System Restore WON'T !

[Sparky]

Any help is much appreciated. Pardon the long-winded explanation , but I've
trying to provide as much info as I can.

XP Home SP3 , up to date and virus free , AFAIK ?

FOOLISHLY I used a well-known Uninstaller program tonight to remove Firefox.
It said it would create a System Restore point , which it did.
All seemed to go well.
Then I tried to print a picture. The printer hung and error messages
regarding the Print Spooler. I opened the printer icon and saw the document
waiting , so I tried to cancel it.
Powered down , rebooted etc etc etc....next thing ALL the printers were gone
( I have 2 printers plus PDF printer etc ). The printers folder was empty.

That's when I decided to use System Restore. I tried to restore to the point
made by the uninstaller. After reboot , it said it couldn't apply the
restoration , no changes were made.
Tried earlier dates ....same thing. Unable to apply the restoration.

In the meantime , the printers' re-appeared' and seem to be working just
fine after a couple of reboots.

I then decided to turn off System Restore , remove all restore points and
try again. I successfully did that and created a fresh restore point. Waited
10 mins and created another , then tried to restore the first. Didn't
work...unable to restore...no changes were made.

I have confirmed that the System Restore Service is running.

I Googled and found SOME references to bad drivers etc , but everything in
System Properties appears to be fine and all printers are up and working
..Obviously something in SR is crunched...is there a way to reinstall or
repair ?

TIA

 

[SC Tom]

Any help is much appreciated. Pardon the long-winded explanation , but
I've trying to provide as much info as I can.

XP Home SP3 , up to date and virus free , AFAIK ?

FOOLISHLY I used a well-known Uninstaller program tonight to remove
Firefox. It said it would create a System Restore point , which it did.
All seemed to go well.
Then I tried to print a picture. The printer hung and error messages
regarding the Print Spooler. I opened the printer icon and saw the
document waiting , so I tried to cancel it.
Powered down , rebooted etc etc etc....next thing ALL the printers were
gone ( I have 2 printers plus PDF printer etc ). The printers folder was
empty.

That's when I decided to use System Restore. I tried to restore to the
point made by the uninstaller. After reboot , it said it couldn't apply
the restoration , no changes were made.
Tried earlier dates ....same thing. Unable to apply the restoration.

In the meantime , the printers' re-appeared' and seem to be working just
fine after a couple of reboots.

I then decided to turn off System Restore , remove all restore points and
try again. I successfully did that and created a fresh restore point.
Waited 10 mins and created another , then tried to restore the first.
Didn't work...unable to restore...no changes were made.

I have confirmed that the System Restore Service is running.

I Googled and found SOME references to bad drivers etc , but everything in
System Properties appears to be fine and all printers are up and working
.Obviously something in SR is crunched...is there a way to reinstall or
repair ?

TIA

You should have tried it in safe mode with any AV and/or firewall programs
turned off. If safe mode doesn't work, restoring in safe mode with command
prompt has always worked for me. Once it's up, type in
c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe and follow the prompts.

SC Tom

 

[db]

sometimes, when the file system
is becoming corrupted, you get
funny performance out of windows.

for example you uninstalled a program,
and basically it would be not big deal.

however, as a result of uninstalling a
program your computer has become
unstable.

it could be that the disk and file system
need to be tuned up.

if the disk and file system were unstable,
then your registry hive/files may also
have become unstable as well.

try running a chkdsk on your
file system for starters.

however, it would be better to run a
chkdsk /p from the recovery console,

that is if you have a winxp cd to boot
with and to engage the recovery console.
--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com

"share the nirvana mann" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Sparky]

You should have tried it in safe mode with any AV and/or firewall programs
turned off. If safe mode doesn't work, restoring in safe mode with command
prompt has always worked for me. Once it's up, type in
c:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe and follow the prompts.

SC Tom

Hi Tom

Thanks for the reply. I did a bit more research and found that it DOES work
in Safe Mode.
If that's so , it that ' good enough' ? Is this a ' common problem'? I
have a friend who had a similar situation , and his friendly computer repair
shop ended up selling him a new machine AFTER they'd reinstalled Windows and
it did it again !

Thanks

 

[Robert Lee]

I had the same problem. I fixed mine by opening Norton Antivirus and
unchecking the box that says "protect my Symantec product".

 

[db]

that's good to know.
thanks.

--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com

"share the nirvana mann" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Sparky]

I found references to Norton as well , but I use Zone Alarm Internet
Security without issue , up until now...

 

[SC Tom]

I use ZA Security Suite; that's why I figured that out. Also, before you
shut it down to do the restore, go into ZA Preferences and uncheck Load at
Startup. After the restore is complete, be sure to re-enable it.
Even though I turned it off, I've still had problems doing a System Restore
without being in one of the safe modes. I can't really blame that on ZA.
That's the only "problem" I've had with ZA. I've never regretted dumping
Norton years ago.

SC Tom

 

[Sparky]

Thanks Tom...I haven't tried unloading ZA , but I'll give it a go. It's
never been a problem before..
Is my Safe Mode restore , if it works , OK ? ...( just curious...)

 

[SC Tom]

Sure. It's the same restore no matter which method is used to perform it. As
long as it says it completed successfully, you should be, system-wise, back
to that point in time.

SC Tom

 

[Sparky]

Much appreciated...now I can 'rest easy' ...<G> except that my router died
today...but that's another boring story !

There's ALWAYS something

 

[SC Tom]

Ain't that the truth!

Much appreciated...now I can 'rest easy' ...<G> except that my router died
today...but that's another boring story !

There's ALWAYS something