After You Enable the "Write Cache Enabled" Feature  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=281672  
  
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q233541  
  
--  
  
Regards,  
  
Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.  
  
Microsoft Certified Professional  
  
Microsoft MVP [Windows]  
  
http://www.microsoft.com/protect  
  
"Kenneth Schlaudraff" wrote:

I take it that the pc does boot up and Windows loads and starts?  If you  
  
have no good working backup of the registry it will be next to  
  
impossible to use regedt32 to "fix" the registry unless you know exactly  
  
what is wrong.  Secondly, if you have no known "good" backup how are you  
  
going to "restore" the hive?  Are any events logged in the Event Viewer  
  
at shutdown?  
  
One of the best way to fix the problem that you describe is to (at least  
  
temporarilly) stop ALL non essential applications and services or  
  
processes from starting automatically when the pc starts.  Chances are  
  
that a rogue running application or service is causing this problem.  
  
Be warned that trying to replace registry hives can lead to disastrous  
  
results requiring a reinstall of the operating system.  It is a last  
  
ditch effort when the pc refuses to boot.  Microsoft has tools available  
  
to use if the pc can't boot, for example:  
  
Windows 2000 Registry Repair Utility  
  
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=56d3c201-2c68-4de8-9229-ca494362419c&DisplayLang=en  
  
If the pc boots best to find out what is causing the error before using  
  
these tools or attempting to "fix" the registry.  For starters, as I  
  
mentioned earlier, look in the event log and post the error log here.  
  
John  
  
Kenneth Schlaudraff wrote: