Windows XP home won't do system restore.

[Guest]

It won't do disk clean up either, and runs very slow. Even opening or closing
a word document takes ages. On the occasions that Sys. restore operates, it
takes maybe 30 mins or more, then tells me it can't do the specified date.
Machine was shutting down before, but air dusting the processor etc cleared
that. Help appreciated.
Fujitsu Siemens AMILO D7820 notebook.

 

[DL]

Run an online scan, eg Symantec
Download update and run both Adaware and SpyBot

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi George,

Once System Restore goes bad, the only thing you can do is stop it and
restart it. Start/run services.msc, locate the SR service and doubleclick
it. Click the stop button, then set the startup type dropdown to disabled.
Click apply/ok, then reboot.

Then, check the "System Volume Information folder" on each drive (you may
need to set folder options/view tab to see hidden and system folders for
this) and delete any contents. Reverse the steps to restart it.

Be forewarned that doing this removes all existing restore points, but it
doesn't really matter as they weren't working anyways.

If this does not help, follow these steps to reinstall System Restore:

Go to the Control Panel/Folder Options/View tab, set it to "Show hidden
files and folders" and "Show the contents of system folders", then uncheck
"Hide protected operating system files [recommended]". Also uncheck "Hide
extensions for known file types".

Then, open Windows Explorer from Start/All Programs and go to the
C:\Windows\Inf folder. Locate the sr.inf file, right-click it and choose
install.

You may need to either insert your WinXP CD or know where your I386 folder
is located on the hard drive. You may also need to know where the
\ServicePackFiles folder is (usually under the Windows directory).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Terra Prime]

It won't do disk clean up either, and runs very slow. Even opening or
closing a word document takes ages. On the occasions that Sys.
restore operates, it takes maybe 30 mins or more, then tells me it
can't do the specified date. Machine was shutting down before, but
air dusting the processor etc cleared that. Help appreciated.
Fujitsu Siemens AMILO D7820 notebook.

Run virus and spyware scans in safe mode. Remove any thing detected by the
scanners.

--
Use these spyware scanners to erraticate your spyware problem:
*Make sure you check for spyware definition updates for all of these
scanners before using them.

Spybot Search & Destroy 1.4
http://www.safer-networking.org

Ad-Aware SE 1.06 Personal
http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Spyware Blaster 3.4
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Spy Sweeper 4.0.3 Build 405
http://www.webroot.com

XoftSpy 4.15
http://www.paretologic.com

CWShredder 2.15*
http://www.intermute.com/spysubtract/cwshredder_download.html

* = Use the standalone version of CWShredder.

 

[Guest]

Thanks all so far! Will report progress.

 

[Jim]

System restore does not work on my PC. NEw hard drive and
completely clean software restoration. There is no Adware
or Spyware or Viruses. I've run Adaware, Spybot and
Norton Anti-Virus full scan,. not to mention real time
protection Zone Alarm and Norton Anti Virus has been on since
before I went on line first time with the new hard drive..
System restore is on, but has NEVER succeeded in doing
a restoration. It always ends with "Your computer cannot be
restored...". Doesn't matter which or how many points I choose.
The only exception to this is I have twice tried immediately
after turning it off to delete old points and turning it on
to create a new system checkpoint. I've done that twice
and it worked each time. Whenever it fails I do turn it off
and then on again to delete the checkpoints, but
inevitably if I try it when there's been more than the
initial checkpoint, it won't work. I had a number of
occasions to do this over a couple days of reloading
software.

I used Norton GoBack for a while and it worked like
a charm, however the latest version causes the
computer to lock up when going into standby.

Any suggestions as to what the source of this problem
is? Is System Restore software notorious for its
failures.

 

[haugmichael]

Your problem is the norton antivirus program. Turn it off they try your
system restore.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Jim,

Here are some troubleshooting tips for System Restore in Windows XP.

Go to Start - Run and type eventvwr.msc and press enter.
Click on System in the left pane.
Click the gray title "Source" at the top of the source name column in the right pane to
sort by source name, look for "sr" and "srservice".
Double click on each of these events, then click on the button below the two arrows in the
upper right corner. This will copy the event information to the clipboard. Paste the
information for each of the two event here. This will help us in diagnosing the problem.
System Restore Failures to restore:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html
System Restore fails to create an automatic restore point:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srauto.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org

System restore does not work on my PC. NEw hard drive and
completely clean software restoration. There is no Adware
or Spyware or Viruses. I've run Adaware, Spybot and
Norton Anti-Virus full scan,. not to mention real time
protection Zone Alarm and Norton Anti Virus has been on
since before I went on line first time with the new hard
drive.. System restore is on, but has NEVER succeeded in
doing
a restoration. It always ends with "Your computer cannot
be restored...". Doesn't matter which or how many points
I choose. The only exception to this is I have twice
tried immediately after turning it off to delete old
points and turning it on
to create a new system checkpoint. I've done that twice
and it worked each time. Whenever it fails I do turn it
off and then on again to delete the checkpoints, but
inevitably if I try it when there's been more than the
initial checkpoint, it won't work. I had a number of
occasions to do this over a couple days of reloading
software.

I used Norton GoBack for a while and it worked like
a charm, however the latest version causes the
computer to lock up when going into standby.

Any suggestions as to what the source of this problem
is? Is System Restore software notorious for its
failures.

Hi George,

Once System Restore goes bad, the only thing you can do
is stop it and restart it. Start/run services.msc,
locate the SR service and doubleclick it. Click the stop
button, then set the startup type dropdown to disabled.
Click apply/ok, then reboot.

Then, check the "System Volume Information folder" on
each drive (you may need to set folder options/view tab
to see hidden and system folders for this) and delete
any contents. Reverse the steps to restart it.

Be forewarned that doing this removes all existing
restore points, but it doesn't really matter as they
weren't working anyways.

If this does not help, follow these steps to reinstall
System Restore:

Go to the Control Panel/Folder Options/View tab, set it
to "Show hidden files and folders" and "Show the
contents of system folders", then uncheck "Hide
protected operating system files [recommended]". Also
uncheck "Hide extensions for known file types".

Then, open Windows Explorer from Start/All Programs and
go to the C:\Windows\Inf folder. Locate the sr.inf file,
right-click it and choose install.

You may need to either insert your WinXP CD or know
where your I386 folder is located on the hard drive. You
may also need to know where the \ServicePackFiles folder
is (usually under the Windows directory).

 

[Jim]

The error event code was always 111 which was not very informative.

I went through everything on the first URL below and everything
checked out o.k., so I reinstalled it (after finding two viruses in
Panda's on line scan that Norton never found). It SEEMS to be
working. I was able to use it to undo an installation of the
recommended Avast 4 Home...after it hijacked my Firefox start page.

Hopefully...if I need it again it will work again.