System Restore stuck on Initializing stage

I tried doing a System Restore a couple days ago, and it got stuck on the "Initializing" stage - as in it was on that stage for over an hour (with no discernable HD activity) before I gave up and did a hard reset.

Questions:
1) Could this cause any system instability? Or is it OK to reset during the "Initializing" stage?
2) If "yes" to (1), what can I do to fix the problems? Should I restart and select "Repair" mode?
3) How can I get System Restore to work properly again?

Welcome to the Forum

This excellent tutorial should show you how to get to System Restore, to go back to the time when things were working. Yes,I know System Restore is your proble, but this may help;


http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html?ltr=S

Look at Section 2.

If you get to system restore and set it back to before the problem, you have not caused any problems.

richc46 said:

Welcome to the Forum

This excellent tutorial should show you how to get to System Restore, to go back to the time when things were working. Yes,I know System Restore is your proble, but this may help;


http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html?ltr=S

Look at Section 2.

If you get to system restore and set it back to before the problem, you have not caused any problems.

Click to expand...

But the problem is that every time I try to run System Restore, it "hangs" on the Initializing stage....

rs913 said:

richc46 said:

Welcome to the Forum

This excellent tutorial should show you how to get to System Restore, to go back to the time when things were working. Yes,I know System Restore is your proble, but this may help;


http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html?ltr=S

Look at Section 2.

If you get to system restore and set it back to before the problem, you have not caused any problems.

Click to expand...

But the problem is that every time I try to run System Restore, it "hangs" on the Initializing stage....

Click to expand...

But my remedy involves running from the DVD, not the installed, stalled OS. NO guarantee that it will work, but i have hopes.

richc46 said:

rs913 said:

richc46 said:

Welcome to the Forum

This excellent tutorial should show you how to get to System Restore, to go back to the time when things were working. Yes,I know System Restore is your proble, but this may help;


http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/194765-system-recovery-options.html?ltr=S

Look at Section 2.

If you get to system restore and set it back to before the problem, you have not caused any problems.

Click to expand...

But the problem is that every time I try to run System Restore, it "hangs" on the Initializing stage....

Click to expand...

But my remedy involves running from the DVD, not the installed, stalled OS. NO guarantee that it will work, but i have hopes.

Click to expand...

No DVD - it came pre-installed. But I did try running it from the partition (i.e. from the Advanced Boot Options screen). This time it got past "initializing" and on to "restoring files" before getting stuck for 1 hr., at which point I pulled the plug.

Seems like a longshot, but anything else I can try before I start backing up everything and reading up on re-installing Vista?

I think it is unkind to mislead, so I will not tell you that you will not have to reinstall, but we are not there yet, try this. I hope that this works.

Did you try using System Restore in safe mode?

I have given you several posts, follow them in order.

I put this in a separate post to make sure that you try the above step first. It that did not work, give this a try.

Using Last Known Good Configuration


Run a through anti virus scan. Download and run: http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

http://www.ehow.com/how_5829777_reinstall-system-restore-vista.html

If nothing has worked turn System Restore off, reboot and turn it back on again.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

richc46 said:

If nothing has worked turn System Restore off, reboot and turn it back on again.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

Click to expand...

Yep, I'm watching all your suggestions (and I hope I didn't overlook anything). In order:

1) I tried the steps in section 2 of the SR tutorial, running it from the partition (I don't have a CD). As I mentioned, it got one step further, past "Installation" on to "Restoring files", and then "hung" for an hour before I did a hard reset.

2) I tried SR from safe mode. No dice. Hung on "Installing".

3) LKGC doesn't seem to apply because neither the original problem nor the problems (possibly) incurred by my aborted restores involves Windows not starting.

4) Turning SR off and on again might help with subsequent restores, so I'll do this once everything's sorted out, but first I'm trying to either roll back to before this all happened or fix whatever damage I've done.

5) I did run both an antivirus (Avast) scan and anti-spyware (Malbytes) scan.

6) You did mention the "scan & repair" option in my other thread, that it will restore corrupted files back to the factory-original state. Just to make sure, this won't wipe out any user data, right? This may be my last option before the dreaded vista reinstall.

Lets back up a bit. I cannot say what will happen in any scenario. I do know what is suppose to happen and that is the scan will not touch your personal files.

But lets take a step for safety. Download Paragon software
Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Edition - Overview

Its free and it allows you to make a copy of your HD on an external, in the event of problems.

If you run the scan and it shows errors, do it several times, it fixes one file at a time.

I think that shutting down SR, will be the answer. I held off on suggesting it for the same reason that you are reluctant to try.

TY for the Rep. Its appreciated and a nice surprise.

Hello rs913,
What was the original problem that prompted the first system restore ?.
When you do a hard reset, there is a very good chance that system files will be affected, not in a good way though.

Follow this tutorial to verify that your system files are in good order.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66978-system-files-sfc-command.html

This will check, and try to repair any corrupt system files. It will not affect any other files on your system. You may need to run it more than once if it detects any corrupt files.

Try this and see what the results of the scan are, good luck.

I just read Stoney's post. The repair that he mentions is the same one that you found in my other post. As I look over all the posts in this thread, I do not see any mention of you actually trying it again. I go along with Stoney, give it a try, a few times.

Scannow only went through "verification" stage...????

richc46 said:

I just read Stoney's post. The repair that he mentions is the same one that you found in my other post. As I look over all the posts in this thread, I do not see any mention of you actually trying it again. I go along with Stoney, give it a try, a few times.

Click to expand...

I just tried it now (sorry, took me awhile to block out enough time for this). I just opened a regular cmd prompt, as I have admin privileges, and ran sfc /scannow.

I figured this would take awhile, but after it went through the verification stage it terminated with the message "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations".

Does this mean the scan ran incorrectly or that I'm in the clear? Note that Windows seemed to run a similar scan after I started up following my botched restore attempt, and it took longer and fixed some stuff that time.