System Restore Fail on all available restore points

[mcart117]

System restore failed to extract the file … from the restore point. There was a disk failure during the restore. This might be caused by bad sectors on the disk.

I get the same message, but with a different file name, with every restore point I try, and I have now tried all seven available restore points, going back to 30 Dec 2011.

The computer was working perfectly until 3 days ago when it blue screened, and has not started properly since.

It is a Corei5 with 4 GB RAM and is only 12 months old. I just don’t believe the drive has that many bad sectors.

Given that it won’t start and it won’t restore, is the only solution to reformat and start again?

 

[FliGi7]

Have you done a Disk Check on the drive to attempt to fix/recover the bad sectors? That would be the first step.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html

 

[mcart117]

Thank you for your reply.

I managed to start in Safe Mode with Command Prompt to schedule Chkdsk for the next start up. I restarted and got the message to say a disk check had been scheduled, but then there was a message to say Chkdsk was unable to run because of a recently installed software package. I have no idea what that might be, because nothing has been installed.

 

[FliGi7]

Try it again. Can you schedule it from the normal windows startup? If not, try the below:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

Instead of performing Step 2 as it says, click on the Command Prompt and run it from there.

 

[whs]

Relying on restore points is like relying on women to be on time. For the future, you should really do frequent imaging. Then you never need to reinstall the system again and can get back into business in 20 minutes. Here is a 'Starter Package'.

 

[mcart117]

Try it again. Can you schedule it from the normal windows startup? If not, try the below:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

Instead of performing Step 2 as it says, click on the Command Prompt and run it from there.

By chance (sometimes it starts, sometimes it doesn't) I managed to do this. At startup I got:

A disk check has been scheduled
Windows will now check the disk
pause
Cannot run due to an error caused by recently installed software

The last line is a paraphrase of a longer error message.

 

[FliGi7]

If you got a BSOD, it could be a memory issue as well. Download memtest86+ here (.iso and burn it to CD):

Memtest86+ - Advanced Memory Diagnostic Tool

Then boot from the CD and let the test run for at least 3 rounds and see if there are any errors. There shouldn't be any.

If there are no memory errors, I'd recommend just doing a Repair Install on your system.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

 

[mcart117]

I ran Memtest from the Hirens Boot CD/Flash drive and there were no errors.

While the Flash drive was in place I tried to run the Seatools diagnostic, but it didn't like the Toshiba drive. So I went into the Parted Magic Linux OS and ran the short self test in GSmart Control 0.8.6. The test completed with read failure. The long test (full surface scan) also completed with read failure. I saved the error log, but I guess this isn't the forum to post it.

As for Repair install, it is a Toshiba with no disks but a restore partition, so I can restore to factory settings, but I don't think the repair install is an option. If I'm wrong, please let me know.

 

[mcart117]

Relying on restore points is like relying on women to be on time. For the future, you should really do frequent imaging. Then you never need to reinstall the system again and can get back into business in 20 minutes. Here is a 'Starter Package'.

Thank you, whs, for the Macrium link. I think I’ll stick to Acronis for now but it’s good to be aware of other tools.

Your comment on restore points is amusing and apt, but not very helpful. If you don’t use the functionality offered by Windows why use Windows? I personally make my children use Linux Mint, and I use XP pro (I should correct my profile details - I was trying the Win7 beta when I signed up), backed up weekly with Acronis. The subject of this thread belongs on one of those poor unfortunate people who buy computers in shops and get stuck with the OS it ships with.

I totally agree with your thoughts on restore points, but I posted here, in a forum for Windows enthusiasts, because I hoped that someone here would persuade me to believe otherwise. But alas it was not to be. Even FliGi7, who was very helpful, suggested a non MS tool to check the RAM, although the Windows 7 repair console offers one of its own.

I don’t know what Win7 does to hard drives, that mucks them up so badly. It is as if this laptop has been thrown off a motorbike (which I know it hasn’t). The damage to the drive is so extensive that even when I run Acronis from the Linux based recovery disk, the disk backup either stops every two minutes to report a zillion damaged sectors, or hangs if I select ignore all.

My experience with Vista/Win7 boxes over the last five years is that when they hang/blue screen or whatever, 9 times out of ten, the only fix is to salvage as much data as possible to another drive and then restore to factory settings. It’s time wasting and annoying, and I don’t know why people put up with it.

 

[richc46]

Im surprised no one picked up on this. If you had a blue screen, please upload the following information
http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/96879-blue-screen-death-bsod-posting-instructions.html

 

[mcart117]

Many thanks for that richc46, I'll bear that in mind for the future. Unfortunately, by the time I posted, I'd tried six or seven restore points, and it runs like treacle and locks up, but it is not blue screening any more. I could try to make it blue screen, but right now I am attempting to recover some data and I don't want to interrupt it.

I only really posted because I was curious that six different restore points failed with sector damage in six different files. How could a computer, which was working OK before the crash, suddenly have sector damage in so many different places?

 

[whs]

I am sorry if my little joke did not fit into the landscape. But it is my experience since Vista that you cannot rely on restore points.

There are many events that can erase or damage the restore points. If it is bad sectors, you can at least try to fix it with a chkdsk /r. But software processes are hard to control and at the end you never know which process was the culprit.

I allocate about 3GB for shadow storage of each partition - more or less out of tradition. They can be very handy on data partitions because when I erroneously deleted a file, I can recover it quickly with Shadow Explorer. But I do not rely on it - especially for the system where I take images 3 times per week and my data I backup as needed - it does not change that much.

So bottom line: restore points are useful when they work, but don't rely on them. And you never know what caused the malfunction - at least I can never pinpoint the cause.