system restore inoperative

[Dennis]

I reinstalled windows ME several months ago. Everything is
working nearly perfect except that I can't seem to use
System Restore. Every time I have tried it I get the
message that it was unsuccessful and no changes were made.
The system is recording a system restore point every day.

Fortunately I have another utility that does nearly the
same thing, except If I need to I can't go back as far
as "system restore".

Any idea?

[Mike M]

The clue here is that you reinstalled Win Me. After you did that, did you
reinstall the various patches and updates including the 290700 patch that is
required by system restore to create usable checkpoints?

You can see whether you have installed the patch or not by checking the
version of the file smgr.dll in your windows\system folder. If v4.90.0.3003
then you have updated but if v4.90.0.2533 you have not and need to do so at
once.

Note that when installing the patch it will flush your restore folder
and create a single new checkpoint on completion. This cannot be avoided
since checkpoints created with the old version of smgr.dll cannot be restored.

It is also possible that at one stage you did install this patch but have
subsequently reinstalled Win Me over itself using the Win Me CD. Doing this
causes the original, broken, version of smgr.dll to be reinstalled.

If required the patch can be obtained either via Win Me's AutoUpdate, the
Windows Update site or from the Microsoft Windows Catalogue accessed from the
Windows Update site. For more details see MS KB 290700 - "Checkpoints That
You Create After September 8, 2001 Do Not Restore Your Computer"
(http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=290700) which also has a link to the
patch.

Since you have reinstalled Win Me may I recommend you to download and use the
Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html) which will help you
in identifying which patches needed to be reinstalled.
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP



Dennis > wrote:

> I reinstalled windows ME several months ago. Everything is
> working nearly perfect except that I can't seem to use
> System Restore. Every time I have tried it I get the
> message that it was unsuccessful and no changes were made.
> The system is recording a system restore point every day.
>
> Fortunately I have another utility that does nearly the
> same thing, except If I need to I can't go back as far
> as "system restore".
>
> Any idea?