System restore

Having succesfully used System Restore in XP. I cannot use SR in Vista on my new laptop. I receive the message "SR did not complete successfully. The restore point was damaged or was deleted during the restore"
Any ideas?

Hi

Well...sounds like a corrupted restore point. How old was this restore point you tried? The maximum I recommend is 1 week old, otherwise too many changes have taken place and since Restore does NOT restore everything back to the chosen date, things can get rather muddled doing this too often.
I have also seen many others complain that SR in Vista isn't as stable as it used to be in XP, and it wasn't too stable then either IMO.

So..if your SR points are now unusable, you are left with either sorting things out manually or a possible reinstall after backing up whatever you need to keep.
What prompted the need for a restore? We may be able to sort that out and get this resolved without going that route.

Hi Chappie, I have tried restoring a 3 day old restore point and I have even created a new restore point for today all with the same result. Having just moved all my files and folders from my old laptop (xp) to my new laptop (vista) using Laplinks pc mover(it took 3 hours) I am reluctant to do a complete reinstall if it means I will have to transfer the files again. Is there another way? Or should I learn to live without SR? I have found it extremly useful in the past.

Hi Romeo.

I got rid of shadowcopy/system restore from my system a while ago. I found that it used up a lot of hard drive space. Instead, I use Acronis True Image Home. It does a image copy of your hard drive to whatever media you choose. (I have an external hard drive that I do the copying to). I do a complete backup of my hard drive once a week and I never have problems with that. If you are reluctant to go through the whole procedure of reinstalling your O/S and software, i recommend making the investment in True Image 2009 (just released!). No matter what happens to your hard drive, you will always have a backup.

Good Luck!
Snarks

Hello romeo hotel, welcome to Vista forums!

I have used SR many times in Vista with great success. Can you think of anything you may have installed that may have corrupted the restore points? You didn't use device manager to remove any of the hidden "Storage Volume Shadow Copies" by any chance. Not trying to 'blame' you but can you think of anything that may have happened; a virus maybe. How old is the system?

Keep us informed!










Later Ted

Hello Bare foot Kid and others, I am taking all messages on board. I have not used Device manager to delete anything. I have asked the manufacturer (Sony) the same question, and all they say is to do a full system recovery which I am reluctant to do - see above. The laptop is only a few weeks old, system restore has not worked from day one. It goes though all the motions, but after the restart I get the failed message.

Hi Stormy 13, I have 23 Sony programs in Programs and features.

Hello again.

Stormy may well have a good point; that could be part of the problem. Did Sony provide a Vista install disc, or is there a "Recovery Manager" partition? Click on computer to see if there's a partition.

Keep us informed!











Later Ted

Hello, Sony did not supply an installation disc, but I made a recovery disc before I started using the computer at Sony's suggestion. There are no partitions.
I am wondering if using Laplink's PC Mover to transfer all my files, docs and some software from my old pc (xp) to my new pc (Vista) has caused a problem.

If there is no recovery partition; what did you create the recovery disc from?

















Later Ted

there were instructions of how to create recovery discs with the pc, but I have just seen that there is an option to restore drive C or to restore the entire system. If I restore drive C am I going to lose all my files and settings that I painfully transfered between pcs? You have probably guessed that I am not an expert. Is there any way to just trouble shoot system restore?

See if anything at Bert Kinney's site helps you, he is an MVP and expert with regards System Restore.

System Restore in Windows Vista
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/vista.html

Hi

SR can be a Lifesaver for some, and a Nightmare for others...and finding out why can be as hard as proving other intelligent life out there. Bert Kinney is definitely an SR expert.

Romeo, just to clarify for us, you bought a Sony PC and had all your stuff from an XP laptop transfered over by a PC tech right? So your Sony PC should have a Recovery Partition on it, which is most likely a hidden partition and therefore you don't see it unless you turn on the "Show Hidden Files" option. That's how you were able to make a Recovery disk also, it's there but you just can't see it the way your system is setup from Sony.

Anyway, what exactly is causing you to think you need a system restore anyway? You still haven't told us just what kind of a problem you're having other then sr won't work. You also said from "day one" but why would you need to restore when the system is basically new? Please tell us what problems you're having and maybe we can eliminate the need fr a restore right now, solve your current issues, and then we can troublshoot your restore problem.