Help! I use this program Religiously.
I have Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 installed on my machine (a Factory load from Dell). System Restore has been working fine for over two weeks. I always set a restore point before installing new software or driver.
Beginning this morning, using the Vista System Restore application, all of my previous points were gone. Also, if I create a new point, it will only appear in the application until I reboot. Microsoft auto installed the following applications (fixes) this morning before I noticed the problem.
Security Update for Microsoft Office Excel 2003 (KB943985)
Security Update for Microsoft Office 2003 (KB947355)
Security Update for Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (KB945432)
Security Update for Microsoft Office Word 2003 (KB950241)
Security Update for Microsoft Works Suite 2005 (KB943973)
Security Update for Office 2003 (KB945185)
Update for Outlook 2003 (KB943649)

How do I get the System Restore Program working without refreshing the entire machine?

I had Dell Chat Support online for 1 1/2 house today and they could not figure it out....
Tried sending microsoft support an email twice, but their system aborted.
I have also ran Registy Mechanic and System Mechanic 7 to clean up any registry problems.

I'll keep tuned ! thanks

KayEee, welcome to the forum. On my system, with Vista Home Premium, System Restore doesn't allow me to create a restore point. For that, I have to use System Protection under System Properties. Is Vista Ultimate different?

When you go to system restore and select "choose a different restore point", do you see any there? It sounds like you are saying that if you create a restore point, it only shows up until you reboot. Maybe the service is stopped, so try this from an administrator command prompt, and post back with the results:

> sc queryex vss
> sc qc vss


whs, thanks for your feedback. Sorry it has taken so long to get back to you. I am still having the same problem. I have a ticket into Microsoft but am not holding my breath.
Just checked Shadow Copy Storage Space. It is 68.356 GB.
The application (System Restore) seems to work find as long as I do not restart or turn the computer off. I even restored to a previous point yesterday as a test. As stated earlier, if I restart or shut down, when I launch System Restore, the application tells me I have "No restore points have been created on your computer's system disk. Currently running PC-chilin. I will try running System Restore from Safe Mode but can not imagine how it will work if there are not points saved to the system disk.

KayEee, you have the same kind of system as whs, a Dell Inspiron 530. Here is a FAQ from Microsoft on System Restore:
http://www.microsoft.com/techn.....e_faq.mspx

They list the services that need to be running -- Volume Shadow copy (vss), Task Scheduler (schedule), and Windows Management Instrumentation (winmgmt). They also hint at conflicts with antivirus software and RealPlayer. Are all of these services running on your system? What security software are you running (av, firewall, etc.)? They also suggest looking in the Event Viewer. There might be something there telling you what the problem is.

KayEee, it's not always necessary for a service to be started. The "manual" setting allows a service to launched when it is needed. When I look in services.msc, both Volume Shadow Copy and Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator are NOT started but their startup type is manual. And System Restore works for me. I suspect that this is normal, but I didn't realize that before when I suggested that the VSS service might be the problem.

Sorry if I sent you off in the wrong direction, but maybe these services are not the cause of your problem.