Abbey--
What is your reason for wanting to use SR--because if we know it maybe we
can help you fix what you want to fix another way. Also Abbey do you have
a Vista DVD or can you get your hands on one--perhaps borrow one from
someone so you can use Startup Repair--even if you can startup because it
can fix many things in Vista?
The error message is usually not a fluke and this again all goes to what is
the reason you wanted to use SR--and did you fix or change that reason?
That would answer your question.
So... system restore runs, you get back up to Windows, and you get the
message that the restore wasn't complete but it doesn't tell you what the
"wasn't complete" actually means. My question there would be Abbey how are
things working anyway, and you restored for a reason--you wanted to fix
something or change something--did that fix or change get done regardless of
that "incomplete SR" message?
The reason I ask is because I'm familiar with that message from years of
newsgroups, but usually the whole message is that "system restore did not
complete **** [and] your computer's files and settings were not changed."
Is that your exact Message Abbey? One common thing that's always asked when
someone has that message is do you by some chance have Norton Antivirus
Running on your pc, because sometimes Norton AV will cause that to happen
although it's not common for it to do that.
I assumed you were using Vista. That wasn't what was hazy. What was hazy
from your first post was where you were running System Restore from, and
whether you could boot the first time you ran SR and not boot after you ran
it. We do get questions here about XP and it's faster to answer them than
to tell someone to go somewhere else for me. We also get questions about
every other software MSFT makes and every other 3rd party software and
hardware questions in here too, so the name Vista general--I'm not sure what
it's supposed to mean but even in the Vista Beta testers group the vast
majority of them couldn't post in the right place and there were over 60
different subspecialty groups.
If someone has a Vista DVD, they have more options to fix Vista, because
Startup Repair is available at the Recovery Link by putting in the DVD and
booting from it, and there is a system restore option there as well in a
repair environment that is new with Vista called "WinRE" for Windows
Recovery Environment. The Win RE team lables its Startup Repair as a place
to fix Vista no boots, but it is much more than that--it can also fix
significantly broken components of Vista when you can boot. Why they don't
recognize that on their websites is beyond me. I've written them about it
more than once.
One point I like to stress for people to maximize their options to fix a no
boot Vista is that sometimes you can run system restore by getting "in the
door to do it" (that's a metaphor) by going to one safe mode where you can't
get in at another safe mode location. By that I mean that there is safe
mode at the Recovery Link on the DVD. So your chances are best if you can't
make system restore work at one safe mode location, to try every other safe
mode location--because one might work when the others don't. They are:
Safe Mode from the DVD's Recovery Link
Safe Mode by Tapping F8 and using that Menu
Safe Mode from Command Prompt by Tapping F8 and using that Menu
Safe Mode with Networking (i.e. you can browse in safe mode) by Tapping F8
and using that Menu
Last Known Good Configurtation is also at the F8 menu and it can be tried
All of these are explained and links to them are in my previous post.
Last Known Good is a snapshot of the last time you were able to do a stable
boot, and it works rarely, but when it does you've scored. The distinction
between using a restore point and last known good, is say you haven't
rebooted your computer for two weeks (some people don't rebooot that often
unless they have to and I'm one of them) then LKG is going back to the last
time you did. So changes you've made since aren't going to be preserved.
In my experience using system restore an awful lot of times, SR may or may
not preserve short cuts since the restore point, but it often does. You do
not lose data with SR because it doesn't track data in either XP or Vista.
However, if you can't boot and get to your data and SR works, you have saved
your data.
Answer my questions about the DVD and your reasons for using SR and answer
your own question as to whether SR fixed whatever Abbey wanted to fix and we
can help you better.
CH
abbey said:
Sorry for my lack of details..
I mentioned Vista...I don't know why. That's the OS I'm using but duh, I
guess I'd be posting elsewhere if I didn't. Anyway..
I ran system restore from "regular" windows environment and once from Safe
Mode. Each time I thought it was complete because the machine restarted
and
put me at my login screen. AFTER I log in, and the desktop is restored, a
message comes up about the restore being incomplete.
Another oddity - the system restore I did from Safe Mode doesn't show up
in
the list of operations. The other one I did (that supposedly didn't
finish)
is there. Is there a way to check to see if it really did "restore" and
perhaps the error message i some fluke?
Thanks-Abbey
