System Restore will not restore

Brian Thomas wrote:

I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it cant be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches or updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

Sometimes system restore gets out of sorts. When that happens the only
thing you can do is turn off system restore then turn it back on. You
will loose all previous restore points. To turn it off right click My
Computer, choose Properties, System Restore and put a tick mark in Turn
off System restore.

Brian Thomas wrote:

I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it
cant be restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any
patches or updates for system restore or anyother help you might be
able to give.

System Restore can be very helpful, but unfortunately when it stops
working the only thing you can do is disable it and then enable it. My
understanding is that a reboot between the disabling/enabling isn't
necessary, but it couldn't hurt. Disable System Restore from the System
Restore tab in the System applet in Control Panel.

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and in my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a computer gone
bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost. System restore can become
corrupt at the drop of the hat, but it can be a useful tool if it works the
way it's supposed to, and a pain if it isn't doing what you want it to.
Since you cannot restore your pc to an earlier date, you can turn it off,
reboot, then turn it back on again. This will remove ALL past restore
points, but since you can't access them, it's no big loss. Then, turn it
back on, it should have repaired itself...then, create a new restore point.
There are no patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it cant
be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches or
updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

The reason im asking this question is that i want to clean up my system
without losing everything i have on it. If i trun it on and off again i will
have only today as my starting point. I have a dell puter how would i
reformatt everything. I seem to not be able to get my MP3's to burn on to a
CDROM with the burn software i have. I have a 700 mb cd but not nearly that
many bytes of MP3 space. I would appreciate any help in this matter.

"lvee" wrote:

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and in my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a computer gone
bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost. System restore can become
corrupt at the drop of the hat, but it can be a useful tool if it works the
way it's supposed to, and a pain if it isn't doing what you want it to.
Since you cannot restore your pc to an earlier date, you can turn it off,
reboot, then turn it back on again. This will remove ALL past restore
points, but since you can't access them, it's no big loss. Then, turn it
back on, it should have repaired itself...then, create a new restore point.
There are no patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it cant
be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches or
updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

Well, if you reformat, you will lose everything unless you do a backup of
some sort, or save your personal doc's, etc to a cd or floppy. System
restore really only corrects damaged or corrupt registries. By turning off
SR, you are not cleaning your computer, you are not losing any data, you
are only removing past...and for you, inaccessible restore points. System
restore can work to restore your pc to an earlier state to a point, but it
doesn't not format, or reformat your computer.
If you are trying to gain hard disk space, there are a few things you can
do.
1. disk clean up
2. by turning off, then turning back on your system restore, you can gain
quite a lot of disk space back.
3. download & install EasyCleaner 2.0 One of it's options is to delete
unnecessary files....you could have thousands.
4. empty your temp files & folders...which will also delete
passwords/login names for site that you have 'set to remember me' , such as
newsgroups...no big deal, you just have to login again.
5. defrag...some say it helps, others say it does not make that much of a
difference. I think it should be done.

You might also want to check your cdrom knowledge base to see if there is
something there that will indicate why you can't burn cd's. What, if any,
are the error messages you get when you try to burn a cd?

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
The reason im asking this question is that i want to clean up my system
without losing everything i have on it. If i trun it on and off again i
will
have only today as my starting point. I have a dell puter how would i
reformatt everything. I seem to not be able to get my MP3's to burn on to
a
CDROM with the burn software i have. I have a 700 mb cd but not nearly
that
many bytes of MP3 space. I would appreciate any help in this matter.

"lvee" wrote:

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and in my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a computer
gone
bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost. System restore can
become
corrupt at the drop of the hat, but it can be a useful tool if it works
the
way it's supposed to, and a pain if it isn't doing what you want it to.
Since you cannot restore your pc to an earlier date, you can turn it
off,
reboot, then turn it back on again. This will remove ALL past restore
points, but since you can't access them, it's no big loss. Then, turn
it
back on, it should have repaired itself...then, create a new restore
point.
There are no patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it
cant
be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches or
updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

i guess what i am saying i want to try to restore my puter back to the way it
was about a month ago

"lvee" wrote:

