Unable to enable system restore

What specific message are you seeing in MSConfig saying that system
restore is not enabled? I ask since I have never heard of MSConfig
posting any such message. What exactly do you see when you attempt to
use system restore? Either to create a checkpoint or to perform a
restore. I need to see the exact text of any error message. You might
want to post back the response to this question in a new thread with a
subject such as "unable to enable system restore".

in msconfig, General, a button Start System Restore, I click it and a
screen "system restore is disabled".

Then, to check, in Control Panel/System/../Troubleshooting, System Restore
disabled was unchecked, so it should be enabled, was not.

Therefore, how to enable System Restore?

Mike

ms wrote:

in msconfig, General, a button Start System Restore, I click it and a
screen "system restore is disabled".

Then, to check, in Control Panel/System/../Troubleshooting, System
Restore disabled was unchecked, so it should be enabled, was not.

Therefore, how to enable System Restore?

First try launching system restore directly rather than via the button in
msconfig. There are many ways you can do this including:
a) By launching system restore using the shortcut found at Start |
Programs | Accessories | System Tools,
b) From the link in Help & Support,
c) By entering C:\windows\system\rstrui.exe in the Start | Run box and
clicking OK, or,
d) By directly double clicking the file rstrui.exe (Use Windows Explorer,
rstrui.exe is in the windows\system\restore folder).

If these confirm your previous findings then:
Do you have at least 300MB of free space on the drive containing your
windows folder?
Is the *StateMgr entry still present and checked in MSConfig | Startup?
Is stmgr.exe running? You can check this using either a process monitor
such as WinTop or TaskInfo or by using MSInfo32 (Start | Help & Support |
System Information) and checking for stmgr.exe in the section Software
Environment | Running Tasks.

If all of the above are OK then I think that the best way forward would be
to remove the _RESTORE folder and allow the state manager to rebuild the
necessary control files which have probably become corrupted. Delete the
folder as follows:
a) Boot to DOS using a floppy. Do NOT choose "Minimal Boot" from the menu
when booting from a floppy but rather choose "Start computer with (or
without) CD-ROM support" otherwise the ATTRIB command will not be
available.
b) At the DOS A:\ prompt, type:

ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\_RESTORE
then
REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

c) Remove the floppy
d) Reboot your PC
e) Delete the folder C:\OLDREST
f) Check that an automatic system restore checkpoint was created.
g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder:
System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore
slider to your preferred setting. A figure of 2-300MB is normally more
than adequate for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to
be available although increasing this to perhaps 4-500MB for a few days
during periods of large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.

It might now be a good time to test that system restore is working
correctly. You can do this by performing the following test.
a) Create a shortcut on your desktop to a file.
b) Create a manual checkpoint
Could you create a checkpoint?
c) Delete the shortcut
d) Restore your PC to the checkpoint you created.
Was the shortcut restored? Did you see any error messages?
e) Reboot your PC
Was the checkpoint retained?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP