Brian Dessent wrote: > "H.S." wrote: > > >>rsync: send_files failed to open "/cygdrive/c/Documents and >>Settings/winuser/NTUSER.DAT": Device or resource busy (16) > > > That is your HKCU hive. It is opened by the system in exclusive mode, > and no other process can read or write it. The purpose being that if > you want to access the registry, you go through the registry API. For > instance, each registry key can have an ACL, so it's possible to create > a registry key that is only readable by a particular user. But if > processes could just read the hive data on disk it would completely > bypass that security. > > So you can't back up the registry that way, but that doesn't matter > because there are much better ways. For example "reg export HKCU > file.reg" and then backup file.reg. > > Brian >
That was a nice explanation. So, since I am in the processes of backing up the Windows XP box, I do not think I need to back up the registry and I can exclude the registry enteries, if I can find a rule (file pattern) to do so. So far, I have this in my excludes file: ################################################################ #do not back up some temp file and other IE stuff - Temporary Internet Files - Temp/ - History.IE5 # do not back up Recent docs in Windows - Recent/ - *[Cc]ache* - *[Tt]rash* - Local Settings - Start Menu - Documents and Settings/*/Cookies #do not include any temporary files, swap files, etc - *~ - *.swp #specify the directories to be backedup + /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/sahambi/Application Data/Mozilla + *Application*/Mozilla/ + *Application*/Thunderbird # ################################################################ Is there another rule that I can include in the file above and my registry hive will not be backed up? And, also, should I be backing up the registry hive or not in the first place? thanks, ->HS -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