Well, if you reformat, you will lose everything unless you do a backup of
some sort, or save your personal doc's, etc to a cd or floppy. System
restore really only corrects damaged or corrupt registries. By turning off
SR, you are not cleaning your computer, you are not losing any data, you
are only removing past...and for you, inaccessible restore points. System
restore can work to restore your pc to an earlier state to a point, but it
doesn't not format, or reformat your computer.
If you are trying to gain hard disk space, there are a few things you can
do.
1. disk clean up
2. by turning off, then turning back on your system restore, you can gain
quite a lot of disk space back.
3. download & install EasyCleaner 2.0 One of it's options is to delete
unnecessary files....you could have thousands.
4. empty your temp files & folders...which will also delete
passwords/login names for site that you have 'set to remember me' , such as
newsgroups...no big deal, you just have to login again.
5. defrag...some say it helps, others say it does not make that much of a
difference. I think it should be done.

You might also want to check your cdrom knowledge base to see if there is
something there that will indicate why you can't burn cd's. What, if any,
are the error messages you get when you try to burn a cd?

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
The reason im asking this question is that i want to clean up my system
without losing everything i have on it. If i trun it on and off again i
will
have only today as my starting point. I have a dell puter how would i
reformatt everything. I seem to not be able to get my MP3's to burn on to
a
CDROM with the burn software i have. I have a 700 mb cd but not nearly
that
many bytes of MP3 space. I would appreciate any help in this matter.

"lvee" wrote:

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and in my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a computer
gone
bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost. System restore can
become
corrupt at the drop of the hat, but it can be a useful tool if it works
the
way it's supposed to, and a pain if it isn't doing what you want it to.
Since you cannot restore your pc to an earlier date, you can turn it
off,
reboot, then turn it back on again. This will remove ALL past restore
points, but since you can't access them, it's no big loss. Then, turn
it
back on, it should have repaired itself...then, create a new restore
point.
There are no patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it
cant
be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches or
updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

Well, system restore is not working, so that option is out. If system
restore is not working, you cannot restore it to a day ago, a month a ago,
or three months ago. Restore is not the same as repairing. Some options are,
complete reformat, reinstall, repair, or in-place-upgrade, all having
different consequences. Read the entire articles carefully, and print them
before you begin. Click on any links in the articles that may pertain to
your needs, and read those articles as well.

This, from The Elder Geek, is an article about a clean install, not to be
confused with a repair, or in-place-upgrade.
http://www.theeldergeek.com/clean_in...windows_xp.htm

This, from Microsoft, is the reinstall ( in-place-upgrade/ repair) Read
everything carefully.
http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=k...d=1173&sid=182


"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
i guess what i am saying i want to try to restore my puter back to the way
it
was about a month ago

"lvee" wrote:

Well, if you reformat, you will lose everything unless you do a backup
of
some sort, or save your personal doc's, etc to a cd or floppy. System
restore really only corrects damaged or corrupt registries. By turning
off
SR, you are not cleaning your computer, you are not losing any data,
you
are only removing past...and for you, inaccessible restore points.
System
restore can work to restore your pc to an earlier state to a point, but
it
doesn't not format, or reformat your computer.
If you are trying to gain hard disk space, there are a few things you
can
do.
1. disk clean up
2. by turning off, then turning back on your system restore, you can
gain
quite a lot of disk space back.
3. download & install EasyCleaner 2.0 One of it's options is to
delete
unnecessary files....you could have thousands.
4. empty your temp files & folders...which will also delete
passwords/login names for site that you have 'set to remember me' , such
as
newsgroups...no big deal, you just have to login again.
5. defrag...some say it helps, others say it does not make that much
of a
difference. I think it should be done.

You might also want to check your cdrom knowledge base to see if there
is
something there that will indicate why you can't burn cd's. What, if
any,
are the error messages you get when you try to burn a cd?

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
The reason im asking this question is that i want to clean up my
system
without losing everything i have on it. If i trun it on and off again
i
will
have only today as my starting point. I have a dell puter how would i
reformatt everything. I seem to not be able to get my MP3's to burn on
to
a
CDROM with the burn software i have. I have a 700 mb cd but not nearly
that
many bytes of MP3 space. I would appreciate any help in this matter.

