Not able to restore

[PattiChati]

I have tried to restore my computer on Windows 7 by going to Backup and restore. It gives me an error message. It has only been doing this for about a week, it used to restore. Does anyone know what to do?

 

[Cammykinz]

Have you tried a different restore point?

 

[MilesAhead]

Try this, go to Start=>Control Panel=>Administrative Tools
and double click Services. Scroll down to Volume Shadow Copy.

See the Status column. If it's not running click on Start in the top left corner.
Try the restore again if the service starts.

You may be lucky. If that doesn't fix it I would look at this:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html

 

[PattiChati]

I have tried all the restore points. I have also done the scannow command. Neither of these helped.
I am going to try the shadow copy. thanks.

 

[PattiChati]

The shadow copy didn't work either. Any more ideas?

 

[PattiChati]

I've run all my virus, malware, cCleaner - all that stuff also.

 

[MilesAhead]

What does CCleaner show for restore points? Did you have a power out by any chance? It sounds like something got corrupted.

Edit: another possibility, did you run a thorough disk defrag? I've heard sometimes that can render restore points useless.

What are you trying to fix using the restore point? If you just need to retrieve some files you might try ShadowExplorer

I don't think I've ever had a machine with totally hosed system restore. Not sure what else I can suggest.

 

[PattiChati]

I did not do a disk frag and cCleaner showed nothing. I am not looking for a file. It is just when I go to backup now on my hard drive, I won't be able to restore. I sometimes restored when the computer started acting up and that would fix it. Now what good does it do to backup if it can't be restored?

 

[MilesAhead]

I was never enamored of using the backup that was thrown in gratis.

Try an image backup system like
Free Download EaseUS Todo Backup Freeware and Trial version. Complete Backup and Restore Software for Windows & Linux.

or

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

I've not used Windows built in backup since Windows 2000 Server. So I can't tell you how it works.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Miles:

Patti is just barely getting started with the whole idea of backing up. She recently nearly lost a very important file, but luckily got it back.

She just bought an external drive and is for now just dragging her user folder so she will have a second copy of important files. She wants to keep it simple for now, no imaging.

I think her comments about "backup" in this thread refer solely to System Restore, not Windows backup or other such software.

She can't get System Restore to run.

 

[boohbah]

could you tell us what security software you use patty, i.e macafee, norton, avast etc

 

[MilesAhead]

Miles:

Patti is just barely getting started with the whole idea of backing up. She recently nearly lost a very important file, but luckily got it back.

She just bought an external drive and is for now just dragging her user folder so she will have a second copy of important files. She wants to keep it simple for now, no imaging.

I think her comments about "backup" in this thread refer solely to System Restore, not Windows backup or other such software.

She can't get System Restore to run.

That was my original impression. But I've never seen such an error on any of my machines and her talk of "fixing it" with the backup made me thing she was backing up the system. I think image backup and restore is probably simpler than what she has now though. It's pretty much point and click.

Unless the system is infected it sounds to me like it's a reinstall job.

Edit: A similar error but I don't see a solution posted:

http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/124853-win-7-recovery.html#post1085658