System Restore Tab Missing On System Properties

[Kevsim]

My computer is running XP Professional with an SP3 upgrade, I can not access System Restore no matter what.

I have looked at many posts re this problem, no matter what I do, I can not achieve the System Restore tab showing on System Properties.

I have tried to start System Restore in Admin tools/Services with a message "Could not start the system restore service on local computer. Error 2 the system can not find the file specified".

I try Start/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore and receive the message "System Restore is not able to protect your computer, Please restart your computer and run system restore again".

I have run SP3 again, AVG, MalwareBytes, Spybot, AdAware and none show a problem.

I would appreciate some advise.

kevsim

 

[goombawaho]

Under SERVICES is the system restore service listed? Is it set to DISABLED?

Right-click on My Computer and select Manage. Select the "Services and Applications" tab from the sidebar (the window on the left) and then select "Services." Go to "System Restore Service" and set it's status to "Automatic." Close the Computer Management window. Restart computer.


Have you tried an SFC /SCANNOW?

 

[tlcscousin]

http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairsr.htm

The link points to how to reinstall system restore.

 

[linney]

Some third party software can cause problems with System restore.

System Restore Tab Missing
thread779-596023

 

[rsymonds]

If you are on a domain the administrator may have created a group policy or possibly a local policy on that system disabling system restore.

 

[DrB0b]

Boot into safe mode and see if its there. Had an issue with a virus that did similar things before but always a good place to start, helps rule out possible programs....

 

[Kevsim]

So far I have tried the following -
1/ Started in Safe mode to see if the System Restore tab was there, it was not.
2/ Went into Group Policies/ Admin Templates/ System there is no listing for System Restore.
3/ Tried Admin Tools/ Services tried to start System Restore, received error "Error 2:the system can not find the file specified".
4/ Tried an XP repair install, there were some files it kept saying it could not copy.
5/ Re installed SP3, it did not make any difference.
6/ Ran rundll32.exe advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %Windir%\Inf\sr.inf, it asked for the following files -
sr.sy_
srclient.dl_
srsvc.dl_
srrstr.dl_
filelist.xm_
rstrui.ex_
srframe.mm_
srdiag.ex_
Each time on each file stated "Could not Copy".
7/ Placed files in another folder on "C" drive and expanded them, each time the file was rejected with the comment "Could not copy".
8/ Ran MalwareBytes deep scan, could not find any problems.

On "C" drive in the Recycler folder there is a file S-1-5-21-1844237615-1993962763-682003330-1003.
It will not let me delete it, "States being used by another programme".
I did a virus check and it said it was clear.

Is this some type of virus, the reason I ask is some time back there was a file in there I would delete and it would spawn when the computer restarted.

I would appreciate any other advise.

kevsim

 

[linney]

Have you checked the condition of your hard drive?

Try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (this will run it in a Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, restart it by ticking both boxes, and rerun it to allow it to attempt to fix any found problems.


The hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.

 

[Kevsim]

linney,
I forgot to mention, I had already used the utility to check the drives and it found no problems.

There is not a problem copying from other disks only the XP files. I borrowed another XP disk and still had the same problems.

I will try ChkDsk again and see what happens.

I also have a problem with a slipdisk at this time, see post

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1649007&page=1

These problems could well be related.

kevsim

 

[tlcscousin]

If you copy the cd to the drive in a folder and then edit the registry to point to the new location of the copied files and run sfc /scannow and see if it will replace the missing files.
The usual location of the key containing the path to the source files is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup SourcePath should point to the i386 in the folder you copied the cd to

 

[tlcscousin]

I forgot to mention export the key first so you can put the original source back in.

 

[linney]

Reading the checkered history of your system, do you have the original XP CD, and are you willing to Format and clean install XP, doing all the Service Pack updates via Windows Update? You might have to get to SP1 before SP3 can be installed. After SP3 you can catch up with the remaining Windows Updates.

You can save your valuable data, or use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard.

Upgrading to WINDOWS XP

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpupgrad.htm

Better still, maybe it is time to consider Windows 7, and a new machine? It is easy to make these type of suggestions when it is someone else's money.

