System Restore will not restore.

Hello

XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.

One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled away.
I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting and changing
the size of HD available for SR and a number of other suggestion in forums
that specialize in advice for members.

I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and having
failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this programme but it
appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of Symantec Go-Back were
not encouraging.

Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to work
again.

Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an alternative
that is available and does the same job effectively as I rely totally on my
computer for communications (I have a severe hearing disability) and would
be at a serious loss if it failed. At my age a complete re-install of XP
would be a daunting experience.

At present I am using regedit to take a daily snapshot of the registry.

TIA

Jumbo

--
Silver Surfer

One suggestion is to try the Repair Install option on the Windows XP CD.
Here is one link on it:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Jumbo wrote:
> Hello
>
> XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.
>
> One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
> uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled
> away.
> I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting and changing
> the size of HD available for SR and a number of other suggestion in forums
> that specialize in advice for members.
>
> I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and having
> failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this programme but it
> appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of Symantec Go-Back were
> not encouraging.
>
> Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to work
> again.
>
> Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an alternative
> that is available and does the same job effectively as I rely totally on
> my
> computer for communications (I have a severe hearing disability) and would
> be at a serious loss if it failed. At my age a complete re-install of XP
> would be a daunting experience.
>
> At present I am using regedit to take a daily snapshot of the registry.
>
> TIA
>
> Jumbo
>
> --
> Silver Surfer

"Jumbo" <jumbo@dreamland.net> wrote

> Hello
>
> XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.
>
> One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
> uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled
> away. I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting and
> changing the size of HD available for SR and a number of other suggestion
> in forums that specialize in advice for members.
>
> I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and having
> failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this programme but it
> appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of Symantec Go-Back were
> not encouraging.
>
> Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to work
> again.
>
> Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an alternative
> that is available and does the same job effectively as I rely totally on
> my computer for communications (I have a severe hearing disability) and
> would be at a serious loss if it failed. At my age a complete re-install
> of XP would be a daunting experience.
>
> At present I am using regedit to take a daily snapshot of the registry.
>
> TIA
>
> Jumbo
>
> --
> Silver Surfer


If you haven't otherwise done so take a look at "Restoration Fails" section
of Bert Kinney's System Restore Page at: http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

Aside from the System Restore problem, I suggest you look at using drive
imaging software to regularly image the drives to an external USB drive.
This creates a compressed file with an exact duplicate of the data on the
drive which can subsequently be restored. I use Acronis True Image which
has worked well in both XP and Vista. It can image on a drive or partition
basis, and also does file backup. Restores can be done on a file, folder,
partition or drive basis. It also does disk cloning.

I alternate between two external hard drives, doing a full image once a week
and an incremental image each night.

With drive imaging, if something causes a problem you cannot otherwise
resolve, restore the most recent working image and you're back in business.

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...Maago daRrHhA


--
Rock [MS-MVP]

"Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> wrote in message
news:%23WvlUYUmIHA.4664@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> "Jumbo" <jumbo@dreamland.net> wrote
>
>> Hello
>>
>> XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.
>>
>> One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
>> uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled
>> away. I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting and
>> changing the size of HD available for SR and a number of other suggestion
>> in forums that specialize in advice for members.
>>
>> I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and
>> having failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this programme
>> but it appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of Symantec
>> Go-Back were not encouraging.
>>
>> Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to
>> work again.
>>
>> Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an alternative
>> that is available and does the same job effectively as I rely totally on
>> my computer for communications (I have a severe hearing disability) and
>> would be at a serious loss if it failed. At my age a complete re-install
>> of XP would be a daunting experience.
>>
>> At present I am using regedit to take a daily snapshot of the registry.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Jumbo
>>
>> --
>> Silver Surfer
>
>
> If you haven't otherwise done so take a look at "Restoration Fails"
> section of Bert Kinney's System Restore Page at:
> http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html
>
> Aside from the System Restore problem, I suggest you look at using drive
> imaging software to regularly image the drives to an external USB drive.
> This creates a compressed file with an exact duplicate of the data on the
> drive which can subsequently be restored. I use Acronis True Image which
> has worked well in both XP and Vista. It can image on a drive or
> partition basis, and also does file backup. Restores can be done on a
> file, folder, partition or drive basis. It also does disk cloning.
>
> I alternate between two external hard drives, doing a full image once a
> week and an incremental image each night.
>
> With drive imaging, if something causes a problem you cannot otherwise
> resolve, restore the most recent working image and you're back in
> business.
>
> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...Maago daRrHhA
>
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP]

Thank you for these suggestions.


Jumbo

Jumbo wrote:
> Hello
>
> XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.
>
> One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
> uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled
> away. I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting
> and changing the size of HD available for SR and a number of other
> suggestion in forums that specialize in advice for members.
>
> I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and
> having failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this
> programme but it appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of
> Symantec Go-Back were not encouraging.
>
> Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to
> work again.
>
> Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an
> alternative that is available and does the same job effectively as I
> rely totally on my computer for communications (I have a severe
> hearing disability) and would be at a serious loss if it failed. At
> my age a complete re-install of XP would be a daunting experience.

I've only been messing with XP for about six weeks but my experiences thus
far don't give me a lot of confidence in system restore so here is what I
did...

