Regback Copy Not Working 99%

In older versions of Windows (like Windows 7), the system automatically backed up the registry to the RegBack folder every time the system restarted. This was a lifesaver for manual registry recovery.

However, starting with Windows 10 version 1803, Microsoft changed this behavior to reduce disk space usage. By default, Windows no longer backs up the registry to the RegBack folder automatically. As a result, when you navigate to that folder, you will see the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM, but they will all be 0 bytes in size.

This makes copying them for a restore useless. regback copy not working

Tools like Macrium Reflect (Free) , Veeam Agent, or even Windows 7 Backup (still available in Windows 11) will back up the registry properly because they use Volume Shadow Copy (VSS). VSS allows you to copy locked files.

Once you have confirmed that RegBack copy is working (files are non-zero and recent), here is how to perform a full registry restore—useful if your system is unbootable. In older versions of Windows (like Windows 7),

Since your RegBack folder is currently empty, you cannot use it to fix a broken registry now. Instead, you should rely on System Restore, which is the modern replacement for the RegBack method.

System Restore will replace the current registry files with a working snapshot from the selected date. Tools like Macrium Reflect (Free) , Veeam Agent

Reported problem:
The regback folder (normally C:\Windows\System32\config\RegBack) contains backups of registry hives (SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, SYSTEM, DEFAULT). Users trying to copy these files (e.g., to restore a corrupted registry) find that the copies are zero bytes, corrupt, or produce “access denied” / “file in use” errors.

Starting with Windows 10, version 1803, Microsoft made a controversial change: by default, the system stopped creating full, restorable registry backups. Instead, the RegBack folder would contain zero-byte files or would not be updated at all. This was intended to save disk space, but it left users without a built-in recovery method. Many users and IT professionals reported that "regback copy not working" because they found the files were empty or outdated by months.

Thus, the phrase "not working" can mean: