Lost settings & system restore doesn't work

[pebso]

Hello

Whilst running System Mechanic 6 my notbook froze & could only be
restarted by removing then reconnecting the battery. When Windows
started my desktop had reverted to the Windows "bliss" desktop with none
of my icons & all the folders in my start menu are empty and all my
favourites have gone. The only way I can open anything is by using the
run command. All my System Restore Points are there however none of
them work.

System Mechanic, itself, has restore functions, however an analysis
suggests that the program has never been run & so no registry backups
have been made.

I suspect that I can create shotcuts for all my programs from explorer
but that wont get them back into the start menu.

Any ideas please?


Pebso

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Unfortunately, when System Restore does not work, you are out of luck with
that option. Unless you have a recent backup you will need to recreate the
Start Menu from scratch.

Before you do this, open Windows Explorer and look in the Documents and
Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs folder to make sure that the
shortcuts are indeed missing.

 

[pebso]

Unfortunately, when System Restore does not work, you are out of luck
with that option. Unless you have a recent backup you will need to
recreate the Start Menu from scratch.

Before you do this, open Windows Explorer and look in the Documents and
Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs folder to make sure that the
shortcuts are indeed missing.

Oh dear. The folders are all there but are empty.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

Try running System Restore in Safe Mode.

1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup to
start your computer in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with a command prompt.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account
that has administrator credentials.
3. In Safe Mode type or paste the following command in the Start - Run box
then press Enter.
In Safe Mode Command Prompt type the following command then press ENTER.

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer
to an earlier state, or undo the last restore if available.

All About System Restore in WinXP
http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

 

[pebso]

Hi,

Try running System Restore in Safe Mode.

1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup to
start your computer in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with a command prompt.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account
that has administrator credentials.
3. In Safe Mode type or paste the following command in the Start - Run box
then press Enter.
In Safe Mode Command Prompt type the following command then press ENTER.

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer
to an earlier state, or undo the last restore if available.

All About System Restore in WinXP
http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

Hi

Thanks for the advice.

On this occasion it didn't work; however I've made a note for the future.

Other things were wrong as well and as I have very few programs on the
laptop and all my data was backed up I decided to reinstall everything
from the rescue cd.

Pebso

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi

Thanks for the advice.

On this occasion it didn't work; however I've made a note for the future.

Other things were wrong as well and as I have very few programs on the laptop
and all my data was backed up I decided to reinstall everything from the
rescue cd.

Pebso

Hi Pebso

Thanks for the feedback Pebso. It's nice to see you had a backup. : - )
That's rare!