Losing my System Restore restore points

[decann]

What in the world can cause me to lose ALL of my past restore points and essentially shut off System Restore? I am running a Dell desktop PC on 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium SP1. I recently opted to go back a day or two in System Restore in order to resolve a software issue, but was surprised that I had NO SAVED RESTORE POINTS at all and have no idea how it got that way. I have always allowed System Restore to run but I have no idea how it got shut down.

Thankfully, my software issue is now resolved by the manufacturer, and my System Restore is now reset and working again (I hope), but I would very much like to know how this can happen if anyone can tell me, so that I can avoid such a situation in the future. Any ideas or suggestions out there? Even a guess is more than I have at this point.

[chowur]

Found this article:http://www.thewindowsclub.com/system...eshoot-and-fix

[decann]

chowhur,

I went down the list you suggested and nothing particularly jumps out at me as a possible cause, but I nevertheless defragged my C drive "just in case." It is set to defrag itself weekly though on Wednesdays, so was already set to do it in the overnight hours tomorrow morning, so I don't know if I accomplished anything or not. In a sign of the season though, I "made a list and checked it twice," only used the list you provided and could not tie anything to the situation in the way of a cause. I know with computers sometimes "stuff happens" that does not always have a logical (or illogical) explanation though, and it appears that this might have been one of those time, but losing all of my restore points sure got my attention when I needed one of them. Were it not for a software manufacturer who provided me with a BETA copy of an unreleased upgrade, I have a feeling I'd have stopped using the software for awhile.

I will keep an eye on my restore points for awhile, but at this point I must assume it was just one of those unexplainable irritants that seem to happen to give an old man like me more gray hair than he wants or already has. :-( Thank you for the reply. Merry Christmas.

[JoeP517]

If you are running any system cleaning utilities check their settings.

Have you changed any settings on Windows services?

Joe