System Restore feature is a part of Windows since Windows ME. This extremely life-saving feature can save your computer from the brink of a fatal flaw due to any reason. Just restore your computer back to a previous state, when everything was normal. But sometimes you may see this error message while trying to use the System Restore function – ‘You must enable system protection on this drive‘. Don’t worry, just follow these easy steps on your computer.
Fix 2 – Restart System Protection service
Boot your PC to Windows RE –
You have to access the Windows Recovery Environment. Follow these steps –
1. First of all, completely switch off your computer.
2. Once you are sure that the computer is switched off, press the power button once.
When you see that the computer is starting up, just press-hold the power button for 5 secs to completely switch off your device, again.
3. Keep repeating this process of the start-force shutdown-start process for 2 times and at 3rd time, let the system start normally.
You will notice that the Automatic Repair window has appeared.
4. Once the Automatic Repair window appears, click on “Advanced options“.
5. Then, in the Choose an option screen, click on the “Troubleshoot“.
6. Next, you have to click on the “Advanced options“.
7. We need to access the Command Prompt screen. Click on “Command Prompt“.
8. Then, select your account.
9. Next, you will be asked to put your account password in the box.
10. Finally, click on “Continue“.
11. Once the Command Prompt appears, navigate to the Config folder. To do so, type this command and hit Enter.
12. Once you have access to the terminal, execute these codes one by one.
net start vss rstrui.exe /offline:C:\windows=active
System Restore window will appear. Follow the on-screen instructions and select the drive that contains Windows (usually C: or D: drive) and restore your computer back to the normal state.
Start your system normally and check if this has worked out for you or not.
Fix 1 – Rename the Registry Files
You have to rename the registry files on your computer.
Boot your PC to Windows RE –
You have to access the Windows Recovery Environment. Follow these steps –
1. First of all, completely switch off your computer.
2. Once you are sure that the computer is switched off, press the power button once.
When you see that the computer is starting up, just press-hold the power button for 5 secs to completely switch off your device, again.
3. Keep repeating this process of the start-force shutdown-start process for 2 times and at 3rd time, let the system start normally.
You will notice that the Automatic Repair window has appeared.
4. Once the Automatic Repair window appears, click on “Advanced options“.
5. Then, in the Choose an option screen, click on the “Troubleshoot“.
6. Next, you have to click on the “Advanced options“.
7. We need to access the Command Prompt screen. Click on “Command Prompt“.
8. Then, select your account.
9. Next, you will be asked to put your account password in the box.
10. Finally, click on “Continue“.
11. Once the Command Prompt appears, navigate to the Config folder. To do so, type this command and hit Enter.
cd %systemroot%\system32\config
12. Now you just have to rename the System folder and the Software folder. To do so, execute these codes one-by-one and hit Enter.
ren SYSTEM system.001 ren SOFTWARE software.001
13. After renaming those folders, it is time to run the system restore in offline condition from the command line.
rstrui.exe /offline:C:\windows=active
System Restore window will now appear on your screen. Select the restore point as per your choice and proceed further to complete the process. You won’t see the annoying error message again.
Fix 2 – Enable the system protection using PowerShell
Enable the system protection using the PowerShell console.
1. At first, right-click on the Windows icon and click on “Windows PowerShell(Admin)“.
2. Once the Windows PowerShell opens up, execute these codes one-by-one in the terminal.
enable-computerrestore -drive "c:\" vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: /for=c: /maxsize=5% checkpoint-computer -description "Done"
It will take a few seconds to complete the process.
Try to use system restore again.
NOTE–
If you want to enable the system protection on your computer in the future, follow these easy steps to do so –
1. Press the Windows key and begin to type “System Restore“.
2. Then, click on “Recovery” in the elevated search results.
3. In the Control Panel window, click on “Configure System Restore“.
4. Then, go to the “System Protection” tab.
5. Next, select the drive in which you want to turn on the protection and click on “Configure“.
5. Now, select the radio button beside “Turn on system protection“.
6. Finally, click on “Apply” and then click on “OK” to save this change.
This will turn on the system protection on the drive.
Again try to run the system restore on your computer.
Fix 3 – Start the system protection service
You need the system protection service running at the back to a system restore to work properly.
1. Just follow the instructions mentioned in the Fix-1 to boot your computer in Recovery Mode.
2. Once the Advanced options window opens up, proceed this way –
Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt
3. Once the Command Prompt appears, type this code and hit Enter. This will stop the System Protection Service on your computer.
net stop vss
4. To resume the services, type this command and hit Enter.
net start vss
Close the Command Prompt screen. Give the system restore process another try.
Fix 4 – Try resetting the system
If the system restore is not working for you at all, try resetting the system.
1. Boot into Windows Recovery mode window.
2. Then, click on “Advanced options“.
3. click on the “Troubleshoot“.
4. When the Windows Recovery mode opens up, go this way-
Reset this PC
5. Here, you have two choices –
a. Refresh your PC– If you want to retain all your files after refreshing the device, choose this option (recommended).
b. Reset your PC– Choosing this option will reset the whole device.
6. Next, you have to choose the “Refresh your PC“.
Just follow the on-screen instructions to refresh the PC files on your computer. You may lose some recently installed applications and This should solve the problem.