Please help, I am running Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 SP3 (Just upgraded from SP2) When I try to run System Restore, it falls over immediately and I receive the following message: "SystemRestore Application has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." The options are: "Debug" : This results in yet another message "Unhandled exception at 0x7d4f512f in rstrui.exe: 0xC0000005: Access violation writing location 0x00000008." "Send Error Report" "Don't Send" If I run cmd + netstart then "System Restore Service" is listed (in a DOS box). System Restore was working OK one day, and the next day refused to work. It has been like this for months now (I have been using ntbackup.exe in the mean time, but this is not as user friendly as System Restore). In Control Panel | "System Restore" Tab - System Restore is enabled on all drives. Could this problem be due to a corrupted registry key or something else? Thanks, Ian

First of all I would question why you are using system restore on a frequent basis. Was your system, including system restore, fully functional prior to installing SP3?

System Restore was not working before I installed SP3. I like to back up my system about once each week. This is because, a few years ago (when I was running Windows 98) I had a flaky hard disk. I lost the entire operating system, including all my software, documents etc.

"I would question why you are using system restore on a frequent basis" I agree. "I like to back up my system about once each week." I think there's a lot of misunderstanding of exactly what it is & does. System Restore is NOT a backup utility, it basically takes a snapshot of certain system files at predetermined intervals, or when software changes are made, or when a restore point is manually set. You can then rollback to one of those points if you encounter a problem & with any luck, the problem *should* be gone. It doesn't always work that well though. Personally, I have it disabled on all my XP systems. "A limitation which applies to System Restore in Windows versions prior to Windows Vista is that only certain file types and files in certain locations on the volume are monitored, therefore unwanted software installations and especially in-place software upgrades may be incompletely reverted by System Restore. As a result, there may be little or no practical impact (aside from wasted disk space). Certain issues may arise when attempting to run or remove that application." http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System... "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

In addition to the correct comments in the #3 response I would add this. Microsoft will tell you on their site not to install SP3 if your system isn't currently working correctly. Many nasties, like viruses will disable any means to get rid of them. This means System Restore might not be working due to an infection. Installing SP3 just complicated the cleaning process. Do you use any Anti-Virus programs? As jam has stated, you misunderstand the purpose of system restore. You need to get an imaging or backup program or use the one already in WinXP (NTBackup). I would recommend getting Acronis True Image to backup your hard drive. The latest version can also perform incremental backup on whatever schedule you set. There are many ways to maintain backups. System restore is not one of them.

Ditto what everyone above said. Disable System Restore. Reboot. Re-enable System Restore. "So won’t you give this man his wings What a shame To have to beg you to see We’re not all the same What a shame" - Shinedown

Many thanks for your comments. Looks like I should disable System Restore, and continue backing up using NTbackup instead.