System Restore, help and support, search disappeared

[mamazaac]

I am running windows xp and had recently installed kaspersky on my pc. I wanted to go back to before this was installed, so did a system restore which worked. However, I then tried to open system restore again in order to undo this action, but it had disappeared!! My help centre has also disappeared and my "search" facility, along with who knows what else. I have googled this and something which seemed to work with someone else is that they happened to have made a registry backup with a link to their desktop, so they merged the registry back up into the registry and system restore came back. However, I do not have such a registry backup - would my pc have automatically saved one somewhere maybe?

Something else which is probably relevant is that if I go to control panel>admin tools>services there is nothing there, just a big block of blue where there should be entries of some kind.

In event viewer there were lots of errors one of which was 7023 and directed me to http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;328213 when I double clicked on it. I have downloaded this hotfix, but all that was in the download was a txt document, not the hfx.exe itself, so that wasn't any help.

From the info I have been able to get from google, I think it is probably a registry error. Should I download registry-mechanic which says it can repair the registry?

Please can someone suggest something to get this sorted out?

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[redduc900]

Try running the System File Checker tool from the Run box, by typing sfc /scannow

 

[mamazaac]

Try running the System File Checker tool from the Run box, by typing sfc /scannow

Hi, thank you very much for trying to help me.

sfc /scannow asks for the original xp cd but I never had one as windows was already loaded. I did make a system back-up disc at the time I got the pc (many moons ago), but this is on two disks and whichever disk I use, it is not recognised (maybe because the info all needs to be on one disk?).

I did do the sfc /scannow by clicking 'cancel' and 'yes I did want to skip' putting in the disk, but it just finished and then did nothing - no report, no comments, nothing!

I do regularly back up the whole system (rather than just the files) using Nero BackItUp and have one dated the end of Feb - is there any way I can restore just the files I need from this maybe?

 

[redduc900]

Check to see if you have an i386 folder located in the root directory (C:\i386).

 

[mamazaac]

Check to see if you have an i386 folder located in the root directory (C:\i386).

Hi, yes I do have this so restored it using Nero, but it didn't change anything.

I think the problem is due to security software. I uninstalled McAfee because I wanted to change to Kaspersky. I have also been having trouble with networking and wanted to see whether taking Kaspersky off would help and though the easiest way to do it was to do a system restore back to before Kas went on just to see whether it had an effect, and then to undo the sys restore back to the current day. When system restore restored back to the previous day, it didn't reinstall McAfee so I was left with just the windows security and no sys restore, help files, users folder, etc. Do you think if I reinstall McAfee it will bring my system restore, etc back?

 

[redduc900]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "restored it using Nero", but since you have the i386 folder in the root directory, follow these instructions starting w/ Step 2 to change the SourcePath in the registry...

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

 

[mamazaac]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "restored it using Nero", but since you have the i386 folder in the root directory, follow these instructions starting w/ Step 2 to change the SourcePath in the registry...

http://www.updatexp.com/scannow-sfc.html

When you back up using Nero BackItUp, there is an option to restore what you have backed up, so if you need to reinstall your OP, then you use that and it extracts everything. I thought it might work just to 'restore' the I386 folder, but it didn't seem to change anything.

I have followed the instructions in the link you gave me. Originally the source folder was set to C:, so I changed it to C:\ but the sfc still asked for the xp disk. Then I read in the article that the WindowsNT sourcepath should be the same, so I changed that one from what it had (C:\I386) to C:\ but the sfc still asked for the disk. I then tried changing both to C:\I386 but still no luck. So I then changed them both to E:\ which is my cd drive and put my back up disk in instead, but it still asked for the xp disk.

However, I think maybe I have the answer. The article you linked me to says "the Windows File Protection service constantly monitors for any changes to the main system files. Well Windows XP keeps a cache (copy) of these essential files at the following location:

C:WINDOWS\System32\Dllcache (assuming C: is your system root which it probably is.)"

Well, there is no Dllcache in my System32 folder on my pc (yes, I have selected to view hidden files). BUT, when I look at the backup of my system on my external hard drive, the Dllcache folder is on there. Therefore, I believe I might have this whole problem because my Dllcache folder has disappeared from my pc. Do you think this is right? And if so, would the answer be to 'restore' through Nero (as explained above) my Dllcache?

I'm sorry this is proving to be such a bother to you, but really appreciate your advice.