I just tried to boot in safemode as directed and I get the same result. It goes through the motions and can't complete restore. I even tried a different restore point to shoot for instead of the one just before when the suspected issue started.
I don't think it's the FabDVD software that's the issue. I just think it's with some other software I tried out. It was working just great on this computer until March 4th.
Thankx for the reply tho! Anything else you can think of to try?