Unable To Find, Delete, Or Create Any System Restore Points
Jul 29, 2009
My Windows Vista Enterprise has a serious problem. It is unable to find, delete, or create any system restore points. I have not found a way to re-initialize the system restore point process.
I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop that has about 20 System Restore points and I am trying to delete all but the most recent to free up disk space.
When I go to Disk Cleanup and select the option to do so, everything seems to work OK, but when it's finished there is no recovered disk space and the 20 Restore points still appear when I go to System Restore. I have tried starting the computer in Safe Mode and attempting the cleanup, but the same thing happens - the Disk Cleanup routine runs without error, but there is no recovered disk space and the 20 restore points still appear in System Restore.
Since I was getting nowhere with Disk Cleanup, I decided to go to System protection and turn off the system restore on the hard drive, which is supposed to delete all the restore points. I removed the checkmark next to the drive to remove System Restore, got the warning that I was about to remove System Restore and delete all the restore points and told it to go ahead and it finished. The same thing however, no recovered disk space and all the restore points still exist in System Restore. I turned System Restore back on by re-checking the box.
New pc, Vista Home premium + SP1 reload, close to final set-up. There's a user-labelled System Restore point dated 1st June (which I want to keep) plus a series of daily restore points, system generated (presumably during/after installation of new progs or updates) then a further user-labelled restore point, 6th June (user-labelled, i.e. "SP1 loaded"). QUESTION how to delete the "daily restore points" in-between? Reason - 1st June is a "clean" system with SP1. The latest is a "clean" system with other progs loaded. I don't need the "in-between" ones, keeping them will eventually wipe the original from memory ("fifo" when space becomes critical).
when i tried to create a restore point an error message is being displayed. it says " could not create the scheduled task for the following reason task image is corrupt or has been tampered with (0x80041321)" what does it mean. i am running on vista ultimate x64
pc config dual core 2.8(intel) intel 965board 80gb hdd
what i did was under system properties page, i clicked system protection tab on the left side checked the boxes( all system drives ie hard disk drives) and clicked apply then the message i described was popping out and when clicked create also the same message is being displayed.
1) Why can't I delete old restore points? I have unchecked the boxes next to my C: and D: drives, but nothing happens. I tried using "Clean up..." in the "More Options" tab of Disk Cleanup, and it appears to work, but the old restore points are still there. How can I fix this problem? (I know that there was another thread about this issue and read it. I tried what was said and Tuneup worked. I no longer use Tuneup, however.) I do not want to download a program to get my computer to function properly! I shouldn't have to do so.
2) Why does my computer occasionally freeze when I am using Internet Explorer 8? When I am browsing on Internet Explorer 8, every once in a great while my computer will freeze. I cannot use the mouse or keyboard at all, and I'm forced to hold in the power button to shut my computer down. This happens most frequently when multiple tabs/browsers are up. It also happens when one window with one tab is up, though. Is there anyone else who has experienced this? Is this fixable?
After installing SP2, on 5/25, System Restore seems to have stopped creating automatic restore points every 24 hours. I checked the Task Manger and it is set for 24 hours. It shows a restore point being created on 5/26. System Restore shows the last Restore Point being created on 5/25 about 1 hour after downloading.
A customer has been hit with the "Startup Repair" loop issue. The Startup Repair cannot repair the problem and shuts dow the computer, no restore points are available and "Last known good configuration" are useless. The computer needed to be recovered from the recovery partition.
After recovery and purposely setting several restore points manually I thought I was finished with all updates and such so I set my final restore point. I uninstalled an application that was not needed any more and on the next reboot I got a BSOD. Startup Repair was the option so it ran thru its paces and gave the message that it could not repair the issue and so I attempted to do a system restore to the last restore point I created before this happened. Vista reported again that I had no restore points (I know I manually create 5 of them). So this time "Last Known Configuration" did work. I went to chech the restore points and sure enough ther were none.
I went to accessories/system tools/system restore and clicked it. I then got a small dialogue window asking if I wanted to continue and I clicked continue. That little window disappeared but then nothing hasppened. I was expecting to see a list of possible restore points but nothing showed on my screen. I clicked system restore again and got a message that system restore was already running and would now exit.
Why can't I use system restore to restore back to certain restore points? I was only successful twice with it. When my laptap was new and when I used it after re-formatting my hard drive. On all occassions after those two instances I can never restore back to any restore point. It always says that "unspecified error" line. If Microsoft doesn't know what happend, how could I. Why did they bother putting system restore if it doesn't work all the time anyway. It gives you a false sense of security.
