System Restore failed

[Doug]

Hi,
Has anyone tried a system restore from the RC1 install disk? Mine lists about 8 restore points, but when I select one, it tells me that "You must enable System Protection for this drive." and it will not restore.. I understand that from the Brink tutorial on this topic of System Restore, that it’s supposed to be on my default. There is no way I can check to see if it is on or off, because my computer will not boot. I certainly didn’t turn it off, so I’m wondering what is going on. It doesn’t seem to make sense to create restore points if you can’t use them, but you know the old saying… It might be interesting as well as prudent to check and see if yours is turned on like it is suposed to be.
Doug

 

[Avien]

System Restore works. Only thing i can think of is that your system restore files got corrupt or are too outdated to be used?

 

[Doug]

The latest point is only a few days old. If you're running RC1 can you confirm for me that System Protection is on by default. Also, have you tried it from the dvd install disk?

 

[Avien]

System Restore is on by default on RC. I would try it but the last image i have is from a few weeks ago.

 

[OEM]

When booted to the Install DVD and clicking repair, somewhere along the way, you should be offered to start a command prompt.

1. At the command prompt, type rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.

If asked for a password, type password and press enter. If no password has been made, but it still asks you for one, just press enter.
It should tell you if system restore has started. If so, go to 3.

2. If that doesn't work, try typing this in the command prompt:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

3. close the command prompt and go directly to the restore my computer option and see if it will now run.

This is how to start system restore when in safe mode, for whatever reason, you may have to do this with the install dvd repair/restore option. I've used the install disk to run a restore and had no problems, so not sure why it isn't working for you.

Good Luck

 

[Snufffed]

When booted to the Install DVD and clicking repair, somewhere along the way, you should be offered to start a command prompt.

At the command prompt, type rstrui.exe, and then press ENTER.
If asked for a password, type password and press enter. If no password has been made, but it still asks you for one, just press enter.

If that doesn't work, try typing this in the command prompt:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

If either works, close the command prompt and go directly to the restore my computer option and see if it will now run.

Good Luck

If the above do not work. try this:
from command (run as admin if possible) rstrui.exe /offline:C:\windows

If C:\ is not your win7 drive change to appropiate.
If you have a restore point set it will always choose the last point.

 

[Doug]

Hi,

Thank you for the comment. I was able to run System Restore. However, it gave me the error message that said "You must enable System Protection for this drive". As I understand it, System Protection is ON by default and I certaintly did not turn it OFF.
I have eight restore points listed and selecting any of them gives me this message. Is there any way I can turn it ON now?

 

[Dhanapati]

Doug,

I confirm that this condition is definitely not unique. I had the same problem. Further detail: Whereas the Restore Points are listed (indicating that the System Protection and System Restore is ON), the check box for the drive cannot be filled with a check, and therefore the Next box is grayed-out. When trying to fill the check box, the response, 'You must enable System Protection for this Drive' doesn't make sense.

I couldn't use a Restore Point and didn't have an image of the system to restore. An "in place" upgrade from the install disk wouldn't work either. (Strangely, the software responded by indicating that I had booted from the disk, asked me to remove it and run the upgrade after booting normally; a rediculous suggestion.) Fortunately, I did have one other option: I used the command prompt to go to \Windows\system32\config and found that I had recent backup files for four hives. By renaming them to the active files names, my problem was solved.

The only other discussion of this condition with Win7 RC (that I can find) was in Microsoft TechNet concurrently. That's here:
Windows 7 RC Crashed On Recent Software Install

Ronnie, the moderator, offered a logical suggestion on May 30. He wrote:

Go to the command prompt in the repair options. Type:

net start vss

Press ENTER.

This should start the System Protection Service.
Type the following command.

rstrui.exe

Press ENTER.

This command should start System Restore.
​

Unfortunately, the man with the problem reported that it didn't work. So, unless you backed up the hives and can get to them through the command prompt, or unless you have a system image, or unless some new fix comes along from Microsoft, I don't see a way out. What I can provide is validation about the circumstances, information on what hasn't worked, suspecions that this issue is the consequence of unproven code, and some empathy.

 

[Daemione]

Does anyone know if a solution was ever found to this problem? I've got a retail version of Win7 Pro-64, and managed to screw up my registry pretty good (combination of a missed reboot after a windows update and a clean/optimize using cleanmypc).

I've got a couple good System Restore point options, but like the others here, System Restore is claiming that System Protection isn't enabled on my C drive. Very frustrating.

 

[Barman58]

One thing to try is to run a restore from the recovery console via the install DVD - restores sometimes work without windows running that will not when inside the OS

 

[Daemione]

One thing to try is to run a restore from the recovery console via the install DVD - restores sometimes work without windows running that will not when inside the OS

Tried it, same result.

 

[jbaileyn]

Manually recover registry

Norton Utilities blew up my registry on an optimization/defrag/compress, which caused me to have the same problem described above. I checked \windows\system32\config and there were two registry hives with "rmbak" extensions... I renamed their corresponding live hive files to a "bak" extension and copied the "rmbak" files over the live hive files. This allowed me to boot up successfully. I was then able to go into Norton Utilites and restore the original registries (don't know if that was necessary but I did it just to be safe). I then uninstalled Norton Utilities forever.

 

[Barman58]

Make sure yoe go to the Norton site and download the Norton Removal tool - sometimes things remain after a full un-install.

