System Restore Utility not working

C

Clif McIrvin

(Is this the correct newsgroup?)

XP Pro SP3

The system restore utility refuses to create a restore point. The last
automatic (daily) restore point was last Thursday, and if I attempt to
initiate a manual restore point I get a message "Unable to create
restore point. Please Shutdown and try again." (approximate wording.)

I discovered this after attempting to restore to a previous restore
point without success. When I attempt to return to a previous restore
point the wizard proceeds through each step as expected until the screen
which says "need to gather information about the selected restore point.
This may take a few minutes" ... this step "never" completes. [Well, I
havn't simply walked away from the computer and given it 30 minutes ...
but I have waited several minutes, with no apparent disc activity.]

Last Friday evening I launched the restore to a previous point process,
then locked the computer because I was late for a meeting. I was in
such a hurry I did not verify that I was past all the user prompts
before I locked the computer. I have a scheduled shutdown (5 hours
later) ... I suspect from the beavior I'm seeing today that I managed to
interrupt the system restore process with that scheduled shutdown.

I have done several shutdown / restart sequences with no visible effect;
I have also attempted to run system restore from safe mode.

What steps do I take from here?
 
D

Daave

Clif said:
(Is this the correct newsgroup?)

XP Pro SP3

The system restore utility refuses to create a restore point. The last
automatic (daily) restore point was last Thursday, and if I attempt to
initiate a manual restore point I get a message "Unable to create
restore point. Please Shutdown and try again." (approximate wording.)

I discovered this after attempting to restore to a previous restore
point without success. When I attempt to return to a previous restore
point the wizard proceeds through each step as expected until the
screen which says "need to gather information about the selected
restore point. This may take a few minutes" ... this step "never"
completes. [Well, I havn't simply walked away from the computer and
given it 30 minutes ... but I have waited several minutes, with no
apparent disc activity.]
Last Friday evening I launched the restore to a previous point
process, then locked the computer because I was late for a meeting. I
was in such a hurry I did not verify that I was past all the user
prompts before I locked the computer. I have a scheduled shutdown (5
hours later) ... I suspect from the beavior I'm seeing today that I
managed to interrupt the system restore process with that scheduled
shutdown.
I have done several shutdown / restart sequences with no visible
effect; I have also attempted to run system restore from safe mode.

What steps do I take from here?

Required reading:

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html
 
A

Anna

Clif said:
(Is this the correct newsgroup?)

XP Pro SP3

The system restore utility refuses to create a restore point. The last
automatic (daily) restore point was last Thursday, and if I attempt to
initiate a manual restore point I get a message "Unable to create
restore point. Please Shutdown and try again." (approximate wording.)

I discovered this after attempting to restore to a previous restore
point without success. When I attempt to return to a previous restore
point the wizard proceeds through each step as expected until the
screen which says "need to gather information about the selected
restore point. This may take a few minutes" ... this step "never"
completes. [Well, I havn't simply walked away from the computer and
given it 30 minutes ... but I have waited several minutes, with no
apparent disc activity.]
Last Friday evening I launched the restore to a previous point
process, then locked the computer because I was late for a meeting. I was
in such a hurry I did not verify that I was past all the user
prompts before I locked the computer. I have a scheduled shutdown (5
hours later) ... I suspect from the beavior I'm seeing today that I
managed to interrupt the system restore process with that scheduled
shutdown.
I have done several shutdown / restart sequences with no visible
effect; I have also attempted to run system restore from safe mode.

What steps do I take from here?


Daave said:


Clif:
Not sure if the following is also contained in Bert Kinney's site mentioned
above by Daave, so it case it isn't and a reinstall of the SR application is
appropriate in this case, see also...
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairsr.htm

Reinstalling System Restore...
1. Click Start, Run and type %Windir%\INF
2. Locate the SR.INF file. The file may be shown as SR, if you have
configured Windows Explorer to hide known file extensions. To see the file
extensions for all file types, then try this:
a. On the Tools menu in My Computer, click Folder Options.
b. Click the View tab.
c. Clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box.
3. Right-click the SR.INF file, and then click Install
4. Windows will now attempt to reinstall System Restore, and may prompt you
for the Windows installation source path. Point to %Windir%\ServicePackFiles
folder, or insert your slipstreamed Windows XP (matching the Service Pack
level of your system.)
5. System Restore core files will be reinstalled. Restart Windows when
prompted.
Anna
 
C

Clif McIrvin

Thanks to both of you for the info.

I'm working my way through Bert Kinney's information now ...

--
Clif

Anna said:
Clif said:
(Is this the correct newsgroup?)

XP Pro SP3

The system restore utility refuses to create a restore point. The
last
automatic (daily) restore point was last Thursday, and if I attempt
to
initiate a manual restore point I get a message "Unable to create
restore point. Please Shutdown and try again." (approximate
wording.)

I discovered this after attempting to restore to a previous restore
point without success. When I attempt to return to a previous
restore
point the wizard proceeds through each step as expected until the
screen which says "need to gather information about the selected
restore point. This may take a few minutes" ... this step "never"
completes. [Well, I havn't simply walked away from the computer and
given it 30 minutes ... but I have waited several minutes, with no
apparent disc activity.]
Last Friday evening I launched the restore to a previous point
process, then locked the computer because I was late for a meeting.
I was in such a hurry I did not verify that I was past all the user
prompts before I locked the computer. I have a scheduled shutdown (5
hours later) ... I suspect from the beavior I'm seeing today that I
managed to interrupt the system restore process with that scheduled
shutdown.
I have done several shutdown / restart sequences with no visible
effect; I have also attempted to run system restore from safe mode.

