Windows 7 - System Protection will not turn on

I recently had a power outage while Windows 7 (x64) was loading. System booted up fine. I went to do a system restore, but could not. When I go to select a restore point is says, "System Protection is turned off". I never turned it off and it will not let me turn it on. The C:\ clearly shows protection is turned on, but when I select system restore it says it is turned off.










I think I read most of the posts here on this issue, but no go. What I have tried:

• Manually create restore point- Works fine. Repeated many times.
• .
• Turned System Protection Off and then back On- No difference
• Ran WMI.bet- No change
• Deleted all restore points- No change
• Ran VSS List Shadows- Got hits even though I had deleted all restore points
• Verified VSS is on- I have seen posts to say set to manual and set to auto. I have done both. No difference.
• SFC /SCANNOW- Found no integrity violations
• Tried to do a Repair Install- Cannot. I am running SP1. Comes back saying it cannot be done.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Try again in this admin account Built-in Administrator Account - Enable or Disable

Did not understand how much of what I tried you wanted me to try with this account enabled. I enabled the account. I tried to turn on System Protection. Same response, so I disabled the account again.

OK, I'll check to be sure but I'm afraid it is either a system restore or an edit of the registry. Are you experienced/comfortable with the latter?

Since System Restore does not work, that leaves editing the registry. I have done this a few times.

Is there really no way to do a Repair Install if you have SP1 installed?

Sure you can, see the tutorial. Since a repair install is quite drastic, the steps are too if you have SP1 and apparently did not make a new repair disk after insalling SP1. if that is your case then de-install SP1 first, then do the repair with your basic disc.

Add.... IF.. You can get your hands on your exact version of Windows 7 DVD WITH SP1 integrated.... That would ofcourse be easier and work too....

I won't say I have an answer for you.
Just to state a point or 2.......

1. How did you turn System Protection on ?
Did you use this tutorial ?
System Restore - Enable or Disable

2. You should now create ANOTHER system repair disc With SP1. ( I am assuming you created a system repair disc before SP1 installed ).

3. To be on the safe side, run a full virus scan with your security program.

4. Do a disk check which is to look for bad sectors etc. It will repair them if any found.
Disk Check
I'd suggest that you use Option Two.

Personally, this is how I do disk check......

Start button > in the search box, type cmd > look up to top left, right click at cmd.exe > click Run As Administrator > at the black and white window, at the flashing prompt, copy and paste this command line ..... chkdsk /f/r
> press Enter key > you will see a message that says it cannot do it right now, but do you want to do it at restart ( I am paraphrasing ) > type Y as in yes > press Enter > exit cmd window > restart your computer.

Disk check will start running at startup > do not shut the computer down > it will take quite some time > just wait > the computer will restart when it is done.

OK. Understood. What a disc image? I use the Windows 7 Backup function. Could I just reimage to before the problem took place? Would that work or should I just start over?






I was reluctant to do anything drastic right now. I will be traveling all week. Do not want to inadvertantly kill the HTPC just before leaving. Wife would kill me.

Be careful and please read up on the differences between Windows backup and repair disk... it is not the same thing....