Question

System Restore fails; sr.inf reinstall method not working.

Asked by: RobinCham

When attempting to use System Restore, 'System Restore has encountered a problem and must close' and typical rstrui.exe detail message shown.  Tried to start SR via Safe Mode command line - no good.  Tried to reinstall SR via sr.inf as suggested many time on EE, but no go.  Even extracted sr.sys from SP1a and used own WINXP Home CD to find 'srframe.mmf' but still no go.  Could other files required for SR be corrupt?  Ideas welcome.

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Asked On
2005-11-12 at 11:35:02ID21628768
Tags

restore

,

system

Topic

Windows XP Operating System

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
14

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Answers

 

by: RobinChamPosted on 2005-11-12 at 11:50:06ID: 15280731

More info:  Using XP with SP1a installed.  Reluctant to do 'repair install' (don't want to have to reinstall many programs), and I've not upgraded with SP2 due to some legacy programs I use daily.  Note on other forum that upgrading with SP2 may solve SR problems, but cannot confirm.

 

by: gonzal13Posted on 2005-11-12 at 12:04:44ID: 15280817

I had the same problem wher System Restore stalled half way.

After that xp woud not start.

What I did is use a set of 6 start up disks to repair winxp. This also can be done easily if one does not have xp pro preinstalled on the HD.

Change the bios to boot from the cd rom
Insert the cd rom disk
Reboot the machine
When it gives you an option to rapair click on {R} button.
It wil not cause any data loss.

If you have a preinstalled program then what you need to do is to rename certain files by attaching to the end of the file name REM. After the reinstall you copy the contents to the original file folders.
The following site tells you about the files that might get corrupted.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;312369

gonzal13(joe)

 

by: war1Posted on 2005-11-12 at 13:12:54ID: 15281059

Greetings, RobinCham !

Here is registry edit to fix system restore

http://arstechnica.com/ask-ars/2001/ask-01302001.html


Best wishes!

 

by: war1Posted on 2005-11-12 at 13:20:33ID: 15281079

RobinCham,

The above article is for Windows ME.  For Windows XP,

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_restore.htm

To enable or disable System Restore, perform the following steps:

Start the System Control Panel applet. Select the System Restore tab. Clear the "Turn off System Restore on all drives" check box to enable System Restore, or select this check box to disable System Restore.  Click OK.  Also here:

To delete older restore points, but leave the system restore turned on: Right Click the Drive in question/Properties/Disk Cleanup/More Options/System Restore/Cleanup.

You can also click the Settings button to set a maximum amount of space that you want each drive to use for restore information. If the drive you select isn't the system drive, you can also disable System Restore on a per-drive basis. The maximum amount of space that you can use for restore information is 12 percent per drive.

An alternative to the usual method of enabling and disabling Windows XP's System Restore feature is to use the registry. To use this alternative, perform the following steps:  Start the registry editor (regedit.exe).

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore.
If a "DisableSR" value doesn't exist, go to the Edit menu, select New, DWORD value, and create the value.
Set the value to 1 to disable System Restore or 0 to enable System Restore.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\sr to prevent the System Restore service from starting.

Double-click Start, and set the value to 4 to stop the service from starting or to 0 for normal startup. Close the registry editor.

***Added Notes by:  Barry Nordendale (7-9-05)

"After making SR disabled in services,  I tried to open SR (no reboot) in CP/Services it said SR is off, would you like to turn on. I said yes and everything works fine now!"

 

by: RobinChamPosted on 2005-11-13 at 08:22:32ID: 15283624

gonzal13:

Neither XP nor 'legacy' programs are preinstalled, so MSKB article may be a little off-point.  

I've often up-graded mobo, CPU, memory, and other components and had to reinstall XP to satisfy Microsoft's HAL and activation schemes.  Reinstalling XP always required my reinstalling a host of programs (legacy or no); I'm assuming a repair install will require similar hassles.  That's why I'm reluctant to repair install XP to recover System Restore.  If you or others know a repair install of XP will NOT require this program reinstall scenario, let me know.

Thanks for your insight.

Robin

 

by: war1Posted on 2005-11-13 at 08:50:35ID: 15283713

Robin, did you see my suggestions for fixing System Restore?

