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Restore point creation and task scheduler 'catastrophic failure'

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Perchance:
Having run Windows Repair v3.7.4 in safe mode on a PC and a Laptop both running Vista (one 32 bit the other 64bit) both machines had the same serious problem. When trying to create a restore point from within Windows I got the error "The restore point could not be created - catastrophic failure 0x8000FFFF" Got same error trying to access Task Scheduler. Attempting to do a System Restore from an existing restore point also failed.

Thankfully I had taken the advice in the program to back up the entire registry and also create a restore point from within the program. By restoring the registry from within the program itself, I was able to get the two machines working properly again.

I would like to run the program again as it appeared to have made some significant improvements but I am obviously wary of doing so in case the same problems occur and may not be so lucky in succeeding with the restore a second time.

Any ideas what may have caused these problems and whether unticking any of the options in running it would bypass the likely cause?

Incidentally, I reset the following Services several times to 'automatic' and rebooted several times but the error remained on both machines - WMI Performance adaptor, Background Intelligent transfer, Windows Management Instrumentation, Windows search and Plug and Play.

Boggin:
The main service for restore points is the Volume Shadow Copy and that is default set to Manual with its only Dependency being Remote Procedure RPCS, but if that wasn't running you would have a myriad of problems.

Event Viewer may have some info on the restore creation failure, but if the restore failure was in normal mode then that could have been blocked by your AV program and the workaround to that is to try the restore in Safe Mode.

As a fall back to relying on restore points, create a system image onto external media before running Windows Repair (WR) again.

I should think this will be the same in Vista as it is in Win 7, but if you create the system images onto an external HDD then you would need to boot up with either an install or System Repair disk, but in Vista, it doesn't appear to be as straight forward to create a System Repair disk in Vista as it is in Win 7.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/141820-create-recovery-disc.html

It may also be worth running a sfc /scannow from a command prompt run as an administrator to see if it reports it has repaired some files or is unable to repair any.

If it reports no violations then it hasn't found any corruption.

If it reports it is unable to repair some files then run SFCFix.exe http://www.sysnative.com/niemiro/apps/SFCFix.exe

This will output its report to Notepad which you can then copy and paste into the reply box.

Julian:
open a command prompt and type in
--- Code: ---vssadmin list writers
--- End code ---
paste what it shows or send a snap shot.

Perchance:
Fraid I can't do that Julian, as the registry restore from within the program has removed the problem.

Perchance:
Many thanks for your helpful reply, Boggin. I did in fact run sfc /scannow but it did not show any errors. I did ensure that Volume Shadow Copy was running on both machines (it had been set to manual) so I started it, rebooted, checked it was still running, but the problem remained.

I just was wondering which actions/changes Windows Repair makes in doing its thing could have affected VSC or any other setting that could prevent Windows from correctly running both Sytem Restore and creating a Restore Point. The list of actions in the program is comprehensive and maybe unticking likely suspects could make good use of the program without creating the problem I experienced.

Your suggestion of creating a system image is of course sensible.

Also, I do congratulate you on how very prominent the warning to create a registry back up and a system restore point from within the program is, before running the repair. Having done so, that is the only thing that worked in solving the problem for me despite all my other efforts.

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