I used the System Restore one time and it worked OK.  (Vista Home Premium). 

For me worked fine on a E520 (clean installed) On a E1505 I had a problem, Vista didn't created restore points. But I just went to disable the System Restore and re-enable it. Then started working.

 

The error message I got : "system restore not available" (something like that)

Depending on what applications you have installed (virus software, non windows firewall, etc) it may be necassary to do the restore from Safe Mode when fewer processes are running.  This is not a bug so much; it's simply another app preventing the restore wizard from changing some system settings.

stepsx12, First if you love spam you can leave your email on the forum, if not you can edit and remove it. I have not had a problem with restore points, try turning it off then reboot then turn it on and create a new point.

I assume that you have an anti virus program running. Check within the AV program settings to see if there is an option to "protect" the AV program files from changes. If this option is selected, System Restore cannot overwrite these files and System Restore will fail.

When I had my problem I didn't tried Safe mode, but it could be also a third party application that is preventing.