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Tom, I had your same problem as I reported earlier and I feel now I can contribute to a solution instead of searching for answers. And boy, did I search.
I had some memory errors around this time but did not notice the "System Protection" tab missing until after I installed the SP1 update. I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 on a Polywell with an AMD 6000 chip (what a screamer).
Now to how I fixed my problem. Basically I had to go into the Group Policies which I never do and toggle a couple settings. Policy and/or Registry changes are only for the real brave so take caution. The web site I found that explains the process is:
here. I hope that link comes out but just in case it is "http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/216/1/Restore-point-creation-disabled-by-Group-Policy.html".
I'm not sure if it is needed or not but I toggled the "Turn off System Restore" also by changing to "Enabled" and then back to "Not Configured". After a reboot my "System Properties" show up and I hope it works for you.
As a side note I noticed that all things I looked at in the Group Policies was "Not configured". Maybe some Active Directory guru can comment on that.
Good luck, Nick