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Data should be OK but, don't rely on it.

I've had failures with System Restore not doing as it was supposed to do and I now use it occasionally as a convenience but never without knowing that if things go wrong, I have a backup to rely on

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I have used system restore many times and it has never changed anything in the "My Documents" folder.

However - I have always updated my back-up before doing a restore - but in accordance with sod's law - it has never proved necessary.

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I have used system restore many times and it has never changed anything in the "My Documents" folder.

However - I have always updated my back-up before doing a restore - but in accordance with sod's law - it has never proved necessary.

It's never messed anything up for me either.

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System restore failures that I've experienced are rare but they do happen. Perhaps it's because I have to maintain a number of machines that I've seen it more than the usual home user.

One of the big problems with SR is that it sometimes decides to turn itself off so that when you want to use it, there are no (or very few) restore points available.

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You should also note that if any virus or spyware programs infect your computer, and system restore makes a restore point, your anti-virus will be unable to remove the virus. This is because the system restore folder is locked, even to Windows itself. The only way to remove the virus is to disable system restore, reboot, and enable it again.

A full backup is a better idea, because a virus can be removed from the backup if you locate it in your current installation.

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Thanks to all again for your informative posts.

Its a friends pc os xp home. she rang me and said that for the last six weeks her pc has been very slow, and that she can be working away and then she will get a black screen and top right of the screen, message saying no signal in red text.

This is all the information she gave me at the time.

she has adaware , spybot, and a macfee firewall.

Not sure if its a hard ware problem, does it sound like she has a problem with her graphics card?

Idont have her system spec, and appreciate there is not much to go on.

Cheers

She also recieved error code message

Internal error code(04504)

Error Signature..

bc code:9c

bc ti:00000000

bc p2:80540370

bc p3:a2000000

bc p4:84010400

OSVer:5_1_2600

sp:2_0

product:768_1

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A "no signal" message can occur when there is no input to the monitor due to the cable being loose. Check that the cables to the monitor are fully pushed home and held in place by the screws.

Another thing is the graphics card overheating and shutting itself down. If it is fitted with a fan, ensure that is working.

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The above error codes may be uppercase I just put them in lowercase as i wrote them down after speaking to her, not sure if that helps though.

My thread on system restore was a thought as to whether it could help her situation, but not sure with her getting the black screen, so holding off doing that.

thanks

Thanks pops will check those points out with her.

Cheers

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You should also note that if any virus or spyware programs infect your computer, and system restore makes a restore point, your anti-virus will be unable to remove the virus. This is because the system restore folder is locked, even to Windows itself.

I would guess that the system restore folder would be unaccessible by third party software but not Windows itself.

Is there a reason for this?

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Your system restore folder is located at %root%\System Volume Information

It can only be seen by showing protected system files and folders. You cannot access it, because it is a protected folder. The only way to access this is from safe mode, or the recovery console.

The reason it is unaccessible is to keep users from messing around in the folder, and the reason a virus can infect it, is because Windows backs up certain files without knowing what they are. This means it just finds the files it needs and copies them, wheather they are infected, damaged, replaced by something else, etc..

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The reason it is unaccessible is to keep users from messing around in the folder, and the reason a virus can infect it, is because Windows backs up certain files without knowing what they are. This means it just finds the files it needs and copies them, whether they are infected, damaged, replaced by something else, etc..

So that's how malware can be found in system restore points.

It can only be seen by showing protected system files and folders. You cannot access it, because it is a protected folder. The only way to access this is from safe mode, or the recovery console.

Also when you restore your computer to an earlier time using the system restore option itself I would imagine.

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