I have just this minute repaired this particular problem on my system. Running XP home ed. 80gig HDD P4 and for the rest I'm sorry but that info is in my hubby's head.
Any way my first question is do you have a 2nd HDD on your system. If so turn the monitoring off and only monitor the C HDD. You can do this on the Restore system page. While your here make sure you have enough disk space for the Restore, you can do this by clicking on settings. If your Hard drive is more than 4 gig it should read 12% and the slider all the way to the right.
Then procede to turn off the RS.
Reboot then enable the System Restore again. I lay down a new manual restore point so that I had something to compare my system to not realising the system does that itself. Then try to restore now see how that goes.
If you only have one drive (C
(You need to be logged on as the Administrator to make some of these changes)
You need to firstly make sure the System Restore is enabled.
Click Start, click Run, and then type CMD press enter.
Then type Net Start.
This will tell you if you system services are all running ok.
Close down cmd. (Presuming everything is running OK - can't help if they are not because I really don't know too much about these things)
Make sure System restore is enabled on the C: you want System restore enabled while you do this.
Check event logs to investigate SR service errors:
Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Performance and Maintenance.
Click Administrative Tools, double click Computer Management, double click Event Viewer, and then click System.
Click the Source tab and then look for "sr or srservice". Highlight each file, right click, click on properties. This may help you with the source of your problem. In my case it didn't help but you never know.
Now you need to stop the service.
To open services, click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools and then double click Services.
Highlight the System Restore service, right click the service and click Stop.
Now go to the System Restore tab and turn it off. By the sounds of it you have done this step a few times so I wont bog you down with those details.
But before you turn of the SR, As before with the 2 HDD's select the drive your system is on (Presumably C
check for disc space you can check this by clicking on Settings. Again if HDD is more than 4 gig the setting should read 12% and the slider all the way over to the right. It is on this page you can permenantly turn of the extra drives if you have them. Click OK then turn of the SR for the one or all the drives.
Before going any further backup and run a registry cleanup tool of some sort. If you don't have one I can highly recommend RegScrubXP or even Norton Systemworks has a fairly good cleaner if you have that. (I,m only mentioning these as I use them myself and have found them very efficient.) This step may not be necessary, but just explaining all the steps I took.
Then do a reboot.
Reversing the proceedure above firstly turn back on or should I say restart the System Restore Services. Then turn your System Restore on monitoring only the one drive.
Lay down a new Restore Point, just so you may have something to compare it too. I waited for a wee while (checked my email etc.,) Then performed a restore. Imagine my surprise after 3 months of no restore facility IT WORKED.
Quite honestly I do not know what part of this process worked because in my case I DO have 2 HDD's 1x80gig & 1x60(data backup drive - my life saver) All I know is that my System Restore is funtioning 100%. I even reversed the restore just to be sure. So it could have been as easy a just turning of the monitoring of the D: who knows. I don't suppose I'll ever find out. Unless the SR fails me again. But then I'll know how to fix it.......LOL
I hope you can understand my instructional advice with some ease and I haven't left anything out. I have double checked and I don't think so.
My apologies for such a long winded explanation and any spelling mistakes. I sincerely hope I have been able to help you. All I know is it all worked for me.
Cheers and all the Best Both for Xmas, New Year and your computing.
Regards
Sally