Broken system restore Vista 32 bit SP2

Attempting to fix a computer (Dell C521) with Vista SP2 32 bit.

System restore will not work, always giving this message when trying to create a restore point
"The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation. (0x8004230F)"

I have tried running all sorts of malware programs. All come up clean. I uninstalled a corrupt Norton antivirus installation (virus defs took up 171 GB). It now has 182GB of free space, so that is not an issue.

I checked the services. Both "Volume Shadow Copy" and "Windows Backup" are running. A seperate Windows fixing utility (tweaking.com) was unable to use VSS to make a registry backup, so had to use an alternate method. It was unable to get System Restore working either.

Task scheduler shows errors for System Restore that say something like "Not starting service because it's already running"

I tried to do a repair "upgrade" install of Vista from several different DVDs, but none will allow me to use the "Upgrade" option. On some it is greyed out, on others it just isn't there.

sfc shows no problems.

chkdsk repeatedly find problems with Wdf01000.mof and Wdf01000Uninstall.mof. It deletes their indexes and then recovers them as lost files.
I found a post saying it was caused by windows update KB2761494 (which contained KB2685811). I uninstalled this update but the problem remains.

I am at a loss as to what else to try besides a clean install. As it is not my machine, I currently can not do that. Advice?

 

First run Norton Removal Tool
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/norton_removal_tool.html
McAfee is another that has problems uninstalling and has a removal tool available.
Then try cycling the two services mentioned, turn off and turn on. Have seen similar problem when restoring the operating system from a back up. Should probably get a more reliable back up method too, but talk is cheap, as are the many adequate free solutions available. Also Google or StartPage the error code for other possible causes, usually do to other third party backup software being used.