System Restore doesn't work

[Don Culp]

Yesterday I created a restore point before installing Norton Ghost. Ghost
did not work properly so I uninstalled it today. For good measure I also
want to restore to the previous restore point (before Ghost). However, the
restore calendar does not show any restore points for yesterday. There is
only one restore point on the calendar (for today), which XP apparently
created on its own after I uninstalled Norton Ghost. How can I get back to
the restore point before the installation of Ghost?

Also, the back button on the restore calendar doesn't have any effect. Does
this mean that no restore points were ever created? (In System
Properties\System Restore the "Turn off system restore for all drives" is
not checked.)

XP Pro, SP2

Thanks,
Don Culp

 

[Guest]

Well if its working now,create a restore point and leave it at that...If it
doesnt
work,turn off restore,restart pc,back in xp,turn on restore,create a restore
point...Also,if youre simply trying to "ghost" a hd,use xps XCOPY.........

 

[Don Culp]

Andrew --

I want to revert to the restore point that I established before installing
Ghost, since Symantec (Ghost's creator) has a reputation of not fully
uninstalling its software, even though the uninstall appears to have worked
OK. This can cause unexpected problems later. That's why I originally
established the restore point. However, somehow XP doesn't seem to have
remembered that particular restore point.

Where are the restore points stored (hard drive, registry)? What would be a
typical name? If I find them how can I activate the desired restore point?

Thanks,
Don Culp

 

[Yves Leclerc]

It is known that most Symantec product can "break" System Restore. You need
to make sure that the Norton software "Protect Norton software..." feature is
turned off.

If you want to clean up Norton installs, you should check on Symantec's web
site and download the enhanced removal tool.

 

[Don Culp]

Yves --

Where is the "Protect Norton software..." feature?

Do you know the address of the enhanced removal tool? (I couldn't find
it by searching their site.)

Thanks,
Don Culp

 

[Rock]

Yesterday I created a restore point before installing Norton Ghost. Ghost
did not work properly so I uninstalled it today. For good measure I also
want to restore to the previous restore point (before Ghost). However, the
restore calendar does not show any restore points for yesterday. There is
only one restore point on the calendar (for today), which XP apparently
created on its own after I uninstalled Norton Ghost. How can I get back to
the restore point before the installation of Ghost?

Also, the back button on the restore calendar doesn't have any effect.
Does
this mean that no restore points were ever created? (In System
Properties\System Restore the "Turn off system restore for all drives" is
not checked.)

XP Pro, SP2

Once something messes with SR, there is usually no way to fix it other than
turn off SR, then turn it back on again which will delete all past restore
points. It appears though that the install of Norton Ghost did that for
you. See this link for info on system restore.

http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

System restore points are stored in the hidden folder, System Volume
Information. See this article for how to get access to that folder. Even
if there are restore points in there, the odds of being able to recover
their use is small.

How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531/en-us

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Don,

Try running System Restore in safe mode first.

1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup to
start your computer in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with a command prompt.
2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account
that has administrator credentials.
3. In Safe Mode type or paste the following command in the Start - Run box
then press Enter. In Safe Mode Command Prompt type the following command then
press ENTER.

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer
to an earlier state, or undo the last restore if available.