13 GB of space and can't enable system restore

I just brought this Win ME computer through a virus attack of a number of variations of w32/opserv. The virus managed to wind itself into the compressed files in the _restore directory. I finally had to delete them. I couldn't seem to do anything with them.

Now I can't enable System Restore. I get a message that I must have 200 MB of space to enable. I have 13 GB of space on the drive. I ran scandisk and have no errors. I can't work with any controls for System Restore. If I try and enable System Restore in troubleshooting, the system restarts and System Restore remains disabled.

Any one have any ideas? I don't have a Windows ME CD and I have talked the machine owner into a Windows XP overhaul, but I would be interested in a simple solution if there is one.

Thanks in advance!

 

Boot the pc with a startup disk and delete the restore folder
Ive never let any third party software remove or fix anything within the restore folder,, though Ive had one offer to,, I assumed it might break things

choose minimul boot at the selective startup screen
and type ,

deltree /y C:\_RESTORE

then press enter ,,wait it may take awhile-
then take floopy out and press ctrl alt and del at the same time,, once restarted see if you can enable system restore again
windows should have rebuilt the folder

Regards
Lonny

 

Thanks Lonny, That's pretty much what I had done to get rid of the virus that was wraped inside the restore archives. I should have been more detailed in my first posting.

What I finally ended up doing (I wouldn't suggest this for the timid or conservative.) was going to the the windows\system( or system32, I don't remember, I should have made notes.)\restore folder and played with restarting system restore by executing a file that started with an r in that folder. I would look the file up but I only have a Win 98 machine running right now. I executed the other files in that directory and it didn't seem to hurt anything. I knew I hit the right file because the system restore program started without the message.

It wasn't a pretty solution but it did allow me to get the machine back to the client with what appeared to be a functional system restore feature.

Thanks for your thoughts! On to less frustrating things!

Best Regards,
Mike Fisher, Euphonius

 

Hello Mike,

For future reference:

If you move the slider that indicates how much drive space is allocated to SR all the way to the left - zero room, SR will empty the folder out - let it churn. When it finishes deleting all the restore points, reboot and turn SR back on by moving the slider to the right to however much room desired.

Regards - Charles