System restore not working

This is a two part question. It started a few days ago after Firefox did an update. The next day I noticed that when I entered a search request in the address bar of Firexox it used Yahoo to run the search instead of Google which I had set as my default. I hate Yahoo with a passion.

Anyway I tried for quite a while to find a way to change it back and couldn't so I finally decided to do a system restore to get back to a point before the update. When I ran system restore it didn't complete and I got the following message;

System restore did not complete successfully. Your computer's system files and settings were not changed.

Details:
System restore failed to extract the file (C:\) from the restore point. An unspecified error occurred during system restore. (0x8000ffff)

You can try system restore again and choose a different restore point. If you continue to see this error, you can try an advanced recovery method. For more information, see What is Recovery?

I declined the idea of an advanced recovery method as it would lose a lot of the stuff I have on at worst and cause me a lot of work at best getting it back to the way I want it. So I tried system restore again with a different date and got the same result. I tried all the dates in system restore and they all produced this same message. I then ran check disk which didn't find any problems but I tried another restore anyway and got the same message.

Am I right in assuming that my system restore has been corrupted in some way and if so can I restore system restore? By the way I also ran a deep virus check and found nothing, my system is clean. Any idea how I can get system restore working again and as a bonus does anyone know how to reset Google as my search option in the address bar?

Can you make a new System Restore point and then immediately restore to it?

There are a lot of posts here lately about SR not working or not working properly, but I haven't kept up with the solutions, if any.

I haven't actually tried that and to be honest I don't see the point as any point I create now will have the same problem as I'm trying to get rid of. To be honest I'm so pi**ed of with Firefox that I'm thinking of dumping it for another browser.

See if this link is of any help.

System Restore failed to extract the file (C:\) from - Microsoft Answers

I checked this out and the suggestion was to try a system restore in safe mode. I did this and got the same message!

Ugh!
Google is {usually} your friend.
Try a search.

Re

The next day I noticed that when I entered a search request in the address bar of Firexox it used Yahoo to run the search instead of Google which I had set as my default. I hate Yahoo with a passion.

Set snip where the red arrow points.
You should be able to get a drop down menu to {re}choose your favourite Google.

Hi JMH. Well yes but this is the search box to the right of the screen. The one I want to change is the default search in the address bar on the left of the screen.

Gozoman,

me too had the very same problem. and its worst than you that I had to do a reformat. theres loadz of posts of complaints about SR not working or not working properly. From lot of people, conclusion that I came was not to rely on the windows SR anymore. therefore I created following thread couple of days ago. I think it may help you to find some tricks that you can try because I tried almost everything before go for a re-installation and all are listed there. And from here these guys suggest me to use Macrium and here I'am using it perfectly without any doubt of being it wouldnt work on the next time I boot up my machine. If you are interested, I think this following conversation may help you.

software to use instead of Win 7 system restore cuz restore not workin

Thanks for that. I'll have a look at it.