Hi Jim,

I'm glad I was of some help.
So you don't have the I386 folder at all? either in \ServicePackFiles or C:\ ?
Actually you can copy that folder from the XP CD to your harddrive,that way,
if you need some files for repair,you refer to that folder,rather than to the CD.

Anyway,you did well.And man, do I know about "BurnOut".
Many times I just have to leave the problem if it's not too critical and get back to it later.
You can only spend so much time on a certain problem.

I came up with some links: One looks promising
Interesting hack to install/repair System Restore,
in this case meant for Win2003 Server,but there is no reason
why you could not use it to instal or repair SR in XP.
http://www.msfn.org/win2k3/sysrestore.htm

Good info from Kelly's Korner
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_restore.htm

Another site for excellent info re SR
Main :http://bertk.mvps.org/
Two links from this site:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srarticles.HTM

Hope this will give you something to work with.

Pete