System restore no longer working on XP.Is there anything I can do?

_Whimsical_

Recently I found that my windows restore is no longer working. When I press "restore to an earlier time" nothing happens. I can't create or view my recovery points either.

I've tried turning off restore but it says that it's encountered an error and cannot perform the task when I do.

I'm using XP SP2. Is there anything I can do?

JonathanAnon

Can you post the EXACT error that you get when it says that it "cannot perform the task"..

Are you sure that you have enough empty space on the hard drive to facilitate creating system restore points?

ricman

you may have run out of space,or the pc has a virus,which damaged the restore files.

_Whimsical_

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Can you post the EXACT error that you get when it says that it "cannot perform the task"..

Are you sure that you have enough empty space on the hard drive to facilitate creating system restore points?

Thank you both for the responses

I have 34GB free so I think I should be ok for space.

It doesn't give any error message. When I press "restore" nothing happens at all. When I try "create new restore point "System restore is unable to create a restore point.Please restart computer and run system restore again". I have done that several times and tried to use system restore in safe mode and have the same problem .

Ricman : I have tried several virus and spyware scanners and they report my computer is clean. Could a previous virus have done permanent damage?

JonathanAnon

Could you try upgrading to Service Pack 3 and see if that sorts it?

Also, why is System Restore such a big deal for you ?... You should be backing up your stuff anyway, yeah?

_Whimsical_

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Could you try upgrading to Service Pack 3 and see if that sorts it?

Also, why is System Restore such a big deal for you ?... You should be backing up your stuff anyway, yeah?

Yeah. I've no interest in restoring files etc. I've just found it's saved me after installs have gone askew etc in the past, I like to have a fallback.:)

Tried SP3. No joy and it also did not seem to like my laptop. It slowed it down a lot and wouldn't let me access "My Computer".

Any other suggestions?

JonathanAnon

That seems quick.. did you install it when I posted or you had it installed already?

Well, you know yourself that if the hard disk failed, or the PC got robbed, burnt etc your system restore is no good to you...

If "My Computer" wont open then it seems more like a virus issue... If it was me I would check MSConfig for items in startup that should not be there..

I would also update the virus scanner (which may not be possible if you have a pain-in-the-ass virus), then boot to safe mode and run a full scan.. it will run quicker in safe mode... What virus scanner are you using?

old_aussie

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Could you try upgrading to Service Pack 3 and see if that sorts it?

Also, why is System Restore such a big deal for you ?... You should be backing up your stuff anyway, yeah?

System restore does NOT restore your files, it's to restore a corrupt operating system to a previous working version.

practice

1 Have you tried to run system restore from safe mode.

2 Can you get to the properties of My Computer, Click on the system restore tab and is group policies mentioned anywhere.

3 Have you got Norton anti virus installed

bonzodog2

You might try turning off SysRestore and re-enabling it ?

_Whimsical_

JonathanAnon wrote: »

That seems quick.. did you install it when I posted or you had it installed already?

I had it done already but had to uninstall it as it did not like my laptop.

practice wrote: »

1 Have you tried to run system restore from safe mode.

2 Can you get to the properties of My Computer, Click on the system restore tab and is group policies mentioned anywhere.

3 Have you got Norton anti virus installed

1.I had tried to run iit in safe mode but have the same problem there.

2.I had a look at the system restore tab in properties and there's no mention of group policies at all there.

3.I am using Avast! rather than Norton.

Thanks for the help. Any other suggestions welcomed .

bonzodog2 wrote: »

You might try turning off SysRestore and re-enabling it ?

I have tried this too but it also won't work. When I try to disable it/turn it off in the system restore tab of My Computer it gives a message saying "System restore has encountered an error tryin to enable/disable drives. Please restart your computer and try again". I've tried and no luck.
Thanks for the help too.

I have done several scans using Avast! , Super Anti Spyware, MalwearBytes, Spybot and others. All of them come up clean.

practice

I would now try
1 Disable your anti virus, restart the computer and then try it.
2 From a command prompt run chkdsk /r on all your partitions.

Dont forget to re-enable anti virus