restore points disappeared and unable to make new backups

My computer has been okay since a new motherboard and hard drive were installed in January.

On February 23 AVG detected Trojan Horse Exploit.Downloader and Trojan Horse Downloader.Agent.13.Al and these were put in the Virus Vault. Early this morning this computer was okay. I checked System Restore and I had eight restore points and I made a new restore point before running chkdsk, defragmenter and attempted to make a new Microsoft BACKUP ASR. However, I received a window "files for recovery diskette could not be created - aborted ". Drive Image 2002 tells me "Drive Image has encountered a problem and needs to close ". In Event Viewer those two things are noted but I don't find other ERRORS. However, now I have NO Restore Points. Otherwise my computer seems to be working OK as far as I have noticed.

Microsoft Anti-Spyware is Active and up to date and I run a scan this morning.
I updated virus definitions this morning and run AVG on the C drive with no virus detected.
I run System File Checker successfully this morning and then tried unsuccessfully making backups again.

I made backups using ASR and Drive Image 2002 on February 12th. Guess I could attempt to use one of those if that is what is needed. I am clueless as to why the System Restore points disappeared today and why I cannot make new backups!

 

Thanks PeteC for the speedy reply. I made a mistake in my original message as the trojan was detected on February 15. The Trojan was quickly put in the virus vault so I didn't think it caused any problems...I almost didn't mention this incident. However, after your reply I restored a System State backup of February 12. This enabled me to use Microsoft BACKUP and Drive Image 2002 so hopefully the problem is resolved. I will watch System Restore closely for a few days to be sure. From now on I will certainly make a new System State backup frequently as this was an easy solution to this annoyance.

Thanks again for heading me to the solution to my problem.

 

I use Drive Image 2002 and I don't mess with System Restore; it's turned off on my computer. It's too slow and ineffective compared with just restoring a .pqi file.

If I even suspect I've taken on a virus, I'll restore in a hot minute. It only takes me about four minutes to restore. It takes about 1/2 hour to do a virus scan.

 

Thanks for the input RayH. I have a lot of free time and spend hours tweaking and trying to mess-up my computer. Guess I'm a bit paranoid but I like to have two completely different ways to recuperate from a messup which is why I use both ASR and Drive Image. I've never had to resort to a complete restore from ASR but the next time I need to restore I think I will try it before Drive Image just to see if I can do it. Drive Image has rescued me several times.

Everything is still AOK so restoring the registry must have fixed the problem. I don't know much about computers but try to learn all I can. I run my computer by the trial and error method...mostly error. I certainly didn't realize a Trojan could cause damage when the antivirus program immediately identified and removed it! Hopefully the registry is the only thing it changed.