Verified answer

Check the guide of how to enable that protection for your computer..

http://www.pchelpforum.com/xf/threads/how-to-enabl...

okay just tried that but as the windows boot disk assigns itself as X:\ it tries to look in there for system root. I tried manually typing out D:\windows\system32\restore.. etc but it said it could find the path.

To make sure all my files are still there i went into "find drivers" button from the windows install disk which opened an explorer window and let me view my files (which are all present and in the D:\ instead of C:\ because of the window 7 disk boot). I went down the path via the explorer and inside the restore folder there is only one file called "machineguid" which is a TXT file.

I just checked another machine in my house and rstui.exe is present on it (this computer is a vista 32bit) Wonder if its possible to use a USB pen do transfer the file across and see if it runs then.

Additional notes

Computer is 64 Bit windows 7 ultimate

I remembered that just before i turned the computer off for the night i ran a registry cleaner/defragger called Premium Booster. I beleive that may have caused this to happen.

I had only installed it that day so if i can get system restore to actually restore to the earliest point it could fix it, unless its changed something in the registry that cant be undone with a restore.

I had this exact same problem with a laptop (32 bit runnig 7 professional) I used as my main computer a year ago, at the time i just needed important files from it for work so i just installed another OS onto a partition that was already on the raid drive and the computer ran that other OS fine. I could even access all my files from the other drive partition so nothing was lost apart from windows OS settings.

Good luck!

System Protection Windows 8