 

[GTXND]

jbaileyn, http://www.sevenforums.com/member.php?u=44458I got the exact same result, running the exact same program; Norton Utilities. Do you mind explaining how exactly you were able to boot up your system?

 

[jbaileyn]

More detail

Sure, GTXND. Forgive me if I oversimplify but I'll include each step in case you're not familiar with navigating command lines (I was a tech support guy in college 20 years ago; old habits die hard). Also, changing registry files can be VERY DANGEROUS... I would only do it as a last resort before reinstalling Windows 7.

I first booted from the Windows 7 install disc to get to the system recovery console. I then selected Command Line. From there, I had to change from the X: drive to the C: drive by typing "C:". I then typed "cd \windows\system32\config" to get to the registry file directory. By typing "dir" I could see that two of the five hive files (default, sam, security,software, and system) had recent copies with an "rmbak" extension: default.rmbak and software.rmbak. I then executed the following commands:

ren software software.bak
copy software.rmbak software

ren default default.bak
copy default.rmbak default

I would suggest you execute the "ren" then "copy" commands as above for any other hives that have "rmbak" backups with the same date/time stamp. This ensures your registry remains in sync. You can now reboot and see if your computer comes up.

Here is an alternative suggestion if you don't have these "rmbak" files (if the above worked, don't do these steps; these would be a last-last resort before reinstalling Windows 7). From where we left off above type "dir RegBack". See what the time/date stamp is on the hive files there. If recent (use your judgment; mine is a couple days old so I would have probably used it had I not had the rmbak files, as I hadn't installed much in that time), you could do the following to restore that backup registry:

ren default default.bak
ren sam sam.bak
ren security security.bak
ren software software.bak
ren system system.bak
copy RegBack\*.*

Reboot and see what happens. If this worked, you may have to reinstall any software that was installed after the time/date stamps of the files in the RegBack directory.

One final note: I did try to restore to an earlier restore point once I made the above fixes. It kept coming up with an error. Therefore, I suggest creating a new restore point once the computer recovers, just so you have a clean one.

 

[Daemione]

An update on my end, I got my system up and running by doing the same as jbaileyn - i.e. restoring the SYSTEM & SOFTWARE sections of the registry through DOS prompt. Never did find any way to get System Restore working, with it insisting that System Protection was turned off on my C: drive. I double checked it once I got booted up again, it's definitely turned on, so I don't know what the deal is . . . but it sure makes me nervous about the feature for the future.

Oh, and I tested the cleanmypc registry tools some more - the error fixing part of the software wasn't the culprit, it seems to be the registry defrag that killed my system. And my original hypothesis of it somehow being combined with a Windows Critical Update may not be accurate either, a second go-around of the defrag screwed my registry again, even without a pending update.

For what it's worth, the tech I exchanged e-mails with from Cleanmypc was very helpful. He said they're gonna do some more testing on their end to try and reproduce my results on a 64-bit OS.

 

[faceman]

Thanks jbaileyn!

jbaileyn, I need to thank you publicly for posting the great description of the problem you encountered and your step by step instructions for resolving it.

Apparently at about the exact same time that you submitted your post, I ran Norton Utilites' registry defrag tool on my 64x Windows 7 computer. After the program tried to restart my computer to complete the process, I only got the "blue screen of death." When neither System Restore nor Startup Repair would work to get my computer going again, I panicked.

After collecting my thoughts, I tried chatting with Norton. Their first level of tech support was unable to help me. I would have to wait a day or two for someone to get back to me. That wasn't going to work.

Then I used another computer to do a Google search. After just a couple of minutes I found your post. I followed it to the letter and it worked perfectly!

So, jbaileyn, thanks for posting so articulately about your problem and your handy solution. If you're in Northern California, I'll have to buy you a beer.

 

[Daemione]

Oh, and I tested the cleanmypc registry tools some more - the error fixing part of the software wasn't the culprit, it seems to be the registry defrag that killed my system. And my original hypothesis of it somehow being combined with a Windows Critical Update may not be accurate either, a second go-around of the defrag screwed my registry again, even without a pending update.

For what it's worth, the tech I exchanged e-mails with from Cleanmypc was very helpful. He said they're gonna do some more testing on their end to try and reproduce my results on a 64-bit OS.

Looks like I had a slightly older version of Cleanmypc - v.4.02 . . . tech support said that version isn't compatible with 64-bit OS's (which I obviously discovered the hard way). Anyway, the latest version is 4.2X, and it seems to work fine.

Still, I really want to figure out what the problem is with System Restore. As far as I can tell, it works when running it from a successful Windows boot. It's running it from the rescue/repair non-booting options where I (we) get the "System Protection is turned off" error.

 

[scatman2244]

jbaileyn,
Thank you so much for the fix you have posted here, I would have been screwed without it. I joined the forums just so I could thank you for what you have done, it helped me heaps! My error came about with Auslogics Regdefrag, which seemed to affect my win7 64 bit system in the same way other members have experienced.

Once again, thanks for such a clear and concise description of how to fix the problem, many thanks indeed.

Happy New Year!

 

[geekygirl]

Thank you jbaileyn

I also want to publicly thank you for your post.

I did not have the .rmbak files listed so I went on to the bottom part of your post to look for answers.

I copied the files as specified out of the RegBack file. I was then able to use system restore.

Unfortunately the restores didn't fix the problem. The computer is still unable to start.

This situation makes a great case for having backups done regularly