System Restore will not run - help

  • Thread starter Thread starter BTInternet
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BTInternet

When I try to run System restore I either get the message: "System restore
cannot run please re-boot and run again" (needless to say rebooting does not
solve the problem) or "System Restore Application has encountered a problem
and needs to close".

I have tried running it in Safe mode with the same result.

I have also tried to access System Restore settings through the Control
Panel and it crashes there also with the following message: An exception
occured while trying to run "shell32.dll,Contol_RunDLL
"C:\WINDOWS\System32\sysdm.cpl,System"

I haven't used System Restore for some time so don't know when it died. XP
seems to working ok otherwise. A few strange happenings in the Task Bar but
probably not related.

Any ideas what's causing this? Or how I can restore functionality if files
they have become corrupted?

Thanks John I
 
Make sure SYSTEM RESTORE is on. Go to My
Computer,Properties,System Restore and check the box.
The drives it is monitoring will show it the box below.
 
Hi

One or more of the System Restore files may have become corrupted for some reason.

Try this:

Right click on My Computer, select Properties and then the System Restore tab. Enable 'Turn off System Restore on all drives' and then reboot. After the reboot go back into SR and uncheck 'Turn off...' - reboot. You will then have just one System Restore Point with all existing ones deleted.

Any problems, please post back.
 
Thanks for the comment but as I posted before the Tab for System Restore in
Control Panel also crashes when opened as well - so I cannot access any
controls to switch system restore on or off. One additional info is that I
Ghosted to this drive and had to change the drive letter manually to make it
boot. I believe this may have confused System Restore. Any ideas what to do
if the the drive references are wrong and causing it to crash?
Regards John I

Hi

One or more of the System Restore files may have become corrupted for some
reason.

Try this:

Right click on My Computer, select Properties and then the System Restore
tab. Enable 'Turn off System Restore on all drives' and then reboot. After
the reboot go back into SR and uncheck 'Turn off...' - reboot. You will
then have just one System Restore Point with all existing ones deleted.

Any problems, please post back.
 
Hi

The 'additional info' is very relevant. A Ghosted version of XP could very well 'confuse' SR - more than likely all the SR points are gone. Have a look in the Windows\Inf folder for sr.inf, right click on it and select Install.
 
Hope this helps others!!

I think I have found and resolved the System Restore problem. The Windows C:
drive was created from a Ghost of the original because I suspected
(correctly) the condition of the original drive and needed to get it
replaced. Initially I had difficulty getting the replacement drive to boot
once the suspect drive was removed. However I fixed this by re-assigning the
drive letters.

I suspect the drive letter re-assignment confused System Restore causing it
to crash.

So I found the System Restore "inf" file - right clicked and then selected
"install" effectively re-installing System Restore. Followed this through
with reboot and System Restore now works again.

This experience may be of value to others.

Regards John I
 
I'm not sure if this is relevant, but here's my recent experience with
System Restore.

I wanted to install a new hard disk as my system disk. I first installed it
as an additional disk (E). I used a utility called DiscWizard to copy
everything from my system disk (C) to the new disk (E). Then I swapped the
disks round, making the new disk my system disk.

After swapping the disks, System Restore wouldn't work. Eventually I
realized that it was confused about which was the system disk. Where the
monitored disks are listed in the System Restore tab of My Computer, disk E
was listed _before_ disk C. The solution was to "turn off System Restore on
all drives" and then turn it back on again. After doing this, everything
worked correctly, and disk E was listed _after_ disk C. In the process, I
lost all my old restore points.

I hope that's of some use to someone.

Richard Wein.
 
Thanks for sharing this information; it is relevant and useful for anyone
who is changing or re-assigning drive letters. SR assigns a guid for each
drive letter, to ensure change logs and file copies are applied to the
appropriate sources during restore, and removeable drives are correctly
restored (if other than the system drive).

GUID synchronization is required for System Drive restore for consistancy
purposes (SR wont undo changes to one disk, tracked on another). Richard
your right = the only way to resynch SR is to disable/re-enable, if your
going to change the system drive label, either before or after.
thnks-Bobbie Harder
PM, System Restore
 
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