 

by: RobinChamPosted on 2005-11-13 at 08:52:36ID: 15283716

war1:

Tried your alternative enabling method using regedit: no go.  Tried Nordendale's suggestion to turn SR off in Services (ala second regedit technique from your idea), no reboot, started SR in Programs/Accessories/System Tools, got message: "System Restore is not able to protect your computer.  Please restart your computer, and then run SR again."  Figured this was because I've disabled SR in registry, so I re-enabled SR in registry, rebooted, retried SR: no go.  

Further ideas welcome.  Remember, I'm able to vary the settings on the listed hard drives via Control Panel/System/System Restore, but I cannot open SR in any way.  

Robin

 

by: gonzal13Posted on 2005-11-13 at 09:59:37ID: 15283883

Robin:

Since xp did not come preinstalled, then you can do as described and the URL mentioned does not apply.

gonzal13(joe)

 

by: RobinChamPosted on 2005-11-13 at 10:46:25ID: 15284011

gonzal13:

Thanx.  I'm stalling on a repair reinstall, but may resort to this eventually.

Robin

 

by: gonzal13Posted on 2005-11-13 at 10:52:26ID: 15284024

Oh, before i purchased xp pro I  collected about 200 websites relating to xp. If you would like them, just go to my bio and send me an email. I now have in a short time 40,000 points towards my goal of 50,000 points so as to be recognized as an expert.

 

by: RobinChamPosted on 2005-11-16 at 07:42:57ID: 15303931

Accepted gonzal13's answer - repair install of XP - but since I could boot to XP, I simply ran an upgrade/install from my desktop using XP CD, an idea taken from www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm - giving credit to both gonzal13 for original repair install idea and webtree.ca for technique.

Thanx all.

Robin

 

by: gonzal13Posted on 2005-11-16 at 08:32:40ID: 15304383

Thanks for the points. I have another suggestion. I found out the hard way when I installed xp pro that it failed three times and as mentioned during a sytem restall. At that time I did not know about the repair option althought I had 200 URLs pertaining to the subject. If you want a copy of the URLs just go to my bio and send me an e-mail. I would gladly send you a zip file.

Also what I did is to purchase a slave drive the size of the Master HD. I then bought Norton Ghost, although Lee Tutorsaid Acronis is better. I first did a baseline back up and then programmed it to do an incremental backup. I realized after a while, that the incremental backups may back up a troubled drive. Thus I now do a fullbackup once a month, thus avoiding backing up a defective drive. The cost is about 200 dollars and you can install the HD by your self.

Just open the cabinet
Touch the power supply
plug in the new drive as a master. Normally the HDs come configured in this manner.
Next do an fdisk
reboot the machine and do a format. I use fat 32 out of habbit.
Next remove the new HD, put a white cloth under it, and move the jumper to the slave position. The cloth aids you if you drop the jumper.
Now install the HD on the same cable, holding the edges of the HD.
Before you close up the machine take a can of air, holding the cpu fan in place remove the dust form the fins.
Do the same with the powersupply
Next install Acronis True Image. Make a backup of the cd rom. All my Cd roms are backed up.
Next make a full backup which will be compressed.Erase the old back up monthly and do a full backup monthly.

Lastly on your master HD make a folder called Database for exampe and move all your data folder underneath it. Next on a daily basis simply cut and past the folder to the new HD.

Glad I could help. It give me a warm fuzzy feeling when I can help some one.

Sincerely

Joe

 

by: gonzal13Posted on 2005-11-16 at 08:36:31ID: 15304422

Oh, do not install SP2. It causes some programs to cease working. Microsoft at the beginning made it a manditory installation. The later found out that it had problems and thus it is now one of choice. Also in PCWorld  stated that the installed base is only 30 percent and corporate America does not recognize it as a trouble free Service Pack.

Joe

 

by: RobinChamPosted on 2005-11-16 at 09:57:52ID: 15305148

Joe:

Gotcha on the spare HD as backup:  I'm using both a mirrored RAID and a backup HD AND frequent backups to rewriteable CD's.  Can't be too careful.

Tried Drive Image (old Powerquest), TrueImage, and Ghost; prefer Drive Image.

And, I avoid SP2.

Robin

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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