How to install/Enable System restore on Win server 2003
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System Restore’s purpose is to return your system to a workable state without requiring a complete reinstallation and without compromising your data files. The utility runs in the background and automatically creates a restore point when a trigger event occurs. Trigger events include application installations, AutoUpdate installations, Microsoft Backup Utility recoveries, unsigned- driver installations, and manual creations of restore points. The utility also creates restore points once a day by default.Currently system restore available in Windows XP/Vista this tutorial will show you how to install/enable system restore on win server 2003.
Solution 1
Note:- Take a complete backup of your registry before doing any changes
In this procedure you need to download Add System Restore from here
Extract the zip file into a folder, in this you will see two files – AddSystemRestoreEntries.reg and sr.inf
Double click on AddSystemRestoreEntries.reg and click on Yes when prompted.
Insert your Windows XP CD and Right click on sr.inf and select Install.
Point to the /i386 directory on the CD if prompted.
Reboot your win server 2003 that’s it now you are ready for your new win server 2003 feature
System restore screen
System restore tab
Solution 2
start we need a WinXP installation CD (doesn’t matter is Home Edition or Professional). In XP system restore is installed in syssetup.inf under the inf.always section. If you have XP installed, you can open up %windir%\inf\syssetup.inf and search for “[Infs.Always]“: you’ll see the section XP looks at for installing system components. You’ll notice it has sr.inf, this is the inf for system restore. For Windows 2003, if you look at syssetup.inf you won’t find sr.inf. This doesn’t mean system restore won’t work in server 2003.
Copy sr.inf file from your xp machine in to your win server 2003.Now we have to right click on sr.inf and select “Install”, to install it on Windows 2003. If you have XP installed on another machine/partition you can simply right click on it; if you don’t, extract \i386\sr.in_ from the XP CD to a folder of your choice, then right clink on it and select “Install”. It will ask you where the files are, so point to the XP CD. When done you’ll be prompted to restart the system.
After restarting the system you’ll get an error saying that the service could not start, specifically this is error 1068: this means it cannot run under the service is on. If you look at it in services.msc console, the path of the executable will be “C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs”. This got me thinking so I opened up sr.inf, and found this line:
[SRSvc_delreg]
HKLM,”Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SvcHost”,”SRGroup”
So it seems the sr.inf doesn’t register system restore to run under the network services group. Using the above registry key as an example, I opened regedit and went to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SvcHost. On the right side I saw netsvcs. I double clicked on it, but could not find SRService (this is the name for system restore).
at the bottom I added SRService, rebooted, and this time got no error on startup. I opened up rstrui.exe, and System Restore opened fine. I also had a System Restore tab in System Properties now, too. I was able to make a restore point fine, then restore the computer to it without any problems. So in the above registry key double click on netsvcs, and at the bottom of the list type in SRService (not sure if this is case sensitive or not).
I would personally prefer solution 1 because this is very easy and simple .
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Hi,
I have a Win 2003 box and due to some reason I want to restore it to a previous day’s state.
But it seems System Restore was not enabled on it till now. Is it possible by any chance to enable System Restore now and restore the System to a previoud date ?
By any chance does the OS store a restore point even if restore is not enabled ?
Thanks
Surya
Thank you,…its work..
Would system restore work on a dual drive RAID 1 configured server as well?
Hi Surya,
did u get ur idea to work?
u didnt have system restore enabled, so u installed it & restored it to a previous point beyond the system restore installation point?
please tell me how?
How do make side by side installation of XP in sever 2003
Hi,
I’ve followed your instructions to the letter. When I boot, I get the following dialog box (RUNDLL):
Error loading srclient.dll
%1 is not a valid Win32 application.
I also get this when I run “rundll32 srclient.dll,CreateFirstRunRp” in the Run box. I’m running Win2k3 R2 server 64-bit.
Any ideas? I’ve checked the registry, everything seems to be intact. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
.. additionally, the system restore service cannot be started and the System Restore UI doesn’t find SRRSTR.dll. I assume these have to do with my system being x64.
hi Amir,
i have the same problem regarding the System restore in windows 2003 R2 64bit.
it says “Error loading srclient.dll
%1 is not a valid Win32 application.”
right now i have seen your comment,
so if your problem solved,
please let me know how to resolve.
with great expectation of positive response……
thanks..
Followed Option1 and it worked. Thank you for posting the solution. Great help.
For those of you having problems on x64 machines, you need to use the x64 version of XP and point to the amd64 directory for your files. Works great for me on x64 using solution 1!
I followed Step 1 on Windows Server 2003 Standard, but it appears that when I double clicked on teh REG key, it installed; now I get a concern, although all email boxes and websites work, my Windows Updates do not, nor my control panel HELM software…
I get a boot up error: At least one service or driver failed during system startup. Use Event Viewt to examine the event log for details.
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Unexpected error calling routine CoCreateInstance. hr = 0×80040206.
Volume Shadow Copy Service error: The EventSystem service is disabled or is attempting to start during Safe Mode. The Volume Shadow Copy service cannot start while in safe mode. If not in safe mode, make sure that EventSystem service is enabled. CLSID:{4e14fba2-2e22-11d1-9964-00c04fbbb345} Name:CEventSystem [0x80040206]
The COM+ Event System detected a bad return code during its internal processing. HRESULT was 8007041D from line 44 of d:\nt\com\complus\src\events\tier1\eventsystemobj.cpp. Please contact Microsoft Product Support Services to report this error.
WMiAdapter – Open of Service Failed
PerfNet – Unable to open the Server service. Server performance data will not be returned. The error code returned is in the first DWORD in the Data section.
SQLBrowser – The configuration of the AdminConnection\TCP protocol in the SQL instance SQLEXPRESS is not valid.
MSSQL$HELM – SQL Server is not ready to accept new client connections. Wait a few minutes before trying again. If you have access to the error log, look for the informational message that indicates that SQL Server is ready before trying to connect again. [CLIENT: ]
I have confirmed this on a 2nd server, that I tried to duplicate the fix, and got the same error. Is there a Way to undo the REG Entry if I DIDN’t Backup the Registry first?
My error on no backup, but is this registry entry different for every machine, or can I get a Registry Undo, or run System REPAIR? Any help is appreciated … but my server can’t even get updates and I have to repair it. THX. MB
also under System: DCOM error: DCOM got error “The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion. ” attempting to start the service netman with arguments “” in order to run the server: There are FOUR ID numbers of the error, and it repeats itself down below.
also: VDS fails to launch provider {F96544E6-5C8D-47B9-AA6E-FD19AB278629}. Error code: 8004241B@02000012
FINALLY: Office 12 Session error; ID: 20, Application Name: Microsoft Expression Web, Application Version: 12.0.6211.1000, Microsoft Office Version: 12.0.6215.1000. This session lasted 365 seconds with 360 seconds of active time. This session ended with a crash.