What steps do I take from here?


Daave said:


Clif:
Not sure if the following is also contained in Bert Kinney's site
mentioned above by Daave, so it case it isn't and a reinstall of the
SR application is appropriate in this case, see also...
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairsr.htm

Reinstalling System Restore...
1. Click Start, Run and type %Windir%\INF
2. Locate the SR.INF file. The file may be shown as SR, if you have
configured Windows Explorer to hide known file extensions. To see the
file extensions for all file types, then try this:
a. On the Tools menu in My Computer, click Folder Options.
b. Click the View tab.
c. Clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box.
3. Right-click the SR.INF file, and then click Install
4. Windows will now attempt to reinstall System Restore, and may
prompt you for the Windows installation source path. Point to
%Windir%\ServicePackFiles folder, or insert your slipstreamed Windows
XP (matching the Service Pack level of your system.)
5. System Restore core files will be reinstalled. Restart Windows
when prompted.
Anna
 
C

Clif McIrvin

Status Update:

I came to the conclusion that I had gotten some virus. My AVG was
scanning daily but finding nothing; my Webroot Spy Sweeper was shut
down, unable to see the admin server. The sysmptoms I was seeing
include:
-- IE7 would start up in a hidden instance and launch an audio ad
(sounded like a video, but being hidden I never saw it.)
-- web searches would be hi-jacked to other search engines
-- if IE was open in a hidden instance, launching a shortcut to a web
page would open an additional tab to http: // www . fulldotfind . com /
pubac / ac . php?id= <snip>
with
http: // xml . click9 . com / feed . php ?aid=<snip>
on the page.

I ran several online scans with mixed results:

Bit Defender stalled during the definition update phase and wouldn't
cancel.
Kaspersky would hang about 3 minutes into a "Critical Area" scan (99%
CPU, but nothing happening.)
F-Secure ran and reported AdWare cookies; but failed to complete the
Clean phase.
Trend Micro Housecall would stall during the initial setup / download --
both ActiveX and Java Engines.
Symantec ran and reported no threats.

My next step was to restore the system state as saved by NTBackup ...
this actually worked (I was afraid it wouldn't because system restore
was broken.) During login after the reboot at the end of the successful
restore AVG reported 3 Windows\System32 dlls infected with CRYPTO (I
should have written the name down -- I assumed I'd be able to get it
from the log later. Bad Assumption.) AVG didn't want to quarentine those
files, it said they were critical system files -- but the recommended
heal seems to have worked.

Now Spy Sweeper can see the admin server.

I need to re-install the Windows Updates that I installed *after* my
last good backup [that sequence will be improved after this
experinece!]; and I think I'm back up and running with a clean machine
again.

Thanks again for the help!

--
Clif

Clif McIrvin said:
Thanks to both of you for the info.

I'm working my way through Bert Kinney's information now ...

--
Clif

Anna said:
Clif McIrvin wrote:
(Is this the correct newsgroup?)

XP Pro SP3

The system restore utility refuses to create a restore point. The
last
automatic (daily) restore point was last Thursday, and if I attempt
to
initiate a manual restore point I get a message "Unable to create
restore point. Please Shutdown and try again." (approximate
wording.)

I discovered this after attempting to restore to a previous restore
point without success. When I attempt to return to a previous
restore
point the wizard proceeds through each step as expected until the
screen which says "need to gather information about the selected
restore point. This may take a few minutes" ... this step "never"
completes. [Well, I havn't simply walked away from the computer and
given it 30 minutes ... but I have waited several minutes, with no
apparent disc activity.]
Last Friday evening I launched the restore to a previous point
process, then locked the computer because I was late for a meeting.
I was in such a hurry I did not verify that I was past all the user
prompts before I locked the computer. I have a scheduled shutdown
(5
hours later) ... I suspect from the beavior I'm seeing today that I
managed to interrupt the system restore process with that scheduled
shutdown.
I have done several shutdown / restart sequences with no visible
effect; I have also attempted to run system restore from safe mode.

What steps do I take from here?


Daave said:


Clif:
Not sure if the following is also contained in Bert Kinney's site
mentioned above by Daave, so it case it isn't and a reinstall of the
SR application is appropriate in this case, see also...
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairsr.htm

Reinstalling System Restore...
1. Click Start, Run and type %Windir%\INF
2. Locate the SR.INF file. The file may be shown as SR, if you have
configured Windows Explorer to hide known file extensions. To see the
file extensions for all file types, then try this:
a. On the Tools menu in My Computer, click Folder Options.
b. Click the View tab.
c. Clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box.
3. Right-click the SR.INF file, and then click Install
4. Windows will now attempt to reinstall System Restore, and may
prompt you for the Windows installation source path. Point to
%Windir%\ServicePackFiles folder, or insert your slipstreamed Windows
XP (matching the Service Pack level of your system.)
5. System Restore core files will be reinstalled. Restart Windows
when prompted.
Anna
 

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