I have XP on my system, but System Restore refuses to work. The only fix that worked for a while was to insert the XP CD, do an install and choose the option to do an upgrade install. It goes through the entire install process and replaces any damaged files. All settings and programs are maintained.
I read this technique somewhere and tried it on a friend's computer with good results. I then repeated it on my computer with equally successful results.
I don't know what I am doing wrong, but after setting a few restore points manually, I began to get error messages stating that System Restore couldn't run and to restart the computer and rerun System Restore. Rebooting was useless, as was all the other troubleshooting techniques. There is something set wrong and I'll be damned if I can find it.
I can see SR running in the Administrative area and all looks normal, but there are no automatic restore points and I can't set manual restore points either. I have two Maxtor 40GB drives running, have defragged & cleaned the drives. I have the default 12% setting and both drives are being monitored. I've tried turning off the D drive and just monitor the C drive with the same results. Also tried the disk cleanup option that removes all but the most recent restore point. Same result.
I renamed the WININIT.INI file that I found in the Windows directory with the same results. Nothing works. I've read the MS knowledge base articles that seem to relate to my problem, but have found nothing that seems to resolve whatever conflict I have.
So, I think I'm going to install Roxio GoBack on my system and forget about System Restore. I hate to do that, but I'm getting nowhere for all the time I've spent on this bugger.