1. Install XP again on another drive. Just XP, not programs. I used a
physical drive I had handy but it could have been to a partition on C:

2. Doing #1 should give you a "dual boot" set up allowing you to boot from
either drive. (I say "should" rather than "will" because I also have Win98
installed and in that case the second XP install *is* added to the already
existing boot menu)

3. Once you have two XP installs you can do either or both of two things...
A. Create an image of your main XP drive and stash it somewhere safe.
If the main XP drive goes south you can boot from the secondary drive and
restore the image to the main drive.
B. Copy the main drive to the secondary drive. If the main XP drive
goes south you can boot from the secondary drive and either copy it back to
the main drive or just continue to use it as your main drive and use the
former main drive as your backup (copying to it from time to time).

Someone mentioned Acronis True Image. Another for your consideration is
Paragon Disk Manager. Costs no more and is pretty much the Swiss army knife
of programs of this type. Easy to use too.
http://www.paragon-software.com/hdm/

Another program is DriveImageXML. It is not as versatile as Paragon but you
can create/restore logical drives or copy them. Works well and is free.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

dadiOH wrote:

> 1. Install XP again on another drive. Just XP, not programs. I used
> a physical drive I had handy but it could have been to a partition on
> C:

Or on any other physical drive.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

"dadiOH" <dadiOH@invalid.com> wrote in message
news:%23LtNtsWmIHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> dadiOH wrote:
>
>> 1. Install XP again on another drive. Just XP, not programs. I used
>> a physical drive I had handy but it could have been to a partition on
>> C:
>
> Or on any other physical drive.
>
> --
>
> dadiOH
> ____________________________
>
> dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
> ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
> LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
> Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
>
>
>

Thank you dadiOH

Jumbo

Have you tried going to the system restore page, click System Restore
Settings under Welcome to System Restore. Tick the box Turn off System
Restore on all drives. Click - Apply and OK.
You now have no System restore whatsoever. Switch the PC off for about 30
seconds and reboot. Repeat the same procedure but turn on System Restore on
all drives by unticking the box. By doing so, System Restore has created a
fresh restore point from when you clicked Apply and OK for the second time!
Wait a few minutes and then try a restore - if it doesn't work you've
buggered it completely!! - RAH

"Jumbo" wrote:

> Hello
>
> XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.
>
> One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
> uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled away.
> I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting and changing
> the size of HD available for SR and a number of other suggestion in forums
> that specialize in advice for members.
>
> I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and having
> failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this programme but it
> appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of Symantec Go-Back were
> not encouraging.
>
> Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to work
> again.
>
> Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an alternative
> that is available and does the same job effectively as I rely totally on my
> computer for communications (I have a severe hearing disability) and would
> be at a serious loss if it failed. At my age a complete re-install of XP
> would be a daunting experience.
>
> At present I am using regedit to take a daily snapshot of the registry.
>
> TIA
>
> Jumbo
>
> --
> Silver Surfer
>
>
>

Here is your answer...No need to do a repair or any of the other stuff. From
experience this works.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/e...d-0c0600b24389

"Jumbo" wrote:

>
> "dadiOH" <dadiOH@invalid.com> wrote in message
> news:%23LtNtsWmIHA.1204@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> > dadiOH wrote:
> >
> >> 1. Install XP again on another drive. Just XP, not programs. I used
> >> a physical drive I had handy but it could have been to a partition on
> >> C:
> >
> > Or on any other physical drive.
> >
> > --
> >
> > dadiOH
> > ____________________________
> >
> > dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
> > ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
> > LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
> > Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
> >
> >
> >
>
> Thank you dadiOH
>
> Jumbo
>
>
>

"Andrew" <Andrew@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:8EF38116-10CE-4BF2-B8CF-F52D49E5CEBF@microsoft.com...
> Have you tried going to the system restore page, click System Restore
> Settings under Welcome to System Restore. Tick the box Turn off System
> Restore on all drives. Click - Apply and OK.
> You now have no System restore whatsoever. Switch the PC off for about 30
> seconds and reboot. Repeat the same procedure but turn on System Restore
> on
> all drives by unticking the box. By doing so, System Restore has created a
> fresh restore point from when you clicked Apply and OK for the second
> time!
> Wait a few minutes and then try a restore - if it doesn't work you've
> buggered it completely!! - RAH
>
> "Jumbo" wrote:
>
>> Hello
>>
>> XP Home +SP2 and all patches except those coming today.
>>
>> One day last week System Restore decided not to restore any more. I
>> uninstalled everything added for the previous 3 days and then googled
>> away.
>> I found MVP advice on resetting SR by switching off rebooting and
>> changing
>> the size of HD available for SR and a number of other suggestion in
>> forums
>> that specialize in advice for members.
>>
>> I found references from people who have tried to get SR to work and
>> having
>> failed installed FirstDefense-ISR. I searched for this programme but it
>> appears to have been withdrawn from sale. Reports of Symantec Go-Back
>> were
>> not encouraging.
>>
>> Microsoft offer a number of suggestions but I was unable to get SR to
>> work
>> again.
>>
>> Please advise if there is a workaround for this problem or an alternative
>> that is available and does the same job effectively as I rely totally on
>> my
>> computer for communications (I have a severe hearing disability) and
>> would
>> be at a serious loss if it failed. At my age a complete re-install of XP
>> would be a daunting experience.
>>
>> At present I am using regedit to take a daily snapshot of the registry.
>>
>> TIA
>>
>> Jumbo
>>
>> --
>> Silver Surfer
>>
>>
>>

Thank you Andrew I'll give it a try.

Jumbo