System Restore Message

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Attempted to use system restore both in Normal & Safe Mode…..went back several restore points, but no success. System Restore has given me trouble once before and was only able to run in Safe Mode.

The message window that comes up says: “System restore failed to extract the original copy of the directory from the restore point.Source%system root%registration. Destination: ComPlusStaging.

Can someone help me with this. I certainly would like to be able to use system restore, but am not sure how to fix it, or if it’s even fixable.

I have Win7 Home Premium 64 bit; Avast, SuperAntiSpyware, Anti-MalwareBytes and Ad-Aware and PCToolsFirewall. Thanks.

Diane

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You do not state what specifically you are trying to use System Restore to fix.

Other threads have discussed system restore in detail. Bottom line, System Restore is a very basic restore utility that will only work on system files. It does nothing for non-system files. It works sometimes, but I have found it disappoints more than delights. Most of the problems we encounter are not related to system files, but to those apps we use our PCes for. System Restore will do nothing for these problems. To really “save your bacon” so to speak look at Imaging. Imaging makes a snapshot of your partition or disk at the time of Image. The only caveat is that your Image must be kept up to date to restore your PC to it’s state before the problem occured. For much info on Imaging look at Security and Back ups.

Most advocate disabling all Security apps during installation and restore operations. These Security apps can cause problems during these operations.

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I was trying to revert a video driver back to an older less finicky version.

I thought, and maybe mistakenly, that’s what system restore was for. I do have a backup on an external drive which is a couple of weeks old, but no full image of my system. Thanks for your answer.

D.

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Unfortunately System Restore only works with system files and I do not believe a finicky device driver is considered a system file. For that file you may be able to go to the PC manufacturer site. Many have drivers listed. if not go to the board manufacturer site. They also often have more than just the latest driver listed.

In the case of video drivers especially, if it works don’t update. Graphics drivers seem to cause more problems than any other drivers. One word of caution, be sure the bitness (32 Bit or 64 Bit) is the same as the bitness of your OS. This is important for device drivers.

You may be able to rollback this driver through Device Manager (control panel, device manager). Good luck.

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Diane, if you want to roll back a device driver such as the video driver, go to Device Manager, and expand Display Adapters, right click on your display adapter, and select Properties. Click the Driver tab, and click the Roll Back Driver button.

Hopefully, this will restore your previous driver.

Oops, I only just now noticed after posting that Ted had already made this suggestion. Sorry about the redundancy.

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System Restore will roll back drivers. Unlike Ted, I do find system restore useful and less of a hassle than Image backup and restore for recovery from system issues. I’ve had a very high success rate in using it to quickly fix friends and family computers. He is right in that it doesn’t recover user and program data. You need a regular back up program for that,

If System Restore isn’t working, make sure the System Restore service is running. (Start orb, run, services.msc), If it is, try turning off System Restore and turning it back on. You will lose all System Restore points doing this but it should start functioning properly.
You can find a good System Restore FAQ at:
http://www.5starsupport.com/faq/vista-system-restore.htm

Jerry

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System Restore will roll back drivers. Unlike Ted, I do find system restore useful and less of a hassle than Image backup and restore for recovery from system issues. I’ve had a very high success rate in using it to quickly fix friends and family computers. He is right in that it doesn’t recover user and program data. You need a regular back up program for that,

If System Restore isn’t working, make sure the System Restore service is running. (Start orb, run, services.msc), If it is, try turning off System Restore and turning it back on. You will lose all System Restore points doing this but it should start functioning properly.
You can find a good System Restore FAQ at:
http://www.5starsupport.com/faq/vista-system-restore.htm

Jerry

Jerry, Thanks.

Thanks for the FAQ reference. I am going there now. My restore points aren’t working, so my next step was going to be to turn off System Restore and turn it back on. I will make sure the service is running as you suggest.

Appreciate your help and from the rest of the folks here.

Diane

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Even if you do get System Restore working again, you will not have any restore points to restore to. Device Manager may be your best shot to get your graphics driver back to a previous state. I also do try System Restore on occasion when I fudge things up, but as previously stated even though System Restore may get your system files back, in my experience when I screw up while playing with my OS, it’s not just system files I screw up, and in this case, in about 15 minutes I can be back where I started using an Image. All system files and users files , apps and data are back. System Restore will do nothing to get my user files, apps or data back, period, for that I need Images.

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Diane, when you check services.msc per Jerry’s instructions, check the Volume Shadow Copy service to be sure it is set to Automatic and is started. If it is stopped, restart the service. It is critical to System Restore running correctly. Then create a new restore point. If the restore point is successfully created, and you have a program that you have wanted to uninstall, go ahead and do that, then use your new restore point to test that System Restore is working correctly. A program that has been uninstalled after creation of a restore point should be restored when you activate that specific restore point. System Restore does have this type of limited ability to restore programs. System Restore will not restore programs that were uninstalled prior to the creation of the restore point.

If you have trouble creating a new restore point or in getting a new restore point to restore your system, temporarily disable your antivirus and firewall to see if that helps.

I would try one more thing before doing a repair install of Windows 7. Open a Command Prompt. Locate Command Prompt in the Start | All Programs | Accessories menu and right click to select Run as Administrator. Type in sfc /scannow and press enter. Note the space between sfc and the ‘/’ mark. This will check all your system files and replace any that are missing or corrupt. You may be prompted for your Windows 7 DVD at some point in the process unless there is a recovery partition on your hard drive.

If nothing you try gets System Restore operational, then a repair install of Windows 7 may be in order. This is where an image backup of Windows would be great to have. Check this link for instructions on doing a repair install of Windows 7. This will preserve your data files and settings, while repairing anything that is blitzed.

Hope this is helpful.

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Gerald,

Thanks for your response. I hope I am able to get System Restore operational again. I “googled” ComPlus Staging and found a couple of references to Volume Shadow service and how to check it, which I will do.

I never get out of these things free. The posts here have been very informative and are appreciated.

Diane

P.S. I just checked Volume Shadow service. It was on Manual and was not started. I did so. Can’t imagine how that happened. I am hoping that was the issue. Moving along to the next step to make sure System Restore is running.

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Jerry, ( I think that it was Jerry ) you get my vote. I have used Restore umpteen times for friends, I do not muck up my systems, they do. Great tool this is.

Yes, it will only work on System files, no data can be recovered, only a clone will do, and I do a clone on all my machines on a new month.

Opinions here are great, makes for valid exchanges. Oh ! Good morning.

JP.

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