Computer Problem - help, please

[J.Christie]

There is no system restore function on Windows 2000.

Ahhh, shit.

And even for an OS with System Restore, it isn't exactly ideal.

It can be actually, I have saved myself about 6 times from a a reformat.

I've heard it had the features of XP but looked alot like Windows 98.

johnnyboy, I have emailed by cousin who knows his stuff, when he replies I'll tell you what he says.

My experience with System Restore wasn't exactly perfect. Very unpredictable and only worked half the time. I turned it off after about a year. Although the idea is quite a good one it was a bit premature and much more space was needed to get a good enough range of restore points. Hopefully Windows Vista will have a better version of System Resture.

Depends what OS. Windows ME's SR never EVER worked.
I don't know about Windows Vista, it seems a bit TOO secure.

[Fireboy]

Thankfully I've never had the misfortune to use Windows ME, but from what I hear it's essentially "a buggy Windows 98 Third Edition".

[johnnyboy]

Cheers, guys, you lot are superstars as always.

Thanks for talking to your cousin, JC. I'd be very grateful if you could pass on whatever advice he gives.

[J.Christie]

Cheers, guys, you lot are superstars as always.

Thanks for talking to your cousin, JC. I'd be very grateful if you could pass on whatever advice he gives.

No probs, johnnyboy. That's what friends do. I just have to wait till he replies to my email.

[Corin]

I was wondering if perhaps you have anti-virus software active,
and perhaps this is causing the apparent freezing of the restore
of your windows (if that indeed is the problem you are experiencing).

[Pete]

Thankfully I've never had the misfortune to use Windows ME, but from what I hear it's essentially "a buggy Windows 98 Third Edition".

That's a great diservice to 98 and 98SE.

It will work so long as you upgrade from 98 but otherwise it's junk. I don't know why they released it.

As "he who is pretending to be normal" correctly says, the one in ME is useless and doesn't work. I just used the one in XP earlier and it's much smoother. Didn't fix my problem mind but it didn't knack everything like the ME one did.

Now I just have to turn it back off again, shouldn't have been on in the first place.

[Fireboy]

Thankfully I've never had the misfortune to use Windows ME, but from what I hear it's essentially "a buggy Windows 98 Third Edition".

That's a great diservice to 98 and 98SE.

It will work so long as you upgrade from 98 but otherwise it's junk. I don't know why they released it.

As "he who is pretending to be normal" correctly says, the one in ME is useless and doesn't work. I just used the one in XP earlier and it's much smoother. Didn't fix my problem mind but it didn't knack everything like the ME one did.

Now I just have to turn it back off again, shouldn't have been on in the first place.

Oh I dunno, 98SE isn't that bad. Certainly the fastest Windows OS I've ever used. Sadly the PC with Windows 98 on it is no longer functional (partly due to the fact that there's no display drivers so I get 16 colours, parly because the CD cracked in an older PC after the power supply caught fire and I had to unscrew the CD drive, and also because there's no way of connecting the PC up to the Wireless network or Ethernet).

I never saw any point in ME. Co-incidentaly my Windows XP PC is currently running a restore (the wireless reciever is all fucked up again). Wish Microsoft would release their own hardware... at least we'd [probably] know it would work.

UPDATE: System Restore has crashed mid way. Looks like it's curtains for that installation. *Fetches Restore CDs*

[James Martin]

ME was utterly pointless. A Windows 2000 Home Edition would have been far better.

I must say that out of all the systems, I rate 2000 the highest. I don't think I have ever had any major problems with it. Did what it said on the tin although like XP it benefited from a Format C from time to time.

[johnnyboy]

I was wondering if perhaps you have anti-virus software active,
and perhaps this is causing the apparent freezing of the restore
of your windows (if that indeed is the problem you are experiencing).

Corin, I have Trend Micro PC-cillin running on this machine, if that's any help.

[Corin]

I have Trend Micro PC-cillin running on this machine.

So a simple test to do, would be, temporarily disable the automatic startup of the AV software, reboot the PC, and then see if you still experience the freezing problem.

Obviously whilst you are not running your AV software, you should not run any new programs that you get over the InterNet.

If the freezing problem still occurs then you know it is not due to the AV software. Also when you have the freezing problem and consult the Task Manager, you should have a look at what other processes are running to give you an idea of from where the problem may be originating.

[cwathen]

Never understood why SR wasn't put on Win2k.

Because System Restore was conceived essentially as an 'undo' feature for home users who did something silly and screwed their system up. It was therefore implemented in Windows ME.

However since Windows 2000 was intended for use in a corporate environment, where installations wouldn't be t*tted about with by people who didn't know what they were doing, and who would know how to sort it out if anything went wrong, there was no restore function.

At least that was the plan. Upon realising that all users could potentially find it useful, it was included in both home and professional versions of Windows XP.

I've heard it had the features of XP but looked alot like Windows 98.

Windows 2000 used another development of the Windows 95 UI which was similar (but by no means identical) to Windows 98. This UI was later ported to Windows ME when that was released.

Despite it's similarity, under the hood Windows 2000 was a major overhaul of the Windows NT operating system, and XP is essentially 2000 with the new UI.