Windows 7: PC Restores to a recovery point all by itself

Hi.

I have a PC with win 7 pro 64 bit which has been working fine for months. A few days ago, I fired up the PC and noticed an old wallpaper and some application icons in the desktop were missing and some that I had deleted suddenly back there. I looked at the restore points and there are none older than a few weeks, but this particular config is 8 months old. When I try and restore to a more recent recovery point I get an error message telling me that there is an invalid parameter.

I rebooted the PC and all was well again for a day but now it has reverted to the old config and nothing seems to shift it.

My data is intact ( backed up as well ) but I am at a loss as to a) what to do next and b) what caused this problem.

Any ideas/suggestions gratefully accepted.


Thanks

When the PC reboots, it comes up with a 6 month old system ( how does it do this when there are no recovery points that old in the list ?? ) It will not restore any of the existing restore points - I get an 'invalid parameter' message. If I then shut the PC down, it installs about 50 Windows updates and when I boot up again - back to normal I get my current system. Then if I close down and reboot, I get the old system again and so it goes.......very bizzare. I cleared out all of restore points, created a new one whilst it was working normally and ...it's still the same.

Is this a computer that hasn't been used for a while? This is only a guess, but it sounds like Windows isn't saving your settings in the registry when you shut down, then the system reverts to a previous control set when you boot up. I don't believe it's a restore point issue. Check Event Viewer for errors and problems saving saving data to the registry.

You could also try creating another Administrator level user account as a test. Restart the computer a couple times, then shut down and power up a few times to see if the problem reoccurs.

Hi Fred

The plot thickens! I realised that I have a disk in the PC that has an old image of my system ( I upgraded the disc ...6 months ago - added a new C: drive ) What it is doing is (seemingly ) randomly booting from one of the two two discs. I decided to format the old disc and now the PC randomly goes to the next boot device - the DVD and gives me a message "re-boot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device"

Could this be a disc problem ? Bios ? No other changes have been made and it has been working fine until a week ago. I went as far as re-install Windows 7, all of the updates, all of my apps, downloaded all the latest drivers etc and it still does it from time to time. Last night, it would not 'revert' so I rebooted and checked the boot device order- it was set to DVD 1st, I re set it to the disc with the OS and it booted fine.

If there was a problem with the the HDD, I guess it would try the next boot device ? Or could BIOS be faulty and just re-arranging the boot device order ?

I'm a bit of a newbie to all this so any advice gratefully recieved !

OK, that makes sense if the old disc is a hard disk with Windows installed in it. Depending on your available BIOS setup options, you may have the ability to select which hard drive boots first when you have more than one installed. There may be some sub menus in the setup page. Usually the computer will look to SATA_0, then SATA_1 as the default order.

If you look closely on the motherboard, you will see where it's labeled SATA 0,1,2 next to each hard drive data cable connector. I would connect your boot drive to SATA 0, then make sure your SATA 0 drive is set to be the first boot device (or 2nd after a DVD drive).

I doubt it's a hard drive problem, more like a BIOS setup option problem. If the settings you change in BIOS don't get saved or if you notice your date and time keep falling off, it may be a small CMOS battery dying. That battery keeps your settings in memory when the computer is turned off.

Hi, Fred.

Just back from a week away. I checked the BIOS settings and it all looks OK at the moment. I suspect you may be onto something with the back up battery - I Re-installed windows, reformatted the 'spare disc' and very occasionally, it tries to boot up from the next available boot drive - the DVD. If I check the BIOS, the boot device order has changed. I reset it back to SATA 0 and all is well again. I guess that the BIOS settings are maintained by the backup battery?

I will change the battery this weekend and see if that helps.

Best Regards


Stuart

Changing the battery is a good idea and they're only about $5. Get the # off the old battery, something like CR2032.