System Restore Problem: Seems to "hang" and receiving error messages

I'm experiencing the System Restore problem where if I attempt to take a new Checkpoint, the System Restore program "hangs ".

I've done all of the following things:

1. Run Spybot 1.4 and cleaned up any errors
2. Run NAV and done a full system scan - no errors
3. Turned off System Restore, booted to SAFE mode and deleted the System Volumes on all of the drives
4. Turned off and then back on System Restore....several times

The problem I'm seeing most and I've not been able to clear is where I receive the error message:

"system restore encountered an error trying to enable/disable one or more drives. Please restart your machine and try again. "

In my case the error always occurs when I'm trying to enable System Restore. If I do a restart of the system as the message suggests I end up back at the start of all my problems in that System Restore hangs.

It's gotten to the stage that I have to turn off System Restore whenever I install any new programs or system updates.

 

Done. For anyone wanting to follow this issue, check the following link:

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?p=263816#post263816

 

I didn't see anything particularly exciting in the HJT scan.

A couple things to try - general cleanup and frequent cures for strange, one-off problems like yours. Do this with SR turned off.

- from a cmd prompt, chkdsk /r on all your partitions. Note that the system partition and any that have system files (such as a pagefile) will not allow the scan realtime and you need to answer Yes to doing the scan at next boot and then reboot. It will be happy to do multiple partitions when you boot.

- from a run line, sfc /scannow (note the space after sfc) and you will need your XP CD. Could easy ask you to click RETRY a dozen or more times. Do that.

 

I've now done all of the following:

• Run CHKDSK /r
• Run SFC /scannow
• Run a clean-up of the Registry
• Run Spybot
• Run HijackThis

Despite having done all of the above I'm still getting the error when I attempt to turn on System Restore

 

Fixed the problem!!

Did an uninstall of Norton Internet Security 2005. Once having done that and gone through the process of turning off System Restore, rebooting and then turning on System Restore, I found that I was able to resume create checkpoints.

I then did a reinstall of NIS 2005 and after rebooting and with some trepidation I tried creating a System Restore checkpoint which worked fine.

I have no idea as to what the interaction was between system restore and NIS 2005 to cause the problem but it now seems to be working ok, at least for now.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice.

 

Whew. Good to hear and thanks for the update.

 

I have had the same problem, but the uninstall/reinstall of NIS 2005 didn't solve it. The problem seems to come up when I try to use Microsoft Update. updates are downloaded, but hang up on the "initializing installation . . ." step. I believe that's at the point where the install should be creating a System Restore point.

 

I bet if you were to go to the System Restore utility itself and request the creation of a checkpoint you'll also find it hangs up.

Unfortunately the solution that I found didn't work for too long, the problem came back.

I was able to prove conclusively that if I completely uninstalled NIS 2005 System Restore worked perfectly. As soon as I reinstalled System Restore the problem came back. I trolled thru the Symantec Knowledgebase for any hits that might pertain to this problem but couldn't find anything.

Anyway what I've now down is completely uninstalled NIS 2005 and reinstalled NAV 2005 and the System Restore problem has gone away. There's obviously something in one of the other components of NIS 2005 that's causing the problem to occur but I didn't feel like I wanted to spend any more time on this problem and pay Symantec for a support call to resolve what would seem in my opinion is a bug. To be fair to Symantec, I do have NIS 2005 installed on my laptop which is a mirror image of my desktop and the problem isn't present.

As far as the use of an anti-spam product to replace what was in NIS 2005 I've acquired Mcafee Spam Killer 7.0 which in my opinion provides a far more sophisticated anti-spam solution to that of Norton's offering.

Should anyone ever come across a solution for the NIS 2005 issue with System Restore I'd be glad to hear from them.

 

I had just reached the same conclusion and am in the middle of the uninstall now. It occurred on both my laptop and desktop. Thanks for commenting. Makes me feel better about my choice, and I'll follow up on the antispam you suggested. I think that's what my cable provider gives for free.

 

Download from the Symantec site their SYMNRT.EXE program.

Once you've done the uninstall via the "add/remove" programs, you run the SYMNRT.EXE program and that will make sure that any last trace of having NIS 2005 is eliminated.