Help! Panic! Services won't start, no system restore...

J

Julian

[Vista HP, automatic updates on; last updates installed 3 Feb 08]

I really am tearing my hair out over this - sorry if the post is
long/confused and for the xposting - trying to give as much coherent info as
possible to aid resolution ASAP...

I don't know what's happening... and it's worse than I thought: key services
I wouldn't touch myself aren't running and I can't start them - it's not
just the iSCSI service that I spotted first, it is also the Event Log, Task
Scheduler... god knows that else!

Decided I would do a System Restore but the only restore point available is
this morning (9 Feb) and no further back I can't retore to a known good
point before the issue occurred. There's 20GB free on the System disk
(System Restore is enabled - there is ONE restore point!), so why only one
restore point available???

Please! How can I re-enable these services. The panic is due to the fact
that I am going away in 48 hours and can't access critical data!

The last system restart (prior to noticing the problem - after which I
restarted to check it wasn't just a passing problem...) occurred 8 Feb
following installaton of the Adobe Reader 8.1.2 update. Also on the 8th
Flash Player Plug in was installed along with Firefox 2.0.0.12 - these are
the only things I can think of that have changed since the last successful
access to the iSCSI disk... however on 3 Feb I did install VB Express 2008
(incl .NET Framework 3.5 and SQL Server 2005) but I don't remember whether
there was a restart afterwards, and on 6 Feb I installed TrueCrypt 5.0 ...
and since I can't access the event log either I can't check what happened.

Story: I am logged in with an Administrator account and applications etc.
seem to be elevating and being approved OK.

I've got a big NAS device with a 75GB iSCSI volume on it. I know that I
successfully accessed it on 7 Feb because there was a successful SyncToy
backup run then.

Today I can't access it and it seems the "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service"
isn't running - startup type is Automatic, "Log On As" = Local System, but
status is blank. If I try to start it manually I get "Error 1717: The
interface is unknown".

So I thought I'd look in the event log to see what has been happening that
doesn't run either. Event Viewer: "Event Log service is unavailable Verify
that the service is running" - turns out it isn't. Windows Event Log Service
is type automatic, Local Service but not started - and if I try to start it
manually I get "Error 5: Access is denied". Tried running Services "As
Administrator" - no difference.

When I tried to access the Task Scheduler it said "Task Scheduler service
is not available" - but when I look in services this one IS started... and I
can access the Task Scheduler (even though it supposedly depends on the
Event Log)

I've looked at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943996/en-us ("Some services
do not start...") but I still don't know what to do.
 
M

Mick Murphy

Start>Programs>Accessories>system Tools>System restore.


Disable your anti-virus before you do it.

Julian said:
[Vista HP, automatic updates on; last updates installed 3 Feb 08]

I really am tearing my hair out over this - sorry if the post is
long/confused and for the xposting - trying to give as much coherent info as
possible to aid resolution ASAP...

I don't know what's happening... and it's worse than I thought: key services
I wouldn't touch myself aren't running and I can't start them - it's not
just the iSCSI service that I spotted first, it is also the Event Log, Task
Scheduler... god knows that else!

Decided I would do a System Restore but the only restore point available is
this morning (9 Feb) and no further back I can't retore to a known good
point before the issue occurred. There's 20GB free on the System disk
(System Restore is enabled - there is ONE restore point!), so why only one
restore point available???

Please! How can I re-enable these services. The panic is due to the fact
that I am going away in 48 hours and can't access critical data!

The last system restart (prior to noticing the problem - after which I
restarted to check it wasn't just a passing problem...) occurred 8 Feb
following installaton of the Adobe Reader 8.1.2 update. Also on the 8th
Flash Player Plug in was installed along with Firefox 2.0.0.12 - these are
the only things I can think of that have changed since the last successful
access to the iSCSI disk... however on 3 Feb I did install VB Express 2008
(incl .NET Framework 3.5 and SQL Server 2005) but I don't remember whether
there was a restart afterwards, and on 6 Feb I installed TrueCrypt 5.0 ...
and since I can't access the event log either I can't check what happened.

Story: I am logged in with an Administrator account and applications etc.
seem to be elevating and being approved OK.

I've got a big NAS device with a 75GB iSCSI volume on it. I know that I
successfully accessed it on 7 Feb because there was a successful SyncToy
backup run then.

Today I can't access it and it seems the "Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service"
isn't running - startup type is Automatic, "Log On As" = Local System, but
status is blank. If I try to start it manually I get "Error 1717: The
interface is unknown".

So I thought I'd look in the event log to see what has been happening that
doesn't run either. Event Viewer: "Event Log service is unavailable Verify
that the service is running" - turns out it isn't. Windows Event Log Service
is type automatic, Local Service but not started - and if I try to start it
manually I get "Error 5: Access is denied". Tried running Services "As
Administrator" - no difference.

When I tried to access the Task Scheduler it said "Task Scheduler service
is not available" - but when I look in services this one IS started... and I
can access the Task Scheduler (even though it supposedly depends on the
Event Log)

I've looked at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943996/en-us ("Some services
do not start...") but I still don't know what to do.
 
J

Julian

Eventually restored the whole PC from an Acronis backup...

But if anyone knows how to restart the unstartable services this would be a
good place to record it for future reference!
 

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