"lvee" wrote:

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and in
my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a
computer
gone
bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost. System restore can
become
corrupt at the drop of the hat, but it can be a useful tool if it
works
the
way it's supposed to, and a pain if it isn't doing what you want it
to.
Since you cannot restore your pc to an earlier date, you can turn it
off,
reboot, then turn it back on again. This will remove ALL past
restore
points, but since you can't access them, it's no big loss. Then,
turn
it
back on, it should have repaired itself...then, create a new restore
point.
There are no patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days
and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that
it
cant
be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches
or
updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

Brian Thomas wrote:

i guess what i am saying i want to try to restore my puter back to the way it
was about a month ago

Well if System Restore will not work - and it would be the tool to use,
but that is about the limit of sensible time for it - you are left with
a 'Repair reinstall'. Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard disk, then
boot the XP CD, start Setup (do not take 'Repair' at this stage), then
after the license agreement take 'Repair Installation'. This will
retain your existing software installations and most settings. But
Updates will have to be run again, and I would have Sp2 available on CD
to run immediately

A major reason IMHO for trouble with System restore is having too much
space allowed for its files, this defaults to 12% of a drive - which
can easily be 10GB on a recent large drive, and seems to let it get
itself tangled. I suggest setting it down to not more than 1GB


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

In ,
lvee typed:

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and
in my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a
computer gone bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost.


You are comparing apples and oranges here. System Restore is not
meant as a complete backup solution and shouldn't be compared to
backup software. System Restore backs up the system only, and
does *nothing* to back up your data, which should be the primary
objective of all backup software.

So it's not a matter of preference. Yes, by all means use the
backup software of your choice, but also keep System Restore in
place as a quick way to get you out of trouble if you need to
revert the operating system to a previous state.


System restore can become corrupt at the drop of the hat,


I disagree with the phrase "at the drop of the hat."
Unfortunately, although it should never happen, it occasionally
does. But it's rare.

but it can
be a useful tool if it works the way it's supposed to, and a
pain if
it isn't doing what you want it to.


Yes and yes.

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


Since you cannot restore your pc
to an earlier date, you can turn it off, reboot, then turn it
back on
again. This will remove ALL past restore points, but since you
can't
access them, it's no big loss. Then, turn it back on, it
should
have repaired itself...then, create a new restore point. There
are no
patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in
message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45
days
and everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime
saying that
it cant be restored back to that point. I was wandering is
there any
patches or updates for system restore or anyother help you
might be
able to give.

i couldn't figure out how to post a new question, so here it is, i need to do
a system restore but the calender won't let me choose a date prior to when my
problems started. if i turn it off and reboot it says all restore points will
be lost. how do i get a restore point back to say a week ago??

"Brian Thomas" wrote:

I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that it cant be
restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any patches or updates
for system restore or anyother help you might be able to give.

mickie wrote:

i couldn't figure out how to post a new question, so here it is, i
need to do a system restore but the calender won't let me choose a
date prior to when my problems started. if i turn it off and reboot it
says all restore points will be lost. how do i get a restore point
back to say a week ago??

"Brian Thomas" wrote:

I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days
and everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime saying that
it cant be restored back to that point. I was wandering is there any
patches or updates for system restore or anyother help you might be
able to give.

We've already answered your question. The answer is no, once System
Restore has developed a problem, you should just disable it (losing all
former restore points) and enable it again.

The reason you are having a hard time finding your posts and all that is
because you are using the web interface to this newsgroup, which is
arguably the worst way to access this resource. Here is information to
help you use newsgroups better:

Since you are using the web interface, you may not realize that this is
really a newsgroup. You will get far more out of this resource if you
learn to use a newsreader. There are many good newsreaders for Windows,
but you can use Outlook Express since you already have it. Here are
some links to information about newsgroups to broaden your posting
pleasure!

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page3.html#12-09-02 - a brief
explanation of newsgroups
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outloo...snewreader.htm
http://rickrogers.org/setupoe.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/default...to/default.asp
- Set Up Newsreader
http://support.microsoft.com/default...to/default.asp
(enter url on one line in browser addressbar)
http://aumha.org/nntp.htm - list of MS newsgroups
microsoft.public.test.here - MS group to test if your newsreader is
working properly

newsreaders
http://www.forteinc.com/agent/index.php - for Forte
http://www.mozilla.org
http://gravity.tbates.org/

http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Malke
--
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

"Ken Blake" wrote in message
...
In ,
lvee typed:

There is much debate about the stability of System Restore, and
in my
opinion, should not be relied upon to be used as a cure for a
computer gone bad...I prefer either NTBackup, or Norton Ghost.


