KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR
|  [XP Home] System restore mess......
Good grief. Long story short. I had issues with my Nintendo usb wifi adapter. Uninstalled it and had issues with windows hanging after logging off. Decided to do a system restore from Monday. It took out my firewall, anti virus, and my other programs. I almost had to reformat. I had to uninstall my programs that are in use online and reinstall. I was furious. First time ever I have used the restore when I really needed. Why did it cause such a mess? On top of that. I had to redownload SP3 again. This is not even a for sure fix. I do not want to reformat. So, far so good. |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs: 
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| You cannot revert a machine with SP3 installed by picking a Restore Point from prior to its installation.
Your computer is an absolute mess right now internally because of what you did. System Restore is not a State Save feature. It should not have been used to try and revert an Service Pack installation. The necessary first step would have been to uninstall SP3 prior to the use of System Restore. SP3 can be uninstalled from Add or Remove Programs, or through the use of Recovery Console.
Either install SP3 again, or restore your operating system from your backup. But your computer now has a mix of pre and post-SP3 files, smashed together with a week old version of critical registry keys. This is why your antivirus and firewall appeared as missing. Their control is up to the Windows Management Information service (WMI). Among other things you damaged with System Restore, was the WMI Repository, a critical database for the operating system. Rather than uninstall and reinstall your antivirus and firewall, you should have repaired the WMI Repository.
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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | In short. Are you suggesting a complete reformat? Things are fine now. But, later down the road. Things might be showing up. How do I repair the WMI Repository? |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| I am not suggesting a reformat. I suggested reinstalling SP3.
I would:
1. Repair the WMI Repository. [*]
2. Download the XP SP3 Stand-alone Installation Redistribable.
3. Boot to Safe Mode (without Networking). Use the Control applets for both your firewall and your Antivirus, and be certain that both are disabled. Then run services.msc and check again -- be absolutely certain that no Antivirus or Firewall background service is running.
4. Install SP3 from your download.
5. Reboot to Normal mode. Check to make sure your Firewall and Antivirus is re-enabled.
6. Reboot again. (The first restart after installation is to be used to allow XP to reconfigure itself internally).
[*] Repairing the WMI Repository
Using your mouse, left click once below where it says: "Copy to clipboard":
Open a new Notepad document. (Do not use a Word Processor or WordPad). Click "Format" and be certain that Word Wrap is not enabled.
Right-click | Paste the Code box contents from above into Notepad. Click File, Save as..., and enter (including quotation marks) as the filename: "TemFix.CMD". Exit Notepad.
Double click your new file to run the batch script. You can then delete this new file.
Reboot when the script finishes.
Best wishes,
Bill Castner
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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR
edit:
May 10th, @03:32PM
| Few questions. I do not see where it says to left click once below where it says: "Copy to clipboard": Do I just basically copy and paste every thing in there to notepad? Do I uninstalled SP3 before reinstalling it like you said? Sorry I am completely new to some thing like this. Appreciate the help. Also when you say no networking. Do you mean to unplug my modem/router? 1 last thing. Where can I get a legit copy of sp3 stand alone? MS website seems to not let me dl it. You have to be a member or some thing. |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| It is hard to see, but in the Code box containing the script, right hand side, is "view plain copy to clipboard print"
The middle choice simply grabs the entire script. You are welcome to Copy/Paste in the alternative.
Best wishes,
Bill Castner
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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR
| Okay. So, out of all of this.
@echo off
cd %~dp0
REM Batch script from the DSLR/BroadBandReports Forum
REM If you see this file, go ahead and delete it.
REM Written by MS-MVP & DSLR-MVM Bill Castner
echo Clearing the existing WMI Repository ........................
net stop winmgmt>nul 2>&1
ren "%windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository" "Repository_bad">nul 2>&1
rd /s/q "%windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository"
echo Done .....
echo Rebuilding a new WMI Repository ..................
net start winmgmt>nul 2>&1
rundll32 wbemupgd, UpgradeRepository>nul 2>&1
echo Done ........................
pause Reboot the computer to finish the repair.
del %0
exit
Is this what I need to copy and paste into notepad?
net stop winmgmt>nul 2>&1
ren "%windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository" "Repository_bad">nul 2>&1
rd /s/q "%windir%\System32\Wbem\Repository"
echo Done .....
echo Rebuilding a new WMI Repository ..................
net start winmgmt>nul 2>&1
rundll32 wbemupgd, UpgradeRepository>nul 2>&1
echo Done ........................
pause Reboot the computer to finish the repair. |
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | The reason why I could not see what you was talking about. I am using FF with no scripts. I opened IE7 and see it now. |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| reply to KoRnGtL15
There is no line that is non-essential.