 

[Kevsim]

linney and all the others who have shown support,
I do not want to do a clean install just because of System Restore.
I have that much to reinstall and it would take an extremely long time to do.

I have tried ChkDsk, Memory test, Scandisk and the Hard Drive tests again, all came out OK.

I tried the same files again from another XP disk, same problem.
I copied the offending files from both XP disks to another location without any problems, when trying to run them to reinstall System Restore it keeps telling me that they can not be copied.

When I went to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup SourcePath it was pointing to C:\Windows\Temp\WFTVFMNT.
I checked there and the following files were found -
Pefflib Perfdata 7b8.dat 16KB DAT File
Pefflib Perfdata 348.dat 16KB DAT File
T30DebugLogFile.txt 0KB Text Document
ZLT014b8.TMP 1KB Temporary File

I tried to delete them but said they were being used.
Started in Recovery Console deleted all, when rebooted all appeared again.

I changed the registry key to point for the i386 folder and reran scandisk, still same problem.

The more I look at it, Virus and Malware keep coming into mind.
The programme that runs the System Restore has to be infected or something else stops the copy process.

Any ideas where to start tracking this down?

kevsim

 

[stduc]

There comes a point when you can spend more time trying to find and remove a problem, be it due to a virus or anything else, than doing a re-install.

I feel you may have reached this point. I fully understand your reluctance. But how about this for a solution.

1. Make an image backup to a USB drive using a backup program that boots from CDROM. There is free stuff out there or if you are happy to pay then both Acronis and Shadow Protect are good. Both allow you to mount the image file as a virtual drive to copy data etc off.

2. Scrub the hard drive using the drive manufacturers testing software by doing a zero fill.

3. Re-install windows.

4. Re-install your software as you need it.

5. Consider installing virtual machine software and mounting the image you took in a virtual machine so you can see what software you really need to reinstall.

6. In future have a backup system in place so that in the event of a future occurrence you merely have to restore the most recent image.

 

[goombawaho]

^^^ There we go telling the OP what he didn't want to hear, but sometimes the best advice goes against what you really want to do.

Seems like a lot more people (everyone) could use drive imaging software and save a lot of pain when things go bad.

 

[stduc]

^^^ Has to be done at times. Backing up is a chore, but only a minor one these days. USB drives have made that task so much easier.

Funnily enough I still can spend ages on an issue even with the image. Case in point recently I spent a morning trying to fix a machine after a video driver update messed it up to the point of only allowing 4 colours! Tried a restore point, tried re-installing the latest drivers about 6 different ways, removed all video drivers and re-tried, failed. Then decided on an 6 day old image. Restoring that took 12 minutes! Oh well, such is life.

Why? because each install of the video drivers only took a few minutes and was bound to work! Yeah right!!!!

 

[linney]

Can any user gain access to the contents of the System Restore restore points folders and files on your machine? Are the Access Permissions a problem?

How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;309531&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[tlcscousin]

If you can get copies of the missing files you could try booting a bartpecd and copy them to system32.
You would need the expanded files and could have them on a usb drive. Make a BartPECD and boot from it with the USB drive plugged in. Use the file manager from the bootable CD to copy and paste the missing files into the system32 folder.
It is probably a lot better to do a fresh install, and if you want to try the BartPE CD way it should not harm your windows install which is pooched from the sounds of it anyways.

I would however check permissions on the folder your trying to access and ensure you have the rights to copy to it and that the folder or file is not laballed read only.

 

[goombawaho]

bound to work!".......eventually. That is the thought pattern that normally dooms you.

 

[Kevsim]

Thank you all.
I have tried all the suggestions except using the Image file which I already had and using Bart.

Unfortunately nothing worked, I can manually copy the files and replace them without a problem, but when it comes to rebuilding System Restore it keeps telling me the files can not be copied, the files are already there.

I am more than ever convinced this is a Malware or Virus issue as there are many others on the web who are having problems with Srclient.dll and so on.

kevsim