# System Restore Refuses to Complete.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 11, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444 "2002-05-11T05:36:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Phlip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Phlip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlip)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444/1 "2002-05-11T05:36:50Z")

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In Win XP my system restore function does not work at all anymore. Dont know what happened. It used to work. I can access it, then it does all the restore stuff, reboots, and then says it couldnt complete the restore operation. It does this no matter what day or restore point I choose. I cannot even undo the last restore I completed.

I am thinking there is a chance that Norton Utilities is causing this somehow, but I have no basis for this assumption.

Any ideas?

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**Author:** ![Iguana\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@Iguana\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iguana_Boy)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444/2 "2002-05-11T12:01:48Z")

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No ideas, but I have the same problem with Windows Me.

I also have Norton, but even if I uninstall Norton the problem remains.

Anyone out there that can help?

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**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444/3 "2002-05-11T14:07:38Z")

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Call Microsoft to complain.

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**Author:** ![barbitu8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/839c29/32.png) [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444/4 "2002-05-11T17:37:11Z")

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Well, if you have Norton, it has a “Go-back” function, which is much better than System Restore, anyway. I have both and when I had to go back one time, Restore’s earliest point was a few days prior, but Go-Back has restore times for every time you log on. I haven’t found them to interfere with each other, but Norton says that if you’re going to use Go-back, shut off the Restore first. I don’t know if shutting off Go-back will help Restore, but you can try it. But, as I said, why would you want to?

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/system-restore-refuses-to-complete/108444/5 "2002-05-11T23:12:54Z")

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I have Me…I noticed Restore used 2.6gb of my HD space, it uses 12% of a hd. So I went into  
properties, put the slider to the left, turned it off, restarted, got my HD space back,  
turned Restore back on, restarted & set a new restore point. Well, it was pretty easy. But of  
course you won’t get to use your old Restore points if you do this.