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From: LRESA500 on 30 Jan 2010 17:17
About 9 years ago or so I used System Restore often with 98 and Me.
Since I started using XP years ago System Restore has never worked. I
always get the message that my computer cannot be restored to the date
I picked. I rarely try to use it any more but I'm curious as to why it
never works.
Thanks
From: GTS on 31 Jan 2010 13:34
System Restore didn't exist in Windows 98. It was first introduced in ME.
You don't give enough information for a substantive answer. Why are you
running system restore? To fix what kind of problem? If it has never
worked the restore repository might have some long standing corruption.
Turn off system restore to clear it and then reenabe to start clean.
--

<LRESA500(a)aol.com> wrote in message
news:03e17c96-7add-42da-82fb-10317ad76361(a)3g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
> About 9 years ago or so I used System Restore often with 98 and Me.
> Since I started using XP years ago System Restore has never worked. I
> always get the message that my computer cannot be restored to the date
> I picked. I rarely try to use it any more but I'm curious as to why it
> never works.
> Thanks

From: James D. Andrews on 31 Jan 2010 16:10

<LRESA500(a)aol.com> wrote in message
news:03e17c96-7add-42da-82fb-10317ad76361(a)3g2000yqn.googlegroups.com...
> About 9 years ago or so I used System Restore often with 98 and Me.
> Since I started using XP years ago System Restore has never worked. I
> always get the message that my computer cannot be restored to the date
> I picked. I rarely try to use it any more but I'm curious as to why it
> never works.
> Thanks


Check to see how much disk space is devoted to System Restore. Once you
exceed the capacity set, it will go no further. You can change the setting.



--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: news(a)netfront.net ---
From: Paul on 1 Feb 2010 12:45
LRESA500(a)aol.com wrote:
> About 9 years ago or so I used System Restore often with 98 and Me.
> Since I started using XP years ago System Restore has never worked. I
> always get the message that my computer cannot be restored to the date
> I picked. I rarely try to use it any more but I'm curious as to why it
> never works.
> Thanks

If you turn off System Restore and then turn it on again, the System Volume Information
folder on the disk is cleaned out. If there is corruption, that should allow
proper restore points to be created. You could force the creation of a
restore point after that, manually, then try using the restore point to
see whether it works or not. That is a faster way to test it, than waiting
a day for one of the automatic restore points to be created.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_restore

The description in the Wikipedia article, says that VSS or Volume Shadow
Service helps the System Restore to do its job. If you've damaged your
VSS setup, that might be enough to break it. In Device Manager hidden
devices, there might be something there for VSS, and deleting it might
harm the ability for VSS to work. VSS might also be listed in Services.
If you're one of those people who is perpetually "tidying up their OS"
by deleting things, and turning off stuff, that might be why things
are broke.

It is also possible that Malware could be responsible for the state
of System Restore. Malware would not normally want to damage System
Restore. Malware likes System Restore, because the malware writers can
sneak copies of their malware into the System Restore files for later.
Then if a user doesn't like the "Antivirus 2010" popups on their
screen, and the user attempts to use System Restore to remove the
cruft, the old restore point also has a copy of the malware. So in
general, malware likes SR for all the creative things they can do with
it. Make sure your AV/malware tools are up to date and that you've scanned
the machine recently for problems. For example, a tool like MBAM
can recognize some of these things.

One other thing to note, is how System Restore treats your file system.
If you keep all your downloads in "My Documents" (the Microsoft "blessed"
place for user data files), then System Restore won't touch them or
back them up. That means, if you go back to a restore point of a month
ago, you won't lose 30 days worth of downloaded content.

If (like me), you store your downloads somewhere else, it is possible
System Restore will monitor for changes. For example, if I were to
go back 30 days right now, with SR, I'd lose 30 days worth of downloads,
because my downloads aren't stored in the right place. I learned this
the hard way, by discovering stuff was missing after I'd used SR.
Fortunately, I could go forward in time again, and undo what just
happened. (If I waited another month to correct the situation, it
would have been too late.)

So be careful and learn as to which directories are covered by SR and
which are not. And make sure you understand the consequences of having
a folder (or a disk) being watched by SR. I keep SR turned off on
every partition except C:. That is about as good as I can adjust it
for my purposes.

You can see in the above, that SR cannot be trusted, as an escape from
a malware infection. If you're got Antivirus 2010 popups on your screen,
and you go to one of the malware removal forums, the first thing they
tell you, is to turn off SR. So SR is useless as a protection against
malware. It is a good option, for accidental damage, such as downloading
a MS update and needing to reverse it. But there are still software
operations, where SR is not considered a way to correct a situation.
For example, if you install IE8 upgrade, don't try to undo the installation
by using SR. You would instead, use the IE8 uninstaller, to go back to
a previous version of the browser. So again, there are specific instances
of things you should *not* attempt to fix with SR. Another might be
the installation of a Service Pack. Don't try to reverse that with SR.

It means the proper use of SR, requires advice from an expert, such as
you might find in microsoft.public.windowsxp.general . SR is not
an "all purpose hammer" or a "replacement for backups". It should be
used with discretion. Having backups, is a much safer way of protecting
your machine. Especially if the backup is to some removable media or
to a hard drive in an external enclosure. With the backup media removed
from the machine, there are better chances it might survive whatever
calamity befalls you.

HTH,
Paul
From: two wheelbarrows on 9 Feb 2010 14:17
On 31/01/2010 18:34, GTS wrote:
> System Restore didn't exist in Windows 98


scanreg /restore did

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