You are comparing apples and oranges here. System Restore is not
meant as a complete backup solution and shouldn't be compared to
backup software. System Restore backs up the system only, and
does *nothing* to back up your data, which should be the primary
objective of all backup software.

That's, in a round-about way, is what I meant to say, as I stated in an
earlier post in this topic, that it's used to repair your pc when the
registry has a glitch, and as far as comparing to other softwares, you are
correct..however, too many people think that doing system restore IS the
same as backing up data, they don't understand the difference..thinking
system restore is the cure-all, so in my haste to offer help to the poster,
I decided to not go into great detail about the differences. I was merely
trying to reinforce that system restore was really no longer an option, and
that the NTbackup, or Ghost, were good choices to for backing up a system,
once it's in good working order.

So it's not a matter of preference. Yes, by all means use the
backup software of your choice, but also keep System Restore in
place as a quick way to get you out of trouble if you need to
revert the operating system to a previous state.

I was speaking of Ghost, or NTbackup as a preference for backup
utilities, not really factoring in system restore as a choice, or
preference. I agree that system restore has it's use, and I do have mine
enabled, however, I don't rely on it.


System restore can become corrupt at the drop of the hat,


I disagree with the phrase "at the drop of the hat."
Unfortunately, although it should never happen, it occasionally
does. But it's rare.

I have been suprised at the number of people I have come accross in the last
several weeks that have problems with system restore, and perhaps I
exagerated a bit when refering to the 'drop of a hat', but I don't think
it's all that rare. While checking some articles for possible causes, I
came accross at least 5 articles that had information about what can cause
system restore to not function as it should.
but it can
be a useful tool if it works the way it's supposed to, and a
pain if
it isn't doing what you want it to.


Yes and yes.

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


Since you cannot restore your pc
to an earlier date, you can turn it off, reboot, then turn it
back on
again. This will remove ALL past restore points, but since you
can't
access them, it's no big loss. Then, turn it back on, it
should
have repaired itself...then, create a new restore point. There
are no
patches, or updates for system restore, sorry to say.

"Brian Thomas" wrote in
message
...
I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45
days
and everywhere in between there. It comes back everytime
saying that
it cant be restored back to that point. I was wandering is
there any
patches or updates for system restore or anyother help you
might be
able to give.

"Alex Nichol" wrote in message
...
Brian Thomas wrote:

i guess what i am saying i want to try to restore my puter back to the
way it
was about a month ago

Well if System Restore will not work - and it would be the tool to use,
but that is about the limit of sensible time for it - you are left with
a 'Repair reinstall'. Set the BIOS to boot CD before Hard disk, then
boot the XP CD, start Setup (do not take 'Repair' at this stage), then
after the license agreement take 'Repair Installation'. This will
retain your existing software installations and most settings. But
Updates will have to be run again, and I would have Sp2 available on CD
to run immediately


Good choice, I forgot about this one...


A major reason IMHO for trouble with System restore is having too much
space allowed for its files, this defaults to 12% of a drive - which
can easily be 10GB on a recent large drive, and seems to let it get
itself tangled. I suggest setting it down to not more than 1GB


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

On Thu, 9 Dec 2004 16:53:01 -0800, Brian Thomas
wrote:

I have tried to restore my puter going all the way back to 45 days and
everywhere in between there.

I haven't used my putter in almost a year. I decided to test it and
went over to a local putting green - it worked fine.....

Oh sorry, you meant COMputer. Please, say that. This isn't a chat
room, chat-boy, and we are only talking about asking you to type three
more characters.

lvee wrote:

I was speaking of Ghost, or NTbackup as a preference for backup
utilities, not really factoring in system restore as a choice, or
preference. I agree that system restore has it's use, and I do have mine
enabled, however, I don't rely on it.

Regard those as complementary, to serve entirely different purposes.
Nice use of SR is when you install a piece of software as a trial, and
decide in say 2 weeks to uninstall it. SR will then ensure that
everything about it has gone, and that things like File Associations are
put back as they were.


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)