System Restore problems

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?
--
Marty Sachs

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?

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?

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?

In ,
Martin Sachs typed:

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.


Unfortunately sometimes System restore gets corrupted. The
solution which usually works is to turn off System Restore
(thereby deleting all the existing Restore Points), then turn it
back on again.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

In ,
Ken Blake typed:

In ,
Martin Sachs typed:

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.


Unfortunately sometimes System restore gets corrupted. The
solution which usually works is to turn off System Restore
(thereby deleting all the existing Restore Points), then turn
it
back on again.


My apologies. That's exactly what you said you did and it didn't
work. I misread your message, and thought you hadn't turned it
back on again.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

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?

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?

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?

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 resto
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?

Hi Bert,

Thank you very much for the document on system restore failures. Here is
what I have done:

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.

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 t he 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.

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.

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,
Martin Sachs



"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 resto
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?

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 resto
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?

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 resto
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?

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 resto
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?

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 resto
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?