See if this article is any help:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=274092

Sort of a long-shot, but some third-party programs temporarily create a wininit file to accomplish their tasks and sometimes this can be the cause of the problem you're having. Typically these will be programs that run at startup. One possible example would be some of these programs that delete the index.dat files in your Temporary Internet Files or your Cookies folders automatically at startup. There are others ones as well. If you have a program that you suspect may be temporarily creating a wininit file at startup try disabling it, reboot and see what happens.

Message Edited by JBravo on 09-06-2004 01:29 PM

If you're going to experiment with disabling programs in MSCONFIG be careful! Only disable third-party programs that you, your granddaughter or somebody else have installed. Don't disable any programs that are necessary for your OS or major componets to operate. If you are not sure you can check HERE or HERE or post back here. Remember that this is strictly a long shot and that any program that might be using a wininit file is most likely to be a maintenance type program that performs specific tasks during the boot process.

Message Edited by JBravo on 09-06-2004 06:58 PM

Thanks for your interest.

Osprey, I have tried all the things suggested on that Microsoft Knowledge Gase article, but they did not have any effect.

JBravo.

Thanks for your interesting suggestion.  You may be right.  Just recently, my grandaughter activated MSN Messenger, and that may have caused the problem.  I have been to msconfig, disabled it from the start-up, but it keeps coming back.  Will experiment further.

 

JBravo

Thanks for your warning, and your interest in my problem.  I will be very careful about altering

the start-up menu.  I have MSN Messenger, which I am beginning to suspect of being the culprit, I have unticked from the Start Menu several times, but it keeps reinstalling itself.

I also have Acronis True Image, and Quick Time player, could be either of those

I have a back up on an external hard drive, so if I cannot get System Restore back it is not a major catastrophe, but will keep trying.

Have you run across KB article 306768 yet? Maybe some more ideas.

hi there ,    you must have statemgr checked in msconfig.    and in control panel>system, which is system properties>performance>file system>trouble shooting>if you uncheck disable system restore u must first click apply and then close. both of these actions must be performed together before the reboot . i would first do the statemgr thing in msconfig because msconfig will hold that option but the option in system properties will not so if u reboot system restore will NOT be enabled. if after u click on file system & nothing comes up right away, JUST WAIT, it always comes up in under a minute. dont touch anything else until file system appears.

thanks brian

 

Message Edited by BRIANBORU on 09-27-2004 02:29 AM

Message Edited by BRIANBORU on 09-27-2004 02:34 AM

Thanks Brian for your interesting suggestions, will try them as soon as possible.

I have just printed them, so I can easily follow.

Yesterday, I downloaded CCleaner, and cleared a lot of unwanted files from the registry, that were left after some uninstalling.  I have got a back-up on external hard drive, but would still like to correct the problem if I can.