System restore points vanished?

[smiley73]

picked up a nasty... long story :/ housemate's an a-hollio.

is there any way of accessing the missing points, or are they gone for good?

tried safe mode, but just dates for the last 48hrs... had clean/safe checkpoints for a year previously.

i have a corrupt registry and ive tried for hours to repair it but nothing works... could un-installing sp2 help?

pc is virus free now, but i dont know whats been done to it previously to **** up the registry is there some type of repair software in sp2? in work at the mo, but im gonna have one last attempt later.

sorry for all the questions, had very good advice here before.

cheers, al.

 

[Win2kpatcher]

What are the exact errors you are recieving? Also is this pre Boot Loader? Do you ever see the XP splash screen before you get these corrupt registry errors?thanks.

 

[smiley73]

hi Win2kpatcher...

yeah, it boots into windows desktop no problems... all the icons appear and all seems well.

when you click onto start/my documents/my music as an example, the desktop icons refresh with a slight glitch...

if you use anything else, they refresh a second time and all dissapear, just leaving wallpaper?

im guessing somethings changed in the registry, and all my previous clean restore points are zapped from a year or so... also start/search just causes the problem above again.

i just uninstalled SP2 via your uninstaller 2006, hoping the corrupted file would be repaced with a fresh install...

but no joy :/

also tried to repair via SP1 disc, but it wont give me the R option, once ive accepted the terms and selected the drive.

looks like whatever it was, real nasty and a format looks the only option.

cheers for the reply, al.

 

[peterhuang913]

Do a system repair using the disc.

 

[smiley73]

tried that peterhuang913, but the advice i read on the net (first time problem) said to ignore the repair section until after liscence accepted... and then select XP instilation from list and press R.

if this function is not available (after user agreement accepted)... exit disc, do not continue as o/s and all data will be eather destroyed/overwritten or double o/s on disc.

ive backed up all info, but im not shure about double o/s'ing the disk.

i had a look at the command prompts in the XP repair section, but this is a first for me and im not shure which prompt to use?

could really do with some help guys :/ or format it is...

 

[KSoD]

Repair does not put a double OS on your hard drive nor does it destroy your isntall. It removes the Windows components and puts them back with leaving your stuff intact.

 

[smiley73]

cheers for the replys... 3am and ive had too much coffee

i'll give it a go.

see you on the dark side hopefully!

 

[Win2kpatcher]

tried that peterhuang913, but the advice i read on the net (first time problem) said to ignore the repair section until after liscence accepted... and then select XP instilation from list and press R.

if this function is not available (after user agreement accepted)... exit disc, do not continue as o/s and all data will be eather destroyed/overwritten or double o/s on disc.

ive backed up all info, but im not shure about double o/s'ing the disk.

i had a look at the command prompts in the XP repair section, but this is a first for me and im not shure which prompt to use?

could really do with some help guys :/ or format it is...

You are correct for the repair option...the very first "R" option is for the recovery console, which we dont want. If you are not seeing the option for repair there could be several reasons. I only know cause I dedicated some time figuring personally why sometimes the repair option is there and sometimes it isnt. It mostly has to do with the media.

For example if you have Windows XP Home installed and are trying to use a Windows XP Pro CD the repair option wont be there.

Another example is if you made a custom slipstreamed CD with nlite and used the unattended install CD option...it will not produce a repair option for you.

It does not matter if you have SP2 installed and say used a XP CD with only SP1..it will produce the option for repair but will obviously drop the SP down back to SP1.

Is this the same XP CD you used to install the OS originally?

 

[Win2kpatcher]

Also you reach a point where you just say screw it..back up the data...reformat and just start fresh knowing everything will be fine..sometimes its the best option actually..I do it very much on client PC's when there to screwed up from spyware..

It sounds like your explorer.exe file is struggling..thus all the refreshing icons you are seeing...format the beeyootcchh and be done

 

[smiley73]

format the beeyootcchh and be done

Ha Ha, if you can't beat em... labotomise em!!

i noticed (scuse the terminoligy) that option three on the format sections would allow me to repair/replace the o/s, and by the looks of things... keep all the settings.

but as usual (nothings simple nowadays!) , 90% of the way through it keel'ed over and displayed repair cannot proceed, missing/corrupt dll. file.

so i cancelled the install, and then it would not boot into windows because another file was now missing from the boot section.

tried repairing using the command prompt section, but no joy.

made another coffee and did a total reinstall/format.

p.c is back on line now and seems happy and healthy. NOD's confugured and a tidy firewall has been fitted.

while i was at it, i changed my housemates logon password setting up his user account

see if he can guess it quicker than it took me to repair the pc. he who laughs last....

something along the lines of your_an_a$$_hole.

if you dont mind me asking Win2kpatcher, what would be your advice on some kind of backup of the whole o/s?

i have an external hard drive, but its pretty full tbh... could i create a partition on one of the drives, ghost (or similar) the o/s and then clone the o/s back if i had a future problem.

ill read into it, just wondered if something like that is possible.

guess i could just buy a smaller drive, clone the current one, to keep it as back-up maybe, unplugged in the carrage bay.

thanks for all the help and all! something new learned lastnight, too much coffee gives you the shakes and if you cant whip it into shape in an hour or so...format the beeyootcchh LoL

p.s
if it helps with future understanding of the tempremental 'R' syndrome, or lack of it... i was using legit xp home o/s, and the same/original inst. disk for attempted repair.

al.