Wonky WIN 7 64bit System Restore

[Teenyman45]

All the sudden my computer just shut down. Then when it went to reboot it automatically went into diagnostic and repair mode indicating an unspecified error.

Nothing seemed to get Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit to re-initialize. I had tried several system restore points and... nothing I kept getting the same error that it was unsuccessful and that no changes had been made to my system.

I was able to and used the command prompt option to back up several important directories to a USB key.

My original install disk would not help either.

After backing up and trying the DVD I went back to older and older system restores. Again, nothing worked.

Eventually, Windows decided to tell me that the CI.dll file had become corrupt. Since the command prompt kept starting me off in the X: drive (I had an X: drive? I did not know I had an X: drive) on a whim I looked to see if there was a CI.dll in X Windows System32 and there was. So I deleted the CI.dll file in D: Windows System32 (for some reason it moved everything from C: to D: in the dos window) and copied the one from the X: drive.

Lo and behold, it worked! Windows loaded properly. Unfortunately, it used a system restore from about 3 hours after I last reformatted the computer.

Is this normal, unusual, or a new work around where it should be used only with very recent system restores?

As an update, Windows lost the ability to update so I ended up having to do a clean install after all.