Hello Lykho,
* If indeed a System Restore was carried out the date should be recorded via the path below.
Start > Control Panel > System & Security > System > Restore system files & settings from a restore point > Restore system settings > next.
This should then allow you to see the date your system has been restored to... thus enabling you to have some idea of what was on your system at that time.
thanks -- just a quick note: I couldn't actually find "Restore system files & settings from a restore point" by following the directories you offered, only by searching 'restore' in control panel, which brought up a System heading with this underneath. (in 'system' you have to look to the menu on the left and click 'system properties', which opens a new window on a tab about system restore, with a button that leads to the same place search found.
it says 'no restore points have been created', so perhaps it just had to restart normally because I hadn't set up this feature?
another critical error I spotted in following your directions relates to a freeze that occurred a day later while doing some duplicate file matching.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/09124e99-d6a3-46d5-bf01-188aefe2115c
following their instructions (configure C: restore), I see that my "current usage" is at 0 bytes (and the slider is at 0), but on my D: partition usage is 39.32 of 40.63 max allowance) ...I would guess that means I set system restore to be saved on my data partition where it might be safe if C: is compromised (and since my system partition is too small for this (60gig with 20 free), but I don't know why I wouldn't have any restore points available if this 39gigs is being of any use at all.
this 39gigs is
a little perplexing, unless it has something to do with the duplicate file operation (which was up to 31K files when everything froze). -- I created a restore point for C:, and it has configured itself to a max of 1.7GB, and only used 43MB ...a far cry from D:'s setting).
* Out of interest you could also check in Event Viewer to see what had been recorded.
Type eventvwr in search.
Go to the Windows Logs > Application / System > in the left hand column.
Note anything in red that relates to the "Restore" or " problem."
Record the event ID, and the Source Code and tell us what they are.
Event Viewer is the program I was trying to remember! (action center was all I could find)
looks like the critical failure at issue was 'Kernel-Power' (event ID 41). (I've suffered many of these, as far as I know they've only been due to city-wide power failures).
"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."
