Re: System Restore problems

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Continuing the System Restore saga:

I ran the two scripts. They show the defaults: restore points are retained
for 90 days and automatic restore points are created every 24 hours, which
is happening.
There have been no "low disk space" messages.

As I said yesterday, the fact that a restore worked once since I reduced the
restore point space to 954 Mbytes, didn't prove that it is fixed.

Today I tried to restore to the restore point that I created and
successfully restored yesterday and I got the usual "Your computer cannot be
restored..." It also failed to restore to the automatic restore point that
was created yesterday. Note that there are only three restore points since I
reduced the memory and reset SR, so it isn't an "out of space" condition.

The recorded event is simply an information event "The system restore
service could not restore...". I tried the "more information" link in the
event description. It says that possible causes include a corrupted restore
point or an unknown problem. That's not very helpful :-( It also advised
trying it in safe mode.

I tried in safe mode and it failed again. I tried again in safe mode and
this time, I re-entered safe mode on the restart but it still failed.

I will go through all the documents that I collected from previous posts but
I think that the only thing left is to try reinstalling or reinstalling with
repair. My experience is that reinstalling is a last resort and generally
does not solve whatever the problem is.

Is there any other advice?

It seems to me that System Restore is one thing that ought to work all the
time. When a restore is really needed, finding out that System Restore can't
restore anything is pretty serious. My recollection is that these problems
began when I installed SP2. Do you know if Microsoft is working on the
reliability of System Restore?



"Bert Kinney" wrote:

> Sorry about that Martin, here you go.
> http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srscripts.html
>
> --
> Regards,
> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
> http://dts-l.org/
>
>
> Martin Sachs wrote:
> > Thanks again, Bert. I will try the information you
> > provided.
> >
> > You say:
> > On the following Scripts page, download and run the first
> > two scripts. The first script will show how often (in
> > hours) restore points are created. The default is 24
> > hours.
> > The second script will indicate how many days restore
> > points are retained. The default is 90 days.
> >
> > I don't see a l ink to the scripts page that you
> > mentioned.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Marty
> >
> > "Bert Kinney" wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Martin,
> >>
> >> Martin Sachs wrote:
> >>> Hi Bert,
> >>> Thank you very much for the document on system restore
> >>> failures. Here is what I have done:
> >>
> >> You're welcome.
> >>
> >> For troubleshooting disable monitoring of all drive
> >> except C:\ This is assuming Windows is installed on C:\
> >>
> >>> I checked the event log for sr and srservice. The only
> >>> things that are there since the beginning (Mar. 26) are
> >>> 9
> >>> of event ID=111, "restore point failed..." There is no
> >>> information about the cause of the failures. There are
> >>> also events for turning off and turning on system
> >>> restore.
> >>
> >> Keep an eye on these events every day to note any new
> >> errors.
> >>
> >>> I have McAfee internet suite and it scans regularly. I
> >>> have not seen an infection of any sort in the past two
> >>> years.
> >>>
> >>> I checked all the other points prior to "adjust the disk
> >>> space" and everything appears normal.
> >>>
> >>> I hve 2.9 Gbytes free and System Restore was using most
> >>> of it. I changed System Restore to use 954 Mbytes. This
> >>> is the only change that I made.
> >>
> >> If System Restore (SR) was using all of the free space
> >> that could be the problem. Have you ever received any
> >> low disk space messages pertaining to SR? Reducing the
> >> storage space may be the fix.
> >>
> >>> I purged the System Restore memory (turned it off,
> >>> restarted, turned it on).
> >>>
> >>> I created a "test" restore point and then successfully
> >>> restored to it.
> >>
> >> This is good. Keep an eye on SR to make sure automatic
> >> restore points are being created. By default one should
> >> be created every 24 hours as long as there is sufficient
> >> system idle time.
> >>
> >> On the following Scripts page, download and run the
> >> first two scripts. The first script will show how often
> >> (in hours) restore points are created. The default is 24
> >> hours.
> >> The second script will indicate how many days restore
> >> points are retained. The default is 90 days.
> >>
> >> You can also look at these troubleshooting step when
> >> automatic restore points fail to be created.
> >> http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srauto.html
> >>
> >>> I have previously sometimes purged the system restore
> >>> memory, following whichthe first attempt to restore to
> >>> the restore point following the purge worked but
> >>> subsequent attempts to restore the same restore point
> >>> failed, so I am not awfully confident that the problem
> >>> is really solved. I guess I will try the reinstall if it
> >>> fails again, and then the repair install.
> >>>
> >>> Any other advice will be appreciated.
> >>>
> >> --
> >> Regards,
> >> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
> >> http://dts-l.org/
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> "Bert Kinney" wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Hi Martin,
> >>>>
> >>>> Hi,
> >>>>
> >>>> Here are some troubleshooting tips for System Restore
> >>>> in Windows XP. Please post the event information from
> >>>> Event Viewer as suggested in the page below.
> >>>> System Restore Failures to restore:
> >>>> http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srfail.html
> >>>>
> >>>> Regards,
> >>>> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
> >>>> http://dts-l.org/
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Martin Sachs wrote:
> >>>>> I just tried doing a system restore in safe mode. I
> >>>>> got the usual result: "your computer cannot be
> >>>>> restored..."
> >>>>>
> >>>>> "Bob I" wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Humm, wondering if something on your PC doesn't like
> >>>>>> SP2. Will the restore work in Safe Mode?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Martin Sachs wrote:
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>> I redid the System Restore reset per Bob I's point,
> >>>>>>> with all steps in Administrator:
> >>>>>>> - Turned off System Restore
> >>>>>>> - I shut down and restarted
> >>>>>>> -Turned on System Restore
> >>>>>>> - It automatically created a system checkpoint
> >>>>>>> restore pont.
> >>>>>>> - I shut down and restarted.
> >>>>>>> - I waited 1.5 hours
> >>>>>>> - I asked System Restore to restore the system to
> >>>>>>> the restore point it had created when I turned it
> >>>>>>> on. - Result: "Your computer cannot be restored to
> >>>>>>> this restore point."
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> So, how do I get it to be able to use the restore
> >>>>>>> points it creates?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> "Bob I" wrote:
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> It's been my experience that IF changes are made to
> >>>>>>>> the system and the change produces no effect, then
> >>>>>>>> restarting the system will usually produce the
> >>>>>>>> desired result.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Martin Sachs wrote:
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Thank you, Bob I.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> I did not restart the computer between turn off
> >>>>>>>>> and turn on. The information in Help and Support
> >>>>>>>>> about turning System Restore off and on says
> >>>>>>>>> nothing about restarting. At the moment, System
> >>>>>>>>> Restore is on and there is only one restore
> >>>>>>>>> point, from last night. I assume that restore
> >>>>>>>>> point was created when I turned on System Restore.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> "Bob I" wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>> Are you restarting the computer between turn off,
> >>>>>>>>>> turn on?
> >>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>> Martin Sachs wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>> Every time I try to go back to a restore point,
> >>>>>>>>>>> I get a message that Windows cannot restore that
> >>>>>>>>>>> restore point. It cannot go back to ANY restore
> >>>>>>>>>>> point. I finally give up and turn System Restore
> >>>>>>>>>>> off, to clear out the old restore points, and
> >>>>>>>>>>> on. I have not successfully restored from a
> >>>>>>>>>>> restore point since I installed SP2.
> >>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>> Has anyone any suggestions?
>
>
>
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: System Restore problems
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