View Full Version : No system restore
Tried several times last night to use System Restore by following the menu and clicking on a recent restore point highlighted in bold. However, each time, the sytem says it is unable to restore to any of these recent restore points - any ideas out there?
WeatherJinx
2nd Apr 2006, 17:30
27mm
I'm no major expert on Windows, but this happened recently to a friend of mine, whom I help out with things computing/network-related from time to time. After some consultation with more knowledgeable WinFolk, we agreed the best thing to do for her was a system reinstall, as this is a fairly 'significant 'failure.
It worked well for us. Good luck with it and maybe someone might have better advice than me.. ;)
Jx
Saab Dastard
2nd Apr 2006, 18:35
A couple of thoughts -
Only Adminstrators can perform system restore.
Also, Antivirus utilities can affect whether your system can be restored to a previous point.
If a restore point contains an infected file because the utility is not set to clean the file within the restore point, or if an infected file has been removed from a restore point by an antivirus utility because it could not be cleaned, System Restore will not recover the computer to this partial or infected state. If System Restore could not restore your computer to a previous state, and you suspect that one or more restore points contain infected files or have had infected files removed by the antivirus utility, you can remove all restore points from the System Restore archive by turning off System Restore and then turning it back on.
Why not hit F8 while booting up --> choose Last Known Good Gonfiguration?
bjkeates
4th Apr 2006, 14:34
System Restore is, in my experience, a waste of space. Every time I've tried it, it has only partially restored (giving me a sort of hybrid of two restore points) or not worked at all as you described.
If your computer is playing up enough to warrant the use of System Restore, the best thing do to is back up as much data as possible and start again with your hard drive. As an extra tip, if you only have one hard drive, when reformatting it might be worth considering partitioning your hard drive if you haven't already; use the primary partition for programs and OS files, and your other one for important work, documents, personal stuff etc... that way, if your OS corrupts and you need to reinstall, you can get away with having only one hard drive and not losing loads of important stuff.
(If you're already doing this, I don't mean to insult your intelligence by suggesting it - there are people far more qualified to talk about this sort of stuff than me, but it's just a helpful hint to anyone who may not already be doing it!)