restore wont work

Today i had a real disater one of my programs just disappeared. that is to say all the files (except data files - thak God) just disappeared from the HD.
So my 1rst inclination was to do a system restore. I went to the closest date and after a while it went through a process but NOTHING happened. Got message - no restore happened no changes. I tried several dates to no avail.
What is going on!!?? this is bad news when you can't do a restore PLS help
Of course the other Q is why did those files disappear in the 1rst place????. all I did prior to that was a defrag using the MS defrag
I run XP Pro
thanks

 

System Restore will not backup programs. Special backup programs can, just not System Restore. Without knowing what program you lost, I would backup the data files to another folder. Then run Add/Remove Programs and properly remove program from your computer. Now reinstall program. Test program for proper load/run. If good, move data back to proper folder(s).

 

Hi Dennis,

FYI, file types that SR Monitors: http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/sr/sr/monitored_file_extensions.asp

One of them is .exe files, so SR will restore any missing executables. There may be other files for the program that SR does not monitor.

If muruga has the setup for the program, your advice is the way to restore all the program's files.


Hello muruga,

Is the folder for the program under C:\Program Files missing entirely or there and empty?

 

Thank you for the correction Charles.
I was not aware SR protected via global file extension. "I assumed "... if it was not part of the Registry and/or a monitored OS system file(s) (deep dark secret only known by MS monks), SR would not back it up.
We all know what they say about, "I assumed ".

 

System Restore not working

except for the data files and 2 .DLLs all the files of this program (AskSam) were GONE just plain disappeared from the whole HD
a real mystery
I managed to reinstall. but why did it all disappear???