System Restore – won't

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I am still unable (for c. a year) to restore my system.  Have tried using various restore points, have tried in Safe Mode.  Have run anti-virus, having cleared cache, etc.

Any suggestions?  Thank you

 

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To set up System Restore:
+ Click Start – right click on Computer on the right and choose “Properties”
+ At the top left click “System Protection”
+ Highlight your C: drive – does is say “on”
+ Click the “Configure” button – if System Restore was not on, click “turn on system restore”
+ Be sure you have enough space to make a Restore Point. (I use 5% of the disk) Whatever you choose, it has to be big enough to hold multiple restore points.
+ Click “apply”
+ While you are there, Create a Restore Point. Name it something like “Test MM/DD/YYYY”
+Let it finish making the Restore Point – it may take a while.

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Thanks for your post.  Yes, System Protection is on. I, too, use 5%. Was able to create “test” restore point.

Have, again, tried to restore with/without virus protection on. Made no difference.

(Where do I see which point is currently in use?)

Using Ccleaner, I deleted some old points, but that wasn’t reflect in the Restore window. Couldn’t find how to restore just some points in Windows 7.

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To do a System Restore:
Go back into System Protection
Click on “System Restore.”
Check the box on the left to “show more restore points.”
It should show you all the Restore Points.
Highlight the one you want to restore to and restore.

If I’m not mistaken, Restore Points are only retained for a total of 30 days.

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In Windows 7, at least, I understand that they last until the space allocated for keeping the restore points is full, then the oldest restore point(s) is(are) eliminated to make room for the new one the user is trying to create. One can change the amount of space, increasing or decreasing it, through the Control Panel or the Command Line:

http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=1804138&seqNum=2

Decreasing it will result in the elimination of some oldest restore points, increasing it will make it possible to create more points without deleting older ones.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Are you running Malwarebytes by chance? If so, you have to disable the self protection module to restore.

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Thanks. Use Panda and turning it off made no difference. Appreciate the suggestion.

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Does your C: drive have your system on it? Or is your system on another drive?

A general question to anyone: Should a Recovery drive have system protection turned on? It’s currently off on my computer.

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Yes, system on C

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Veteran/Anonymous: it might help if you could clarify these two points:

What exactly do you mean by “it makes no difference”?

Which version of Windows are you running in your computer?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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I mean I cannot do a System Restore regardless of anti-virus being on or off.
Version 7 Home Premium,  Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

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If you are using Microsoft’s EFS (encrypting file system), you may have encrypted at least one file that System Restore is trying to, er, restore.  Since the system restore takes place outside of the normal Windows session, it is not logged into your account, so any encrypted files are unreadable, and system restore will fail.

If you boot into the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), either from your hard drive or from a Windows install USB/disc, you can select System Restore as one of the options, after which it will ask you which user you want to log in as to perform the restore.  Log in as usual, and the restore should then work.

EFS encrypted files or folders will show up in green text by default in Windows or File Explorer.  These are files that you’ve encrypted by setting the encryption attribute or used the context menu to select “encrypt file(s).”  This is a feature on Pro and Ultimate versions of Windows, so if you’re not using one of those, or if you have never used EFS, this won’t apply to you.

Using WinRE to run the restore might still help, though, if all else fails!

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
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veteran wrote:

I mean I cannot do a System Restore regardless of anti-virus being on or off.

Just trying to get an idea of what is going on…

anonymous wrote:

Where do I see which point is currently in use?

Before running System Restore, you can see/choose the restore point, by date or name you’ve given it. I’m not aware of any way to ‘see’ which point is currently in use after restoring, only when choosing a restore point.

anonymous wrote:

Using Ccleaner, I deleted some old points, but that wasn’t reflect in the Restore window.

If you deleted restore points with Ccleaner, then they shouldn’t show up in the Restore window but you are still seeing them?

anonymous wrote:

Couldn’t find how to restore just some points in Windows 7

You can only choose to restore to one point at a time, usually choosing the last good one before a problem is noted.

How do you see that System Restore is failing? Are you getting an error message? (Curious because I’ve never had System Restore fail).

Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter

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Thank you for your info.

Ccleaner: Apparently after I shut down, the restore points I deleted in Ccleaner were also deleted in Restore window.

