Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Computer problems: Domain administrator and Disk..

Two problems I am trying to solve. There's some other things, but this might clear them up too--Windows XP Home SP2--

First One: When I try to run System Restore from the start menu, a window pops up saying "System Restore has been turned off by group policy. To turn on System Restore, contact your domain Administrator." There is two users on this computer, Family and Guest. I can see from the start menu that I've been logged in as Family. My first thought was I needed to create an administrator user or give Family administrative priviledges. I found out in control panel => users that Family already is the administrator.

Our home has a wireless setup using a Linksys Wireless G Router. There are two laptops that connect wirelessly while our desktop, this computer, is hardwired because of reception issues. Our home network is not setup to share anything between computers, so I think any domain administrator has to be local to this computer. That's as far as I 've gotten.



Second One: When executing some programs, a window appears saying "There is no disk in the drive. Please insert a disk into the drive." They are three buttons to choose: Cancel, Try Again, and Continue. Clicking Continue or Cancel closes the window as another immediately pops up. On one program I'm trying to run, the windows are infinite and I can't use the program. That program is on CD, if that matters.

If the error refers to the harddrive, it may be relevant that Windows has mapped the single harddrive to F: instead of C:. I thought maybe these programs try to access the C: drive instead of F:.



I appreciate anyone who takes the time to help.

regarding problem #1: there usually is a hidden Administrator account in XP. If you boot into Safe Mode you'll see it. There's a registry setting that makes it visible or invisible at the normal logon screen (I know, I've had to unhide mine before).

As far as one account being an Administrator account, I've had problems before w/ these not having full Administrative priviledges. I'm sure there's a way around it, but I've just went into the true Admin account when I encountered this. It's much less hassle.

regarding problem #2: that F: replacing C: (or shadowing it) is a real bugger. There is a fix somewhere on MS's site, but I didn't implement it. With all the trouble it takes you might as well just wipe that drive and start over. It WILL continue to give you problems until you fix it.

Thanks guys,

I booted into safemode and then tried to run system restore..same error.. I then went to administrative something or other in the control panel to see what's up. System Restore is set to automatic soooo I dunno.

And BTW, Family is set up as a true Admin, and I found System Restore is supposedly accessably by the admins.

this is no fun

at this point, your best bet is a reinstall if you can save the things you want.

Hold on a sec. I think I've found the problem.

I can get to control panel=>Administrative Tools=>Services in normal mode in Family(Admin). There I can that find System Restore Service is stopped. This should always be running right? It is set to run automatically. When I try to start it, a progress bar pops up with the message that the service is starting and moves quickly. When it finishes, another window says that it has started then stopped. It goes on to say that some services stop automatically because they have no work to do.

Does System Restore Service run continuously collecting data when it is working? This must be the problem because it matches up with the original restore error, System Restore has been turned off. Anyone know how to get this service to stay running?

Mine is started and set for automatic .

How to turn on system restore.
Hit start>all programs>accessories>system restore. This will open a window, look for restore settings and click that. Here you can turn restore back on and yes it's a good thing to have on. It can save you a lot of work if you have a problem.

You can change the drive letter by right click on my computer>manage>disk management and then right click on the hard drive in question>change drive letter or path. Now I've only done this with drives that are empty so you could conceivably cause some problems by doing this ie. shortcuts won't work, OS can find programs but if you can get your stuff backed up...go for it! If it fails you'll have to reinstall the OS but it sounds like you may have to do that anyway so give this a shot.