Windows XP forum: Windows system restore doesnt function

Although XP will allow you to create a System Restore point at any time, if no changes have been made to the Operating System since that date, then any attempt to restore back to that date will fail, because nothing is different.

As a separate issue, I also agree with jeriboam that if your AVG Full Edition is the one that includes a firewall, then that and your ZoneAlarm firewall may be causing conflicts. You should only have one firewall installed.

However, I would not have thought that would cause any System Restore failure.

These Newsletter question and answers are excellent, but the problem is, it is difficult to request more information, and that is what is needed here.

Mark

I am sorry to say that this information is incorrect. System restore should and will restore your computer to a previous time regardless or whether or not you have actually made any changes to your computer. Even if you manually create a restore point right now and then restore to it 1 second later is should work and you should receive a Your computer has been successfully restored to: Date and Time and name of restore point when it reboots. It is fairly common for system restore to fail for the following reasons:

1. You tried to go back too far
2. Hard Drive is corrupted (Run error checking, check disk, chkdsk for errors)
3. Too many major changes since the last restore point
4. You have used a registry cleaner
5. Your computer is or was infected with a virus, spyware or malware
6. Disk Drive too full

You can also try:

1. Temporarily disable firewall and antivirus software
2. Run system restore from Safe mode (F8 during boot)

My recommendation is to never use a registry cleaner, check your drive for errors, Delete all temp files, run full virus and malware scans (use what you have and then download and scan with Malwarebytes), defrag your hard drive and then set a new manual restore point and then try to restore to that.

Note: Some really nasty viruses can actually delete all of your restore points or even prevent you from even running system restore altogether.

Dana
Wayland Computer

I agree with Dana - this is most comprehensive answer.

Thanks Dana You have giving the most comprehensive Answer the problem we are glad for having some people like you in the forum Thanks
Mohsas

I'm afraid there's no way to get system restore working to restore earlier restore points. So it might be necessary to revert to a clean install of your OS.

Kees

You can format if you like, but I remember there is a variant of the XP install that only deletes the windows and program file folders and keeps your data. Your choice.
Making a backup first wouldn't harm at all.

Kees

One cause may be that your hard drive is too full to make all the files it needs for system restore....this happened to me once and I couldn't run system restore until I made more room on the drive. Then it worked.

Or it may be something else entirely.....

carrimak

Restart in Safe Mode and run system restore. Keep clicking F8 when you restart and safe mode will come up. Also you might want to disconnect your modem from your computer.

Restarting in Safe Mode worked for me as well. It's frustrating, I know. Yesterday I installed a program that caused my DSL modem to not connect to the internet. Even after removing the program, it wouldn't connect. Restore points wouldn't work. It merely said that it was unable to complete the restore. Only after restarting in safe mode was I able to successfully complete a System Restore point.

Not wanting to induce panic, but i feel this should be added just in case. I once had the same problem and through a long process og trial and error, found that my system had a virus which actually disabled the sytem restore function. Once I cleaned my pc of the virus, my system restore function became available again. May be worth checking. Unfortunatly, I cannot remember the virus name, but I used Trend micro systems online check to find it as my system was compromised.The onboard virus checkers were suspect and after this were replaced with better programs.Hope it is not that bad, good luck.

I had to start the system in safe mode then start system restore. never actually found what had cuased the problem all i could think of was a virus that was removed had gotten into the right file to cuase this nightmare. after starting in safe mode then starting system restore the problem hasnt reoccurred. hope tthis helps you i cannot remember if xp has safe mode.

Regsitry cleaners lie at the heart of your problem. Use your machine for a while, let it 'settle down' if I can put it that way an dthen create a restore point. As long as you don't use a registry cleaner you can restore back to that point. Use a registry cleaner after creating the restore point and there'e no way back. I don't know why, but this is the case.

Most cleaners will backup the registery or recommend that you back it up. Can try restoring registry then system restore.

I have a Compaq 6350us w/XP and when I formatted a new hard drive and did all the updates, it included a solution for the System Restore problem but it only worked one time and wouldn't work again. Don't know why.