Hello everyone, here's my problem:

I'm running Windows XP Home edition SP2, and my System Restore does not work. When I try to start System Restore from the Help and Support section, I get the "System Restore Application has encountered an error" message and when I check the technical details, I get this error signature:

AppName: rstrui.exe AppVer: 5.1.2600.2180 ModName: srrstr.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 Offset: 00009826

Also, when I try to alter the System Restore settings from My Computer, I immediately get two error messages. First one says "Run a DLL App has encountered an error and needs to shut down" and then followed by "Dr Watson Postmortem Debugger has encountered a problem..." message. The error signature for the "Run a DLL" error is this:

AppName: rundll32.exe AppVer: 5.1.2600.2180 ModName: srrstr.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2180 Offset: 000099b2

This problem immediately occured after I used Norton PMagic to convert my old IDE hardrive currently labeled J: into a Logical drive (this drive used to be my C: before I cloned it to a new and bigger hd). Yet, even before this, I had problems using System Restore. I could not create a restore point because whenever I did, I got an error message saying that a restore point could not be made and that I need to restart Windows. And when I was able to access System Restore settings from My Computer, I noticed that whenever I tried to alter the size that System Restore uses (the default set at 12% usage or about 30 gigs), it immediately reverted back to this setting.

Anyway, these are the problems I'm having and I greatly appreciate any help from you guys.

Did you format the old drive before converting it to a logical drive?

It was formatted as soon as I finished cloning it (about several months ago). However, if you mean if I formatted immediately before converting it to a logical drive, then no, I didn't.

I was thinking if you converted it with the OS that could be the problem but if you've formatted it since then, I wouldn't think that's the problem. Run the diagnostic/repair software from the hdd mfg and see what it comes up with. Could also run chkdsk (drive letter): /f

Okay, sorry it took me awhile, but I've already done checking both disks for errors, using Seatools and chkdsk but the problem remains. I've also tried the SFC /scannow function, and Windows did seem to repair damaged DLL's, but to no avail.

If it were me, I'd disconnect the back up drive and do a clean install of Windows on the new drive including a full format, it really sounds like Windows is corrupted. The reason to disconnect all but the drive you're installing Windows on before installing Windows is that with more than one drive attached Windows will often assign the drive/partition with Windows with a letter other than C. Once Windows is installed and working properly install the back up drive. You said your back up drive is J, did you give it this letter? If the Windows gave it this letter, you'd likely have 6 or 7 partitions on the Windows drive given Windows usually allocates letters sequentially starting with A for a Floppy, C for Windows, etc. What I do is the above but install the back up drives(s) after Windows and the mobo and video drivers are installed but before doing the Windows updates I install Partition Magic. Partition the drive with with the OS/programs on, I always keep data on the 2nd partition and if I'm going to partition the back up drive for organization purposes do the partition. Then I change the Drive/Partition letters of course keeping C as the OS/program partition. I always give my optical(s) drives the last letter(s) in the sequence, in fact I always make my Optical drive X so if I later add another drive it will still be the last letter, granted this is my idiocy. Then run Partition Magic Drive Mapper for the optical dirve, really there is no reason to run it for all the drive/partition letter changes you made again other than the optical drive. Doing the above drive letter changes aren't really necessary it just makes it easier for me to know where stuff is and it works for me.

Okay, if I understand you correctly, you want me to disconnect the old IDE drive and format my current C:\ drive, the new SATA hard drive, thus wiping out all the data on it? If so, then where do I back up all of my important data, including music and video files to (I have tons, and they occupy a space bigger than my old hard drive, which was 120 gigs, hence, why I got a bigger hard drive in the first place).

I only want to take this drastic a step if only it is absolutely necessary (I really need my pc to do school work as I just had to give away my laptop) since this step will take up alot of my time, which I'm currently short on. I do concede though, that not having System Restore is a serious problem that needs to be rectified immediately.

The ideal solution would be to get a 2nd hard drive that was big enough to back up your data. Once you get Windows installed, partition the new drive and copy your data over to the second partition and use the other drive as a backup. If you can't afford to that right now, do a clean install of Windows on the old hdd drive and use the new one for your data using the new drive for backup until you can get a 2nd drive. The problem with this is you'd want to get Windows off the back up drive as soon as possible. An alternative would be to create a partition on the new drive using Partition Magic and copying your data over to the new partition and do a clean install on the new hdd but making sure when you format your formatting the C drive. I've done this before but it is always a good idea to back up data first so I would backup the most important data to your old drive before doing this. I know you said you have too much data to back it all to the old drive but with 120GB you could back up a lot of it. I know it's time consuming to reinstall Windows but if it becomes too corrupted, which sounds like it has, it's the best solution.

Well in that case, I won't be able to do it until several days to complete this entire process.

One question, about creating a partition strictly for Windows, how would I use PMagic for that? Do I partition the entire C:\ off from the rest of my data to partition Windows?

or reinstall system restore that will fix ya up wiff out any of the other stuff
Warning: Reinstalling System Restore will delete all existing restore points that should not be a problem for ya seeming how it don't work

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/reinstall.html

What you'd do is create a 2nd paritition after C (the OC/program partition), P M will ask if you'll use the partition for an OS and say no. Once the partition is created, copy and paste your data files to it. Basically you're creating a data partition. Depending on how much free space you have, you may have to copy some of your data, then delete it, increase the size of data partition using the space freed by deleting the data, and copy some more over until all of it's all stored on the 2nd partition. Even if you decide to go with gomerpile suggestions, still a good idea to create a data partition because when you eventually do have to reinstall Windows, your data won't be affected avoiding a lot of the issues you're currently facing. But again, back up as much of your data as possible on the 2nd hard drive.

Well, I tried this method, but during the attempted installation of sr.inf, and when the files needed box appeared, I specified both the C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386 and the XP Home Edition CD but both failed to install. For the ServicePackFiles\i386 option, the box said "Setup could not locate srclient.dll" and when I tried to install from the XP cd, I then got an error message saying "Error: Installation failed". Actually, what happened was that when I tried to install from the cd, I first got a message saying that "the srclient.dll target file source was newer than the one on the cd, overwrite?" When I said yes, I then got the "installation failed message"

So I guess I'll have to do this the hard way

looks like the other stuff is going to happen sorry it did'nt work like mentioned before clean install. PM is a good way too go or if you had the money to get a new HD. You could create just enough space to install windows on one of the partitions you create leaving all data.

If your creating a data partition, use about 35GB for the OS and programs and the rest for data, this will give you plenty of room for additional programs and a good idea to keep at least 15% to 20% of the partition free. One of the nice things about P M is that it's easy to change the size of partitions.