I turned off System Restore ,then thought seeing as I have the HDD space I may as well use it.I switched System Restore back on and thought no more about it. Now I notice there are no restore points.It should set a restore point at boot up and before installing software? It does neither and I can't find an option to turn it on.
Is it normal for my System Restore points to disappear with my dual-boot setup? I have Vista on my first drive (in a master SATA socket) and XP on my second drive (in slave SATA socket), with Acronis OS Selector in Vista to switch between operating systems. [Vista was the first OS I installed, and with the first drive disconnected I installed XP on the second drive.] Whenever I activate XP, the next time I go back to Vista, the restore points I had in Vista beforehand disappear. From there on, changes and new installations bring new restore points, but the next time I visit XP, my Vista restore points from that point disappear as well. Can I expect this with any dual-boot setup, or, if I should decide to reinstall everything should I install XP on my second drive first, while my first drive is still plugged in? Or is there another solution I haven't found yet?
Vista32, 4GM RAM, 70GB partition for C: with 25GB free. I only get one or two restore points. Once upon a time I had very many. If I create a manual restore point, I often have only that single restore point as others are deleted. "Show points more than 5 days old" sometimes offers only one - or none. I remember XP had a place I could adjust the space for RP's. (This Vista was not upgraded.) Can I get this in some back end of Vista too?
My Windows Vista Ultimate will only save about 5 restore points, prior ones are discarded by the system. I have 50 Gigs of free disk space. I would like to save more restore points. How can restore points be set to save to a remote device, like a flash drive?
The mystery, at least to me, my PC was running almost 2 years. and it was not until about 3 weeks ago that System Restore began to save Restore Points the size of Approx 3 to 4GB daily. Prior to that the Restore Points were well under 1GB. it would be 3 to 6 days before I noticed the loss of 1GB. So why suddenly would the Restore File grew 1 one day from well under 1GB to between 3 to 4GB? That now is the issue I would like to know the answer to. and perhaps that file being saved with each Restore Point is not needed. I mean it wasn't needed for almost 2 years. so I can't think over night it became important but it sure is eating up HDD space.
I blew out the keyboard, (thought something might have gotten down there and was the cause of this) but still no change. I tried to restart my Vista Ultimate x64, but because it was keying that letter it just kept trying to search. So I had to hit the power button. This is where it gets weird. Upon restart, it goes to some sort of recovery wizard. No log-in screen, just this wizard. If I cancelled it, my system would reboot. So, after 6 different cancels / restarts, I tried it. It did a recovery that set up two partitions on my HD, but ERASED EVERYTHING. Anything that was not installed originally on the computer was erased. There are no system restore points (Deleted as well) Don't worry, I back-up fairly often. But I'd like to know what the hell happen.
My ASUS laptop is nearly a year old & running Vista home premium, but it`s never kept restore points for longer than two or three days.
I recently started the Volulme Shadow copy, which was stopped, & set it to manual; later I tried automatic, but none of that seems to work. Still no restore points kept for longer than three days.
I`m not dual booting with windows XP, & this is the amount of space allocated to restore points:
Used shadow copy storage space: 924.293 MB
Allocated shadow copy storage space: 1.172 GB
Maximum shadow copy storage space: 4.434 GB
I don`t use diskeeper defragmenting tool at all, I use the disk clean up & defragmenter that came with windows vista. I do have Ccleaner, which has a disk cleaner & registry cleaner. I practically don`t use the registry cleaner, & sometimes I use the disk cleaner, but I haven`t used it at all for the last couple of months, & the problem persists. I use as well: Spybot-search & destroy; Ad-aware & my antivirus, which is Mc Afee, does defragment & clean up on a schedule.
I used to have the Norton Antivirus for three months last year, but not anymore, but I realized yesterday that I still haven`t uninstall the Symantec liveUpdate. I don`t have any other Symantec products running on my laptop.
Vista 64bit has been running really well on my desktop after a clean install in March. Suddenly, Windows update is failing to install, because it can't create a systen restore point. When I try to create one in System Restore, manually, it fails also, citing the shadow file timeout, or some such.....I am worried, because I can't use backup, either! Anyone know what's going on?
how to change the size of the HDD space Vista reserves for Restore points. I still would like to know;
1) What is the default HDD space Vista Reserves for System Restore Points? 2) Another reply to my Part 1 question indicated a user was experiencing the same issue, losing 3 to 4GB of HDD space a day...and Dell instructed that user to turn Off Restore to fix the problem. This to me is not a fix.
