suspended system restore

I use XP Home. I made a copy of My Documents file, then tried to delete it.
Windows would not let me delete the copy so I chose "select all" and deleted
the components to free up disk space. Next I discovered that all emails in
my inbox and deleted items file (Outlook Express) were gone. Now I want to
restore everything back the way it was before I started messing around and
find "System Restore" is suspended. I keep getting the error message:
"System Restore cannot protect your computer. Restart your computer and run
System Restore again." Help me go back in time.

Lame Doc

Were you trying to move My Documents to a different location, possibly a
different partition on your hard disk? The correct procedure is
explained here:

"How to Move Shell Folders (and contents"
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_shell_folders.htm

Even after following this procedure, the original My Documents folder,
though empty and no longer being used, cannot be deleted because it is a
Windows shell folder.

The correct procedure to move your email message store to another
location is described here:

http://www.insideoe.com/files/store.htm#movestore

Here is an excerpt:

"Warning! Do NOT attempt to copy the store manually to the new location.
This will only confuse OE and result in warnings that will confuse you."

Finally, System Restore does not restore user files (like My Documents
and your email message store). That's not what it's for.

If you move everything back to its original location, you may be able to
start over.

Your issue with System Restore is a separate matter. For that I defer to
the guru of SR:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

Finally, some advice: Look (do some research) before you leap (make
changes to your system.) The information is out there. In other words,
don't try to pull off the schemes I used to try to pull off. Trust me,
it doesn't work.

---
Leonard Grey
Errare humanum est

jstone wrote:
> I use XP Home. I made a copy of My Documents file, then tried to delete it.
> Windows would not let me delete the copy so I chose "select all" and deleted
> the components to free up disk space. Next I discovered that all emails in
> my inbox and deleted items file (Outlook Express) were gone. Now I want to
> restore everything back the way it was before I started messing around and
> find "System Restore" is suspended. I keep getting the error message:
> "System Restore cannot protect your computer. Restart your computer and run
> System Restore again." Help me go back in time.
>
> Lame Doc
>
>