System Restore

[dazuk1972]

Why does System Restore NEVER ever work anymore. I use Windows XP Home Edition. I get the message after the process saying System Restore reversed my PC susccessfully and when I check things out it made no difference at all except it made matters worse. I've had this many times and with two other PC's.

What happen was, and before I go any further, I use Roxio because I hardly have problems with it and Nero gives me problems all the time. What happened was, when I booted-up my PC I got Roxio Runtime error and it appeared again after rebooting. I uninstalled Roxio to re-install it and it got to about 60% of installation and it failed to continue. I used System Restore to reverse my PC back to Thursday that seemed to be the best and closest day and after that process completed it told me things were a success. That was when I found out nothing had changed. When I tried to uninstall Roxio again I keep getting this message.



When I click on OK, minutes later I get this message.



It seems that System Restore made matters worse because I never got all these messages the first time I uninstalled Roxio.

Does anyone know how I can uninstall Roxio and re-install it successfully?

Many thanks.

[Westly32]

Not a super tech savvy person, but perhaps running a registry cleaner (such as CC Cleaner) before attempting a re-install would help solve the error message program?

[dazuk1972]

Not a super tech savvy person, but perhaps running a registry cleaner (such as CC Cleaner) before attempting a re-install would help solve the error message program?

Many thanks but I tried that and it never worked. Do you know anybody else that might be able to help?

Many thanks.

[cynthia]

Checked if there is a clean remover of the program on the Roxio webpage? Nero has a similar tool for its program.

[dazuk1972]

Checked if there is a clean remover of the program on the Roxio webpage? Nero has a similar tool for its program.

Many thanks for the help. I tried that but the pages there only rattle on about stuff that takes ages to read where most people don't have time for all that. There's no instructions that say how to remove the lingering Roxio parts and there's no links to download any software. I did find one at a different site but it's only for versions 5 and 6 and I have Easy Media Creator 10 Suite.

[PurpleDemon]

I'm just guessing here because I have never used Roxio. Check out this page to see if it applies to your problem.

http://kb.roxio.com/content/kb/MyDVD/000110CR

If it is and it were me I would undo your last system restore and try changing the settings as described.

Once again just a guess. Good Luck

[katzdvd]

I don't know about your particular Roxio situation, but I can concur about sys. restore not working anymore. On several pc's, mine & friends, we have tried sys. restore on several occasions, & seems like we always get the same result;

It looks like it goes thru the restore process, but after a period of time, it informs us that the restore could not be completed. Got tired of fooling with it, just reinstalled windows, but that is a pain too, because it takes a bit of time to get everything else reinstalled as well...

Guess there is no easy solution...

[Chewy]

roxio will cause problems with almost any other burning program, the problem is you can't rely on it to work half the time

Like nero, it's bloated and you need to clean it up and reinstall it from time to time

Nero gives those options with fairly good support pages on their web site

Now you know why I refuse to support sonic/roxio, you can't if you wanted to

Just try reinstalling from a different location instead of a temp folder

[MilesAhead]

good idea

...

but that is a pain too, because it takes a bit of time to get everything else reinstalled as well...

Guess there is no easy solution...

The best option I've found so far is image backup to a USB 2.0 external drive. I have Seagate Free Agent USB 2.0 and backup averages about 1 minute per GB. If I have large files I'm not ready to delete, but I don't want as part of the restore set, I copy them to the external and delete from my HD before doing the backup. I bought the cheapie version of the backup. If you shell out more $$ I'm sure you can find ones that let you exclude folders from the backup etc..


Other than shelling out the cash, it's pretty painless. I start the backup going then watch TV or play on my other PC until it's done.

In the old days backup programs weren't all that reliable but now I see lots of posts from people using several different ones that have proved to actually work consistently in practice. You can get quite usable versions
for < $50 now.

[katzdvd]

The best option I've found so far is image backup to a USB 2.0 external drive. I have Seagate Free Agent USB 2.0 and backup averages about 1 minute per GB. If I have large files I'm not ready to delete, but I don't want as part of the restore set, I copy them to the external and delete from my HD before doing the backup. I bought the cheapie version of the backup. If you shell out more $$ I'm sure you can find ones that let you exclude folders from the backup etc..

After being bitting by the crap backup program Acronis, I pretty much wrote off any backup program. If yours works for you, great. Actually, I would probably have more faith in a Seagate program, but the one I mentioned was recommend to me by several folks in my area, including pc stores, & then it turned out to be one backup headache after another.

Program could not find backup drive, backup image, countless patch/bug fix downloads, & more; biggest waste of $$$ I believe I ever spent...

I did create a slipstream CD as another quick backup option, that method does work pretty well.

[MilesAhead]

After being bitting by the crap backup program Acronis, I pretty much wrote off any backup program. If yours works for you, great. Actually, I would probably have more faith in a Seagate program, but the one I mentioned was recommend to me by several folks in my area, including pc stores, & then it turned out to be one backup headache after another.

Program could not find backup drive, backup image, countless patch/bug fix downloads, & more; biggest waste of $$$ I believe I ever spent...

I did create a slipstream CD as another quick backup option, that method does work pretty well.

I don't use the backup software that comes with Seagate. Just the drive.
The only software I use from Seagate is the configuration program that lets you turn off spin down after inactivity time-out, and you can turn off or on the LED drive access indicator. I don't trust backup programs that are "thrown in" with the hardware.

I use Paragon Drive Backup personal edition. Before I relied on it, I did a clean install of XP, and installed about 16 programs I am very familiar with to test it. I did the backup, deleted C: partition using a 3rd party partition CD, then booted the restore CD and restored to the free space. When I booted the machine I couldn't detect any difference. If my test didn't work
then I was going to attempt a refund and keep looking for some software
that did the job. Since then I did a restore of Vista and that worked fine also.

At least on both of my HP machines, when I boot the Linux-based restore CD it picks up the USB controller. So you don't have to do anything to start the restore except plug in the external drive that has the restore set and then boot the CD.

I can remember back when I was running Win98 buying backup programs only to find later in the documentation under Restore something like "you'll
probably never need to run this but..." so believe me I'm not into blind
trust or collecting backup GB that I can never use for anything.

I test it as soon as I get it so I know whether to use it or chuck it.

[copyless]

I have used Acronis for a few years and never had any real problems with it until I got a Vista 64 bit system then I could not back it up with just going thru the program. But then I remembered my Acronis bootable CD, shoved it in, re-booted and it then backed up with no problems.

I would suggest if you have had problems, to create the bootable CD and use it to back up your drive.

As far as system restore, I too never had it work with XP, but have tried it a few times with Vista, and it seems to work great with Vista. I don't know (and I doubt it) but maybe SP3 addresses this problem.

[MilesAhead]

copyless on some software I go out of my way to find users with systems as close to my own as possible. That's one thing nice about the HP business support forums. I can often find somebody with a very similar setup and stick a question in a thread... "ever try this software on your system and did it work ok?" type of thing. Helps remove some of the guess work. Googling around I see people either love Acronis or hate it. But as you mentioned, Paragon too is semi-crippled unless you seek out the Linux-based CD. That's where most of the restore stuff lives. It backs up ok from both XP and Vista but the Windows-based restore CD is a waste of a burn.