I have been trying to do a system restore and it won't work. I have done this many times in the past so I don't understand what the problem is. Whenever I try to restore, a box appears which tells me system restore has been turned off - and asks me if I want to switch it back on. I don't ever remember switching it off in the 1st place. When I say yes to switching it on - the calendar displays for me to pick a date to restore to. This is where the problem is. I can't even go back 1 day to do a restore. It will only let me restore to the current time, which is no use. I need to take it back by a few weeks.

I would appreciate any help to resolve this. Thanks

Press <windows key>+BREAK to bring up the system properties, then on the System Restore Tab, highlight your drive(s) and click the settings button to check how much space has been reserved for system restore points.

The default is MAX. Try moving the sliders there and see if that helps.

Tried moving the sliders and it's still the same. No luck at all

I've even tried clearing disk space and used the disk defragmenter option but nothing seems to be fixing it.

what is it your trying to get rid off lol

Your comment does not help me resolve the problem. It's nothing illegal I can assure you.

System Restore should do the trick!

josh read the thread 1st.......comments like that innocent or not are not needed
sorry cant help you spenny

Thanks Tids.

Right, are you on an administrator account spenny?

If not, that may be your problem!

Administrator account.......erm - I have no idea lol I just switch on my pc and away I go. Been using same pc for 3 and a half years and this is the first time I have had this problem.

Is the administrator account got something to do with pressing f8 several times at the start of the log on process?

If your account is the only one, then its the administrator account.

What is the exact message you get when you try to run system restore?

Yes my account is the only one.

Exact message says system restore has been turned off. Do you want to turn on system restore now? When I click yes, it takes me to system properties. The box that says turn off system restore has a tick in it so I take the tick out to put it on, which changes the status from off to monitoring. Next, I press the next button to go on to the select to a restore point. This brings the calendar up but it doesn't allow me to select a previous date at all.

Edited at 15:57 Fri 8/08/08 (BST)

sorry just having a joke

Yeah no problem, lol. Just so frustrating. This pc is starting to drive me crazy lol

Ok, so when you go back into the system restore properties, does is the tick back again?

I'm suspect thing might be a group policy thing, some viruses use that method to deactivate system restore.

Go to Start>Run and type GPEDIT.MSC

The open up this path :
Computer Configuration> Administrative Templates> System> System Restore


Set both Turn of System Restore and Turn off Configuration to Not Configured

Reboot, and see if that cures it.

When I type in GPEDIT.MSC it says windows cannot find "gpedit.msc" Please check name is correct and so on.

Do'h!

What OS are you using?

Microsoft Windows XP (Home)

Ok, well, can't be group policy then because XP home doesnt support that feature.

Back to the previous questio : when you go back into the system restore properties, is the tick back again?

Edited at 19:47 Fri 8/08/08 (BST)

When I go into system properties after switching the pc on, the box is ticked against the turn off system restore box. When I take the tick out to turn restore on, I can access the restore to an earlier time page after pressing next. The calendar is displayed but it does not offer me any dates for me to go back to.

Sorry spenny, didnt notice you'd replied here.

Thats normal behaviour since you had just turned it back on.

I take it that each time you go back to that, the box is ticked again?

If so, there is a chance this is a malware problem which your antivirus (you do have one dont you?) has missed.

I'd reccomend Spybot Search and Destroy (v1.6 is better than Defender in my opinon, just in case any regulars ask why i changed my mind!) to download and scan : http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html


Again always assuming you have up to date antivirus already.