I was informed of the failure to Restore after the operation was completed and restarted computer. No other error message, other than try a different date.

I didn’t note date when the failure to restore started, but it was quite a long while ago.  I do keep up with Windows Updates (wonder IF one of them could be the culprit). As I said, being in Safe Mode I was still unable to do a Restore.

Again, thank you.

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Elly

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Corrupt system files can cause restore failures.  Try running “sfc /scannow” from an administrator command prompt.

Mark

Win 10 home - 22H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Thank you, Mark.

When I try to run the sfc/scannow from Command, I get ‘You must be an administrator running a console session in order to use the sfc utility’

I have triple checked that I am the administrator…

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You have to right-click on the command prompt (not double click) and choose “Run as Administrator” in the context menu. It’s the administrator mode you have to run sfc as, not the User administrative ID.

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Elly

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Thanks, again Mark.  Ok. Got it this time. Result =’Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.’

Under that:
C:\Windows\system32>
C:\Windows\system32>C:\Windows\system32>
The syntax of the command is incorrect.
C:\Windows\system32>C:\Windows\system32>

Incorrect, yet it ran?!
 
Well, good news is no violation.
I do thank you for your information post!

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Next would be to check the hard drive for errors with chkdsk (check disk).

Win 10 home - 22H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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veteran

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Thank you for that suggestion . I did run Chkdsk and on its screen read ‘warning F paramater not specified’ and ‘Chkdsk was executed in read-only mode on a volume snapshot.’ Then after a few more seconds, its window vanished. (Months/years ago I had checked it to automatically fix errors)

Tried to figure out how to read the results. Went to Event log but it was meaningless to me. (How does one?)

Ran it again to capture its screen, and saw ‘Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.’ And
462947327 KB total disk space.
86753632 KB in 136878 files.
108116 KB in 30824 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
326247 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
375759332 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
115736831 total allocation units on disk.
93939833 allocation units available on disk.
So, now that Chkdsk and Scannow came up clean, am apparently left with computer that won’t do a Restore operation for its own reason…

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Trying a clean boot would determine if startup items or non microsoft services are causing your problems.  run “msconfig.exe”.  On the general tab choose selective startup and uncheck load startup items.  On the services tab check hide all microsoft services and disable everything that remains.  Apply the changes and restart.  When done testing select normal startup on the msconfig general tab, apply and restart.

Mark

Win 10 home - 22H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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Forgive ignorance, but what will I be testing? System Restore?

I had been using Selective for years. After following your instructions, should I leave it at that or check Normal?

Again, thank you.

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veteran wrote:

what will I be testing? System Restore?

Yes

veteran wrote:

I had been using Selective for years. After following your instructions, should I leave it at that or check Normal?

The settings used for testing should be changed.  You can use either the selective start you have been using or a normal boot.  Don’t forget to apply and reboot.

However, if system restore doesn’t work with startup and non microsoft services disabled, it might be worthwhile to try system restore from a normal boot.

Mark

Win 10 home - 22H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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My sad saga continues. I unchecked startup, hid all MS services (Disable automatically became gray). Applied changes, restarted, Restore still not working (and wouldn’t let me Undo the most recent one, 3/30…) I reapplied my original settings in Selective (load system/startup checked; original boot unchecked don’t remember if I had it checked/unchecked on earlier attempts), tried Restore: couldn’t get past the 3/30 point. Said successfully restored to 3/30, even tho that wasn’t the date I had chosen. I haven’t been able to Undo that point – Either in Safe Mode or Normal.

Twice the system wouldn’t get beyond the screen saying Please wait…System Restore is initializing.” CPU light steady, the wheel on screen turning. Gave it c. 10 minutes, both times. Had to force shutdown.
At one point I got error ox80070057- (I do not have any partitions)

However, I thank you very, very much for all your suggestions and patience. I will go along without the Restore feature.

An aside: When I was in Services, I noticed Disk defragmenter was Stopped. I never did that and I was able to use it 2 days ago.

Thanks again, Mark

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Your welcome

The most important thing is to back up your data.  If you want an operating system disaster recovery option, the gold standard is imaging or cloning.

Mark

Win 10 home - 22H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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