System Restore will not work
John Rule
past. Recently, when I try to create a system restore
checkpoint it gives me the message
System Restore is not able to create a restore point.
Please restart the computer and then run system restore
again. I have tried that several times and nothing
changes.
Can anyone help.
thanks in advance.
John
Mike M
Your System Restore problem sounds as if you either have a program that
creates a new wininit.ini file each time you boot your system or that you are
yet another victim of the "false Wininit.ini" problem. System Restore will
not create a checkpoint when it believes the file wininit.ini to be present on
the system since the presence of such a file is normally indicative of an
incomplete install where wininit.ini contains instructions to be executed to
complete the install (or uninstall) next time the system is booted.
First, check that you don't have a wininit.ini file. If you do, rename this
to wininit.old and retry System Restore. If this works then you possibly have
a program that creates a wininit.ini file each time you boot your system. One
known example is tgcmd.exe from @home another is a program called "ACCESS
DENIED". If you have tgcmd.exe I understand that disabling it in MSConfig |
Startup will have no adverse effect on your system but enable you to use
System Restore. Likewise ACCESS DENIED needs to be "switched off" whilst
using SR to either create or restore to a previous checkpoint. See also MS KB
Q274092 - "Error Message: System Restore Cannot Run Until You Restart the
Computer" (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q274/0/92.ASP).
If this isn't the reason for your problem then try running
SCANREG /FIX
from a command prompt such as Start | Run. Note that the system will re-boot
so don't have any applications open when doing this. I suggest this because
it appears the same message you are seeing is given not only when there is a
wininit.ini file but also when the registry has been corrupted in some way.
What that corruption might be I have as yet no idea.
If scanreg /fix doesn't do it I would then suggest you try using
SCANREG /RESTORE
and restore your registry to an earlier version (you should be offered 5
options) after which hopefully SR will be enabled and can be used to return
your system to the point you want. Note that at long last Microsoft have
addressed this problem and recently issued a KB covering this. See MS KB
Q303354 - "Error Message: System Restore Was Unable to Create a Restore Point"
(http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q303/3/54.asp).
Whilst discussing System Restore problems now might be a good time for you to
check that you have the System Restore patch installed that allows System
Restore to restore checkpoints created since 8 Sept. The patch can be
obtained either via Win Me's AutoUpdate, the Windows Update site or from the
Microsoft Corporate Update site. For more details see MS KB Q 290700 -
"Checkpoints That You Create After September 8, 2001 Do Not Restore Your
Computer"
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q290700) which also
has a link to the patch.
You can see whether you have installed the patch or not by checking the
version of the file smgr.dll in your windows\system folder. If v4.90.0.3003
then you have updated but if v4.90.0.2533 you have not and need to do so at
once. Note that when installing the patch it will flush your restore folder
and create a single new checkpoint on completion.
It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing this
causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP
mcma...@hotmail.com
"John Rule" <jr...@columbus.rr.com> wrote ...