System restore Gone?

[DianneZ]

Hi there - I am running xp on a laptop. I have recently had SP3 installed
and then I reinstalled Office 2007 after difficulties with a corrupted
outlook 2007, and now my system restore is gone -I get a message that says
systeme restore is unavailable Restart your computer and try again.

That does not make restore available again. I read Bert Kinney's webpage
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/reinstall.html about reinstalling system restore.
Is this what I should do?

Thanks,
DianneZ

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Hi there - I am running xp on a laptop. I have recently had SP3
installed and then I reinstalled Office 2007 after difficulties
with a corrupted outlook 2007, and now my system restore is gone -I
get a message that says systeme restore is unavailable Restart your
computer and try again.

That does not make restore available again. I read Bert Kinney's
webpage http://bertk.mvps.org/html/reinstall.html about
reinstalling system restore. Is this what I should do?

It is a viable option, yes.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

What Shenan said.

What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)? Were any of these applications running
in the background when you installed SP3?

Has a(another) Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this
machine (e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought
it)?

 

[DianneZ]

I have current Norton Anti Virus and
had (but now uninstalled) SpyBot, AdAware, and CCleaner
windows firewall
a repair facility installed SP3 when they repaired my system
Running Windows XP professional Version 2002 Service Pack 3
Automatic updates are on
system restonre is set to max disk space to use

Thanks!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have current Norton Anti Virus and
had (but now uninstalled) SpyBot, AdAware, and CCleaner
windows firewall

Four points:

1. Norton Anti-virus interferes with System restore.

2. In my view (and that of a lot of others here), Norton Anti-virus is
the worst anti-virus program on the market.

3. Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware are not terrible, but these
days there are much better anti-spyware programs available. I highly
recommend that you instead use the freeware versions of MalwareBytes
AntiMalware and SuperAntiSpyware.

4. CCleaner is a good program as long as you do *not* use its registry
cleaning capability. Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil.
Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the
registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many
people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software try to
convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt
you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Read http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html

 

[smlunatick]

Four points:

1. Norton Anti-virus interferes with System restore.

2. In my view (and that of a lot of others here), Norton Anti-virus is
the worst anti-virus program on the market.

3. Spybot Search & Destroy and Adaware are not terrible, but these
days there are much better anti-spyware programs available. I highly
recommend that you instead use the freeware versions of MalwareBytes
AntiMalware and SuperAntiSpyware.

4. CCleaner is a good program as long as you do *not* use its registry
cleaning capability. Registry cleaning programs are *all* snake oil.
Cleaning of the registry isn't needed and is dangerous. Leave the
registry alone and don't use any registry cleaner. Despite what many
people think, and what vendors of registry cleaning software try to
convince you of, having unused registry entries doesn't really hurt
you.

The risk of a serious problem caused by a registry cleaner erroneously
removing an entry you need is far greater than any potential benefit
it may have.

Readhttp://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000643.html

That is it!! Norton blocks the System Restore because it interferes
with it product integrity. Norton products tend to haev a setting
which "protects" the program file . Usually by turning off the
"Norton Product Protection" will allow the System Restore to work as
it should. Check on Norton's knowledge base for how to do this
because THEY have extensive notes on how to use "System Restore."

 

[DianneZ]

Thanks so much for Pointing out that Norton might be contributing to the
problem
I have uninstalled Norton and replaced with AVG - scanning now. A
preliminary check still show System Restore unavailable- I will restart and
try again.

But the system is much nimbler! Wow! That is such a nice change!

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks so much for Pointing out that Norton might be contributing to the
problem
I have uninstalled Norton and replaced with AVG - scanning now. A
preliminary check still show System Restore unavailable- I will restart and
try again.

But the system is much nimbler! Wow! That is such a nice change!

You're welcome. Glad to help.

I have one more recommendation for you, though. Of the freeware
anti-virus programs, AVG isn't terrible (and is better than Norton),
but Avast is considerably better. I recommend that you change once
more.

Also regarding System Restore still not working: how did you uninstall
Norton? Unfortunately if you just uninstall it the normal way, large
pieces of it are still left. You need to go to the Symantec web site
and find the special instructions there to get rid of all of it.

 

[DianneZ]

Ken,
Thanks for the tip - I dowloaded Norton's complete uninstaller and it did
remove more files even after the uninstall that I had done.

System Restore is still unavailable. I restarted after the uninstaller ran.

I will switch to AVAST now that I know you recommend it in 2009

So much appreciated. By the way, I use CNET as a trusted source for
software recommendations and utility downloads - would you share what source
you trust? (Other than this group!)

Thanks,
Dianne

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken,
Thanks for the tip - I dowloaded Norton's complete uninstaller and it did
remove more files even after the uninstall that I had done.

Great!


System Restore is still unavailable. I restarted after the uninstaller ran.

Then sorry, I don't know what the problem is.

I will switch to AVAST now that I know you recommend it in 2009

I like Avast the best of the freeware choices. But if you are willing
to spend a little money, even better is NOD32.

So much appreciated. By the way, I use CNET as a trusted source for
software recommendations and utility downloads - would you share what source
you trust? (Other than this group!)

I think cnet is reasonably reliable, but I don't rely on any such
source for trusting. What I trust is based on a combination of my own
experience and recommendations from other people I trust.