Given that I was losing 3 to 4GB space a day......was it as a Resullt of System Restore Points or could there be other issues? My PC is running fine except for this issue. CouldWould all New Restore Points save a file 3 to 4GB in size, and if that is so, does this Restore Point File just keep its size, grew Larger....and consume 3 to 4GB of HDD space daily and go on forever? This just doesn't seem so, I have been running this PC for nearly 2 years and I just saw this issue start about 2 weeks ago.....seems it started at or near the time of the Vista SP2 Download
It seems no posible to restore the system from previous "restore points" with Vista Bussines. I always get the message "System restore did not complete succesfully. Details: The writer experienced a transient error (0x800423F3)."
I have a recent problem installing Windows updates on Vista Ultimate as the update process stays on 'creating restore point' forever. I've let it run as long as 7 hours in this state, with no change. It looks like the system is unable to make a restore point sucessfully. I know it has worked in the past, as I'm fairly up-to-date on Windows updates. Reading some other threads, I've tried using Disk Clean-up to remove all by the most recent restore points, and then try to disable/re-enable system restore - this part without success. When I check the system properties for System Restore, the System Restore button is greyed out. I've attached a screenshot of the screen for reference. I've checked the group policies to verify the System Restore is not disabled there.
I have many restore points. I have ran a back up on a DVD disk so I only need the most recent restore point. There is a way to delete all but the most recent one. I know because I have done it in the past but I can't remember how. I guess I will have to start writting things down.
I'm trying to install the new win vista x64 os on to my new hard disk but during the installing ,it keep prompt me with this message " Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation. " The hard disk i uses is Hitachi Deskstar HDS721616PLAT80 ATA/IDE drive
I had previously used a JBOD array of 3 hard disks to create a single volume in which to store all my music and videos. To make a long story short, I'm no longer using this JBOD array. I still want to store my music and videos on these three drives, but when I use Media Player to add to the library, I only want to be able to specify one folder, but the scan must go across all three drives (drives H:, I: & J.I want to store my primary library in "H:Media", and have junction points directing to "I:Music (Secondary)" and "J:Videos". It is my understanding that Junction Points can help. The question is, how to create a Junction Point?
I just installed today's Vista updates and later noticed all my restore points prior to the update are gone.Is this everyone's experience, or did I do something to accidently delete them? It's not really a problem, as I just finished a reinstall and had a clean and stable config before the update, but I'm curious as to why the restore pointd disappeared.
when I open System Restore, I'm presented with a different dialog screen than I was before. Before, I was presented with a screen that had already select the most recent restore point allowing me to select 'Choose another restore point'. Now I'm not presented with these choices. I only see a Next and a Cancel button and a space where the choices were. When I click Next I see a list of restore points, just like before. But, that first screen is definitely different than what I used to see. how I can get the old screen back?
why any system restore point that I (or the system) create disappears as soon as my PC is restarted/rebooted? I'm not dual booting. I'm not using Norton (am using Kaspersky and restore is in the list of trusted applications). There is 300 gig spare on the HD. Restore is enabled on my HD. I couldn't see an answer in the "bertk" links posted on similar threads.
For about a month now,I have been losing restore points every 2-3 days. I am set up for automatic Windows Updates and any restore points that appear over a 2-3 day period completely disappear after that period-(I can only hold restore points for 2-3 days in other words). I do have plenty of storage left on my hard drive-243 GB free,so I have plenty of room on my hard drive. I use to retain at least a whole month's worth of dozens of restore points,but now I can only retain 2-3 days worth. I wonder if it could have something to do with Norton Internet Security-I activated the 60 day trial about a month ago on my laptop computer and it seems like my system restore points have only been disappearing since I activated the trial. But,the same thing happened with my Windows Update History about 2 months ago-I had completely lost my update history,but that was before Norton Internet Security.
When I go to System Restore after the 2-3 day period,the system restore window says that no system restore points have been created on your disc-something to that effect. I do receive Windows Updates almost on a daily basis,so I know that I receive restore points almost everyday. I check system restore everyday and there is always restore points,but any restore points that I receive disappear usually after 2 days. Also, that box that you check to see system restore points older than 5 days is no longer on the system restore window. I'm open to any suggestions. Don't be afraid to get too technical with me.