Only have a few weeks of restore point available?

[flycaster]

Can't get to any restore points earlier than a few weeks ago. Had been allowing CCleaner to "fix" registry. This could have screwed up my OS, but I don't know enough about this stuff to figure it out.

 

[Brink]

Hello Adam,

Here's a couple of items to check and see if you may have any additional restore points.

How much max disk space do you have set for restore points? If to low, then older restore points would be deleted to make room for new ones. Increasing the max size will allow you to be able keep more restore points.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html
​

Do you have the Show other restore points box checked while looking for restore points like in the screenshot below?

​

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[DustSailor]

Caster,

If you don't know very much about CCleaner AND the registry, I recommend that you discontinue use of CCleaner.


You might not be able to get back the restore points, but you can 1. show more restore points, 2. allow for more restore points to be created, and 3. create another restore point now.

1. as in Option One: step 8 of this tutorial by Brink - http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/700-system-restore.html

   NOTE: Check the Show other restore points box to see any restore points (older) that may not be listed here.

2. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html - tutorial by Brink
3. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html - tutorial by Brink

EDIT: sorry, Brink posted first

 

[flycaster]

Hello Adam,

Here's a couple of items to check and see if you may have any additional restore points.

How much max disk space do you have set for restore points? If to low, then older restore points would be deleted to make room for new ones. Increasing the max size will allow you to be able keep more restore points.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html
​

Do you have the Show other restore points box checked while looking for restore points like in the screenshot below?

​

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn, unfortunately, this didn't help. Problem is that I originally had my system restore set to only 15% and the fully listed restore points only didn't go back far enough to a point that I thought may have been before this installation problem started. I never realized that without enough storage space, the number of restore points would be limited due to deletions.

 

[Brink]

I'm sorry to hear that Adam. What issues are you having? Perhaps one of us may be able to help with them.

 

[chrysalis]

restore points are big, I am using 1.8gig (with a 2 gig limit) and its just for 2 restore points.

But think of the alternative, image backups would probably be at least 30gig a pop.

 

[flycaster]

I'm sorry to hear that Adam. What issues are you having? Perhaps one of us may be able to help with them.

Well, Brink, my problems really started when I tried to install the ABBYY program that came with the Lexmark all-in-one printer disc. Lexmark and the ABBYY folks spent a lot of time helping me, but to no avail. The problem that kept coming up was that an administrator had give rights for the setup to install. I have now had that same "administrator rights" problem trying to install Silverlight and Skype. The latter two were functioning well on my computer, but for some reason I deleted Silverlight and Skype apparently deleted itself and I could never get then to reinstall due to this administrator problem. And, I am the administrator and gave full permissions to install these programs. I have been able, though, to install other programs off the net without any problems...go figure. Here are two links which should give you the details (with screen shots of the error messages) of what's been going on:

Skype not installing: Adminsitrator and folder cre... - Skype Support Network

http://www.sevenforums.com/software/241521-trouble-installing-abbyy-finereader-sprint-9-0-a.html

So, in trying to get things back to normal, I was thinking that maybe is screwed up by using CCleaners's registry cleaner and was trying to restore to a time before the ABBYY problem. But now I see that won't happen and maybe I'll get lucky and figure out why I'm having these selective adminstrator problems.

Certainly, any help you can give me is well appreciated.

 

[Brink]

Just as a test, you might create a new administrator account to see if you have the same issues while logged on to it.

 

[flycaster]

Just as a test, you might create a new administrator account to see if you have the same issues while logged on to it.

The Lexmark folks did that to no avail. I mean, I gave them permission to remotely control my computer and they did just about everything to try to solve this problem. The same for the ABBYY people. Both evenutally came back, after boosting to higher tech levels, that something must be wrong with my computer or its OS and that I should talk to the manufacturer and or Microsoft.

 

[whs]

1. It sounds to me like you mucked up your system. You are probably ready for a reinstall. Just make sure you save your user files first.

2. System Restore is not a safe way to protect yourself. In the future you would be better off if you imaged your system frequently (at least once per week). Then you can control yourself how far back you want to keep the images. Just make sure you do not use the Windows 7 built in imaging. That is no good. Free Macrium or free Paragon are better choices.

 

[flycaster]

1. It sounds to me like you mucked up your system. You are probably ready for a reinstall. Just make sure you save your user files first.

2. System Restore is not a safe way to protect yourself. In the future you would be better off if you imaged your system frequently (at least once per week). Then you can control yourself how far back you want to keep the images. Just make sure you do not use the Windows 7 built in imaging. That is no good. Free Macrium or free Paragon are better choices.

Yeah, that's what I'm afraid of, but was hoping that one of you guys might come along and save the day. Anyway, can't do a reinstall as I don't have the OS disc.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Anyway, can't do a reinstall as I don't have the OS disc.

You CAN do a clean install IF you have the 25 character Product Key that is normally found on a sticker on your PC.

You download an official Microsoft ISO file that matches your version of Windows from mydigitallife.info, burn it to a disc, and install from the disc. Activate with your product key.

The resulting installation will be Windows only and will not include whatever extra applications Gateway may have included from the factory.

If you have a recovery partition on your hard drive, you should also be able to use that to restore to factory specifications---that method WOULD include any factory-included applications.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[flycaster]

I think I'll leave things as they are, for the moment. I would assume that I would ahve to save all my pictures and and stuff on an external hard drive before doing a clean install and I just don't have the storage space. But if this problem really becomes a PITA, I guess that a clean install will be the only alternative. Thanks for you help.