From this very first line:
@echo off
..... SNIP ......
exit
Until the last line after the word "exit", which is a blank line.
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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | Okay. I done every thing you said to do in exact order. Hope fully my system is alright and back to normal. |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs: | reply to KoRnGtL15
Should be OK now.
Let me know if not.
Best wishes,
Bill Castner |
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | My system just froze again when logging off. It will say logging off and just hang. I had to hold the power button down once again to shut it off. I know this is not good for the pc at all. Can you suggest a possible fix? |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| It will not harm the PC.
Download and install the Microsoft User Profile Hive Cleanup Service:
»www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta···0E2F3582
Then download and install ERUNT. This is a tool that will automatically make backups of your registry hives. I want for at least several weeks you to leave this in place. I fear for your registry hives at the moment:
»www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
Run the setup program and accept the default settings.
During installation, the program will ask you if you'd like it to start with Windows, making a backup of your Registry each time you boot the system. For maximum protection, let it do this. Once done, untick the Show documentation box and click Finish. ERUNT will make its first backup, which it stores in the Windows\ERDNT folder.
Double click "My Computer" to open the folder.
Right click the icon for Drive C, Properties.
Click "Disk Cleanup", at bottom right of the pie chart.
Under Options, choose Downloaded Program Files, Temporary Files, and Recycle Bin. Click "More Options", then click Clean up in the box for System Restore. Answer "Yes" to the prompt are you sure.
Run the Disk Cleanup.
Go again into "My Computer", and again right click the icon for Drive C, Properties. Click the tab "Tools", then the button "Check Now", and checkmark both option boxes. Run the Disk Checker utility. It will tell you that a reboot is necessary, so let it reboot. Let chkdsk run until it completes. Do a clean boot and test the operation of your system.
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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR
edit:
May 11th, @03:23PM
| I have found the culprit. It was my Online Armor firewall free version. Uninstalled it and all is well again. I put back on ZA free. Do you still suggest going through those steps? |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs: | I think every XP PC should install the Hive Cleanup Serviced and ERUNT.
But no, the case is less compelling now. If you decide not to do either step, that is acceptable.
But not preferred. |
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | The Hive Cleanup service. I have always had installed on my pc. I went ahead and installed erunt with the method you said to do. Better to be safe than sorry. |
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HRM
God Bless America
Premium,MVM
join:2002-02-03
Darien, CT
clubs:
 ·Vonage
| reply to KoRnGtL15
Also wanted to mention after big installs and updates the log off or shutdown can take much much longer than normal.
I was sure a machine was frozen but the phone rang and I got up to get the phone. Sometime while I was talking it shut off on its own. I would have hit power since it was taking much longer than normal. |
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bcastner
Premium,MVM
join:2002-09-25
Chevy Chase, MD
clubs:
·Verizon Online DSL
| Try to clean up this computer a bit after this massive servie pack. I suspect your Restore Point and Volume Shadow area are full; forcing XP to age older restore points to make room at each shutdown.
Use at least Disk Cleanup and have it remove any temporary files, and under More Options, remove all but the newest System Restore Point.
But some of this will clear up after about three days. Most of XP's caches have to be rebuilt due to the Service Pack. This is a background idle task, and takes several days to complete.
Finally, a defrag would be a good idea.
It was good news to hear you installed ERUNT. I wish everyone did.
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MS-MVP 2004 - -2008, ASAP Member
Users Helping Users
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KoRnGtL15
Premium
join:2007-01-04
Grants Pass, OR | ^ I went ahead and done those as well. Quick question. Now that I have ERUNT installed. Do you suggest disabling system restore or just leave as is enabled? |
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Mele20
Premium
join:2001-06-05
Hilo, HI
| reply to bcastner
said by bcastner  :I think every XP PC should install the Hive Cleanup Serviced and ERUNT. Thank you so much for that information about ERUNT.  I have had the Hive Cleanup Service for several years and would never be without it. But I didn't know about ERUNT. I installed it and ran it accepting the defaults for the storage location and putting it in the Startup folder.
The ReadMe file is a bit dated I think. It doesn't mention anything about Autobackup. I read his FAQ too. I don't reboot often but when I do it might be three or four times close together ...like tomorrow as I install each MS patch separately after downloading them from the download center. So, does it create a new backup each time I reboot? Or does it only make an autobackup on a cold boot which I rarely do? Also, how many backups should I save? I saw he said to turn off System Restore but I like it so it is ok to have both, right, but less restore points than I have currently (it is set at maximum)? Otherwise, a lot of space taken for both System Restore and ERUNT backups.
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