Does System Restore EVER work?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
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Bill

I've just tried System Restore for yet another time, and once
again it claims to have a checkpoint and after rebooting it says
"oh sorry, I couldn't restore, try another date". Well, none of
the other dates seem to work also leaving me a) with a system
that I'm going to have to restore from a month ago, and b)
wasting several hundred meg of storage space letting the system
create backups that apparently never work.

Is there some secret to getting a restore to work properly? I'm
really quite fed up with this. I cleaned up some registry stuff,
than my wireless connection would not connect. I tried restoring
a couple of times, that did not work, then finally tried the
"use last good configuration" which seems to have left my system
totally screwed, my wireless adapter and display adapter drivers
are messed up but other stuff seems current. Naturally that one
also said "sorry, I couldn't restore". And it's more than one
machine that I've had it fail on, so it's not just one
occurrence.

Bill
 
Oh yeah, I forgot the best past. After doing that "use last good
configuration" that screwed up my system, I discovered that the
problem was that my router had hung.. XP was probably actually
fine.

Bill
 
Bill;
Check for damaged/missing system files:
Start/Run
Type "sfc /scannow" ENTER
Follow the prompts and have the Windows XP CD available.
Otherwise perform a Repair Installation:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/repaxp.htm

System Restore issues:
There may be corrupted data in system Restore.
Turn off/on System Restore to delete corrupted files:
Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore.
Click System Restore Settings on left side.
Check "Turn off System Restore", click OK, follow prompts and reboot.
This deletes ALL Restore Points including corruption.
Then go back and turn on system Restore and create a Restore Point.
Otherwise:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/newsgroups/faqsrwxp.mspx
 
Bill said:
I've just tried System Restore for yet another time, and once
again it claims to have a checkpoint and after rebooting it says
"oh sorry, I couldn't restore, try another date". Well, none of
the other dates seem to work also leaving me a) with a system
that I'm going to have to restore from a month ago, and b)
wasting several hundred meg of storage space letting the system
create backups that apparently never work.

Is there some secret to getting a restore to work properly? I'm
really quite fed up with this. I cleaned up some registry stuff,
than my wireless connection would not connect. I tried restoring
a couple of times, that did not work, then finally tried the
"use last good configuration" which seems to have left my system
totally screwed, my wireless adapter and display adapter drivers
are messed up but other stuff seems current. Naturally that one
also said "sorry, I couldn't restore". And it's more than one
machine that I've had it fail on, so it's not just one
occurrence.

Bill
Click to expand...

System Restore has always worked for me in the few instances I have needed
it.

You state that , " once again", it did not work for you. If you have corrupt
restore points, and you have never gotten rid of them and started anew, it
will continue to not work for you.

Turn system restore off, then reboot. This will get rid of all your restore
points.
Turn system restore on, then reboot. Create a restore point, and try and see
if it will let you restore to it now.

Also, if you have a program like Roxio's Go-Back, it may be causing problems
with your system restore.
 
System Restore depends heavily on a healthy system. When you have errors
such as the ones you indicate, then it directly points to a very unhealthy
install of Windows. Might be time to back up critical data and do a fresh
install...drastic but worth the effort.

Bobby
 
I have found that in some cases if I have install more
equipment and or drivers it will not work. Also
installing some software after the restore point will
cause problems but in most cases this does not happen it
just seems to happen after equipment install.
 
Bill said:
I've just tried System Restore for yet another time, and once
again it claims to have a checkpoint and after rebooting it says
"oh sorry, I couldn't restore, try another date". Well, none of
the other dates seem to work also leaving me a) with a system
that I'm going to have to restore from a month ago, and b)
wasting several hundred meg of storage space letting the system
create backups that apparently never work.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that, Bill. Personally it has saved my from insanity
more that once and works every time. My current system is massively
unstable and I have to use the thing every couple of days or so to get
rid of stuff that tipped it over the edge.
 
Bill said:
I've just tried System Restore for yet another time, and once
again it claims to have a checkpoint and after rebooting it says
"oh sorry, I couldn't restore, try another date". Well, none of
the other dates seem to work also leaving me a) with a system
that I'm going to have to restore from a month ago, and b)
wasting several hundred meg of storage space letting the system
create backups that apparently never work.

Is there some secret to getting a restore to work properly?
Click to expand...

Two things. If it has got into trouble, it is necessary to clear it
out and let it start clean. System Restore. Check 'Disable System
Restore, and OK, reboot. Now have Folder Options - View set to show
Hidden files, and *not* Hide Protected mode ones and delete everything
in the System Volume Information folder on each drive
You may need to boot to Safe mode as Administrator and Take Ownership of
the folder to be able to do this on an NTFS drive

Start SR up again, and I suggest reviewing the settings for each drive.
There is not much point having it enabled on data drives, and on ones
with System or Programs I would reduce the space allotted if more than
say 1GB - I use 500MB, the minimum is 200 which will only handle maybe a
week of points. But the default of 12% of a drive seems too much for
its own good on modern large drives. And that I suspect is the source
of your trouble
 
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