Please Help! System restore problem

System restore is restoring the registry...........for 5 hours (and counting!)

I have vista home premium and i used the windows system restore to undo
windows updates (which included a rather annoying ie8) the initial restore
claimed to have failed and i was given the option to undo the restore, which
i did... to my cost it seems. now i can't do anything with the laptop, no
keys seem to be working and i have even tried to get the task manager up with
no avail. I'm scared to turn the damn thing off incase i lose everything! any
ideas?

yellow51 wrote:
> System restore is restoring the registry...........for 5 hours (and counting!)
>
> I have vista home premium and i used the windows system restore to undo
> windows updates (which included a rather annoying ie8) the initial restore
> claimed to have failed and i was given the option to undo the restore, which
> i did... to my cost it seems. now i can't do anything with the laptop, no
> keys seem to be working and i have even tried to get the task manager up with
> no avail. I'm scared to turn the damn thing off incase i lose everything! any
> ideas?

I installed XP when it came out and have Vista on a computer I bought
about a year after that OS came out.
I am still waiting on My 1st restore to work.The driver restore worked
but system restore for Me is a waste of space.I now turn it off and use
conventional backup programs.Sometimes they work but most of the time I
just do clean install and reinstall programs from the backups.
The one time I tried to restore Vista It failed which was not to
surprising.So make them backups as I do from as far back as DOS,because
your going to loose data if You don't.

yellow51 wrote:

> System restore is restoring the registry...........for 5 hours (and
> counting!)
>
> I have vista home premium and i used the windows system restore to undo
> windows updates (which included a rather annoying ie8) the initial restore
> claimed to have failed and i was given the option to undo the restore,
> which i did... to my cost it seems. now i can't do anything with the
> laptop, no keys seem to be working and i have even tried to get the task
> manager up with no avail. I'm scared to turn the damn thing off incase i
> lose everything! any ideas?

At this point you are really b0rked and the System Restore has failed. You
should have uninstalled IE8 first rather than tried to use System Restore.

Back up your data by booting with either a Bart's PE or a Linux Live CD like
Knoppix. Copy your data to an external hard drive or USB stick (depending
on how much stuff you have).

Now here are a few things to try to get back to a usable system:

1. Boot with your Vista DVD and do a System Restore to a time far enough
back when things worked. You don't want to go too far back, but obviously
further than the Restore Point that didn't work. I'm not hopeful about this
but it's worth a try.

How to run System Restore from the Vista DVD repair options:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tuto...torial142.html
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...ystem-restore/
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940765

If you don't have a true Vista installation DVD you can use this:

http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/

2. Repair A Vista Installation Using The Upgrade Option Of The Vista DVD
(MVP John Barnett) - http://tinyurl.com/3b7yrj

3. If 1 and 2 don't work, then do a clean install of Vista (or restore to
factory condition using whatever method your computer mftr. provided).

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

Malke, I really can't thank you enough!

Downloaded recovery disc and the rest was pretty simple (even for me!!)

The system still wouldnt restore to the date i previously tried but at least
its up and running. It seems that java has been installed (dont remember
doing that!) and it is before this installation that i cannot restore to. I
will probably restore to factory settings using the acer facility now i have
everything backed up (Assuming that works) lol.

Thanks again for helping me out, I really appreciate it!

yellow51 wrote:

>
> Malke, I really can't thank you enough!
>
> Downloaded recovery disc and the rest was pretty simple (even for me!!)
>
> The system still wouldnt restore to the date i previously tried but at
> least its up and running. It seems that java has been installed (dont
> remember doing that!) and it is before this installation that i cannot
> restore to. I will probably restore to factory settings using the acer
> facility now i have everything backed up (Assuming that works) lol.
>
> Thanks again for helping me out, I really appreciate it!

I'm really glad that worked for you. Yes, restoring to factory condition is
probably a good idea since the system isn't really perfect, but at least
you were able to easily back up. Now create and implement a backup
strategy! A Good Thing to do is purchase an external hard drive and Acronis
True Image. After you get your system set up perfectly, image it with TI
and store the image on the external hard drive. TI also does incremental
backups. The advantage is that you can restore your system to working order
the way *you* like it - not the way the computer mftr. set it up - in
minutes rather than many hours.

Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know things are better for
you now.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