Why are my Windows system restore points disappearing?

Hi I had the same problem, I traced it to Norton Internet Security 2010, To cure it, I opened Norton, went to Computer-settings/Misc
and disabled norton anti tamper protection, it worked for me

Have you checked to see how filled up your hard drive is

I had the same thing happen also a whole slew of additions to windows media player. In my case the system had another hard drive with windows XP on it and that was the problem. XP thinks it is the boss and deletes all kinds of files as it sees these files as shadow copies or something like that. Vista does not do this to windows 7 but XP hasn't been instructed not to do this so it goes ahead and reorders all your functions and data. I do not allow the both hard drives to coexist and no more foulups.

First of all, do you have a second partition on your main Hard Drive called D: or a second Hard Drive installed into your machine's case?

Well, in my case, 2 years ago, when I bought the machine that I currently use, came with a quite large Hard Drive with the MS Win. Vista(6) already pre-installed. The drive was already pre-formatted for two(2) partitions C: and D:. C: one for the main installation and setup of the O.S. Folder(Dir.)and, D: as the Data storage use only. So, by default, Vista makes that partition as the only source for back-up of its previous image of its own installation status. By default, also, you will need the Windows program of Clean Disk in order to set up How and When you want to clean up(erase) the older, not needed any more, system restore points(previous dates of stable use of that particular O.S.).

If you do not have a second partition, go get yourself a much smaller Hard Drive at the nearest electronics store. Do not attempt to re-format the only system drive you have, in order to affix a second partition for it. I take for granted here that you do have an official DVD disk of Win. 7. Once you have installed in your new D: Hard Drive, insert your DVD disk of your upgrade O.S. in that DVD drive of yours and, do a repair installation procedure when the installation window appears. Through the installation procedure, select yes for using the second available Hard Drive as the new Data Only Drive for use as the first restore point will be created. Since, while the repair of the installation, it might go, right away, via the internet connection, see if there are updates/upgrades to download and install as of now. Let it reboot after all updates/upgrades are now, fully, installed(click the yes button in the reboot request window, as it appears/pops up). Do not touch anything when it does just that. It will show a message before the sign in with your password shows up. Configuring Windows from 0% and making its way up to 100% for the first stage of doing so until all stages are done.

As a further re-stabilizing application of Windows 7, please, get a Tune-Up progam such as Iolo's System Mechanic Pro 9 for further fix any other hardware, software and, the machine's registry itself errors it might have. That's for Optimizing the well being of the machine's inner functions in its overall whole.

There. Enjoy shopping, re-installing and, re-configuring your machine's O.S!

The same thing happened to me. All you have to do is boot up from the Windows7 disk and select repair. After that, select restore to earlier date. You will then be able to select the date you want to restore from.

because windows 7 is a horrible os/ system and should be scraped ppl buying new pcs should not get this os system its pants lol

how to restore your system points: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html

Is there any response from the original questioner, Paul C, concerning things he's tried and if anything has helped correct the problem? Yes, No, ???

Dear,
Increase the disk spce in Restore point setting.
Vikram.

You will be with VIRUS atack.
Try 2 find Rowman_remove or send me U'r E Address and I'll send it 2 U.
My 1 : amarasinghec@yahoo.com

in another partition than onto XP directly.

Now, the obvious solution for this, rather bizarre, situation is: Go to the Win.7's start menu, Computer, right click onto the partition that contains the installation of XP and do a thorough Format of that HDD's partition.

Reboot machine. If not booting properly, insert the DVD disk of your Win.7 O.S. and do a Repair previous and already existing installation.
Reboot it again to confirm that the installation is authentic and fully functional. Connect to the internet and, activate your installation to Microsoft's activation center(server).

Say goodbye to Win. XP, forever, OK?!

There can be a number of reasons why restore points can disappear.

1) This can be caused by virus/spy-ware etc.
Basically this has happened to numerous ppl in the past, and usually malicious software can remove restore points altogether or nibble away at them. Make sure both you spy-ware and virus software is up to date and scan your computer for problems.

2) Restore points in all version from xp-win7 can and do get corrupted
as well, and as such even tho they are there and display the date you can restore to, over time these restore points don't work.
All windows users should every 2-3 months of restore points points, whether that's windows created or your own, turn of system restore and then on again.

3) Lastly this could be a corruption in your windows, in the file allocation table. The simplest way to correct these problems if they exist are to run the cmd, "chkdsk /f" which will restart your computer and repair disk errors if any.
<Note: Turn of the system restore before you do this as if you have virus`s in your system restore or corruptions you need this off so as these can be repaired or corrected, then when the computer restarts after repair if any then turn on your system restore>.

4) Just a note on virus in system restore.
If your system had a virus in the system restore, you need to turn of system restore and then restart your windows pc in safe mode and scan the system with your antivirus&spyware programs, failure to do in this way will not eradicate the problem, then turn on you system restore once removed.

When one of my hard drives became almost full, all my restore points disappeared. I could not update Windows Vista, which used to hang because my system could not make restore points before installing updates. I tried everything and nothing seemed to work. I removed the full disk, which was impeding the creation of new restore points. Luckily, the offending drive was a data disk, not needed to operate the system. Then i tried a free repair program from www.tweaking.com called "Windows Repair (All in One)" version 1.4.3. It automatically applied some of the tweaks suggested in this forum, and then some others which are amply described in the program itself. With Vista, you don't need the original Windows disk. Eureka! The old restore points were gone forever, but again my system started making new ones. Now I can update Windows Vista, and create new restore points. To boot, my system is faster, and one week after, still works without a hitch! I hope this serves to solve other people suffering from the same problem.

I have the same problem! My paid Tech support just spent 16 hours trying to fix this problem. He thought it was fixed but when I tried today there were no restore points. I have come to the conclusion it is not fixable. I have a dell PC with windows 7.

I still don't now how this posting works. I'm 78 so I have an excuse. My tech support service (My Techpals) Davis has restored my system restore after 16 hrs. I did not work earlier when I tried it, but I got some updates and I decided to try again, so I clicked on System restore and it worked, I could restore it to before the updates. Just wanted to see if it worked. It was difficult for a pro. to fix but it can be done! You may need to pay to get it back. Good Luck!