system restore trashes system

[Simon]

I've had a major system problem and recovered, but I don't understand
why it happened. Anyone else had this problem?
I used system restore on a Dell laptop (I've done this before with no
problems). When the system rebooted I got the dreaded message 'Windows
XP could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt.....' I booted to the Recovery Console to relace the corrupted?
system files from the Windows\Repair folder only to find ALL the system
files in C:\windows\system32\config folder had gone! I recovered using
the repair files and did a system restore using an older file set. Same
thing again, all the files had been removed and not replaced by System
Restore.
I managed from Recovery Console to get to a set of files in System
Volume Information\..\snapshot folder and rename and copy them to
\config. Everything started sweetly. I put this down to experience and
don't use system restore now.
This morning I did a system restore on another machine (Mesh desktop 4
months old) .... exactly the same thing occurred. System files missing
from the system32\config folder.
What is doing this? Both machines are running XP Professional with SP2.
Both have had all the latest updates and hotfixes from MS Auto Update.
But that is all they have in common, one is running Office 2000 and the
other Office 2002. The exception is that both are running a free copy
of Genie Backup Manager PE 6.0, which runs a program called File Access
Manager in the system tray. I can only think it is this or a recent MS
update that is causing the problem. Everything else seems to run
correctly so I don't think it is a registry corruption.
Anyone have any ideas or similar experiences?
Thanks

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

What was the exact error message received?

 

[Simon]

The message on booting was 'Windows
XP could not start because the following file is missing or
corrupt: \Windows\System32\Config\system'. Browsing to the folder using
Restore Console all the reg files were missing: system, software,
security, default, sam. Although the *.SAV and *.LOG files were still
there. It seems System Restore deleted the reg but then stopped before
replacing from the System Volume Info. I am stuck as to why this should
have happened on two machines about six weeks apart. One other point
just noticed, both machines show a failure to install XP Office SP3 in
the Automatic Update history. Any connection?
Thanks for your response.