Important notice to all Norton users. The problems I experienced with SFC, dskchk, and system restore were all Norton related. When I disabled the firewall, a/v and turned off silent mode, everything of a diagnostic nature worked. I reinstalled Norton and some worked, but erratically. Norton and Win 7 are having issues.
If you wish to use system restore, you have to disable Norton's tamper protection It is doing its job of preventing intrusion.
Thank you all for the help you have given me and i am glad to report a solution.
Peter