Where Are Restore Points Saved
Once you use a restore point all restore points that exist between the point you are restoring to and where the system is at the time you invoke the restore are invalidated and removed. You can not undo a successful restore. Restore points are saved in a hidden, system controlled directory called 'System Volume Information'. A calendar will appear that offers a list of restore points and some limited information about what occurred on the system during those restore points. Many program installations and changes will cause the computer to create a restore point directly before the change was made and will label those restore points as such. Why are my Windows system restore points disappearing? I hope you all can help. I am having problems with my system restore points in Windows 7. The SR save points taken before the registry.
System Restore File Location
The Windows XP 'Backup or Restore Wizard' aka ntbackup.exe is intended to backup (i.e., create copies of) various 'files and settings' on your computer. One option is to backup your 'My Documents' directory, your Internet Explorer 'favorites,' and your IE cookies. Or you can backup those items for all users on the computer. Or you can backup 'everything' to create a 'system restore disk'. Or you can select specific files or directories to backup.NTbackup has several limitations, not the least of which are that it uses a proprietary format and will not back up to optical media. Microsoft changed from NTbackup to the 'Windows Backup and Restore Center' in Vista and Windows 7. Unfortunately, Vista'sBackup and Restore could not read the bkf files created by XP's NTbackup.
As you might imagine, there was a considerable negative reaction to this, and Microsoft eventually provided an NTBackup Restore utility for Windows Vista and later operating systemsthat can read (but not create) bkf files.Although NTbackup is free and part of Windows XP, many people opt to use another backup utility. Personally, I favor disk cloning/imaging applications, such as Acronis True Image Home, Paragon Drive Backup, and Casper 4.System Restore is not the same as NTBackup. System Restore saves the Windows registry and certain specific system and application files.
It does NOT save user data, such as documents, music, etc. System Restore automatically creates a restore point aboutevery 24 hours (if the computer is on), as well as before certain critical updates. In addition, the user can create a system restore point at any time.
Here is a pretty good description of what System Restore does (the rest of the website is a very goodresource for dealing with SR-related problems):- LemP Volunteer Moderator MS MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) 2006-2009 Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) 2011-2012.
Oh,.that's. what 'System Volume Information' is! I had theimpression it was some kind of higher-level disk directorytype thingy, except that it never seemed to be used foranything on any drives other than the one with the OS.Do I understand correctly that System Restore only operatesmanually? That is, if it ever does a restore, it will be becauseI explicitly clicked on it and told it to do so? In three years ofusing Windows 7, I've never used it.
That might be becausethere were never any appropriate restore points. I can onlyguess that that was because it wasn't given enough disk space,though I never intentionally changed it from the default. I mighthave reduced it inadvertantly. How much space should I give it?Also, under what conditions does the 'restore previous version'feature come into play? Does it apply to my data files?
Say Iedit a text file and save it. Is the older version saved by SystemProtection / System Restore so that I could recover it with theRestore previous version function?
If so, that's a mighty bigsecurity hole. Yet another place that Windows makes copiesof private data that isn't deleted when the user deletes the file.- Jeff, in Minneapolis. System Restore makes a restore point once a week and whenever anything is installed, uninstalled, and before a Windows or MS Update.System Restore defaults to using 15% of the hard drive partition that Windows is installed on. On a larger drive, you can lower this to 10% or 12%, but I would not recommend generally less than 8% unless disk space is problem.If you need to access older restore points, you need to click on 'Show more restore points' on the restore screen.System restore only saves and restores system files, personal files are your responsibility to set up a back up for.Storing a System Image is also a very good idea in case of a major infection or a dead drive (from within the Windows back up section). Also you should (if you have not already) make a Windows 7 Repair Disk whick can access your restore points from outside of Windows, Initiate a Start Up Repair, and reimage your hard drive from your saved image.As far as I know, it can only be on the System Drive.
Change Where System Restore Points Are Saved
If you need space, you can minimize the paging file on your system drive (1000MB) and add an additional paging file on another drive.You have to be a little bit crazy to keep you from going insane. Fingers wrote: If you need to access older restore points, you need to click on 'Show more restore points' on the restore screen.Oh, for heaven's sake! All this time and I never found that!So the system backups are being saved after all!My desire to move the files isn't due to limited space, but tominimize the file fragmentation caused by writing and deletingtemporary files like these. I have Temporary Internet Files andother temporary files on their own partition just for that reason.- Jeff, in Minneapolis. FingersYes, I realise that - same on Windows 8 which I'm using. It's just me, apart from my AV updates I disable almost all other automation (including defrag, Windows updates, flash and java). Just like to have full control of what is going on and not find myself in the situation where I have to wait my turn to use my own computer.I accept that auto defrag doesn't really interrupt but still prefer to run it after Windows monthly updates then pop back when it has finished.
I wouldn't suggest this approach to others but it has given me a good handle on how much difference defrag actually makes.My wife is quite different with her computer - she prefers all the automation she can get. Whenever I try to use her computer I find I have to wait because some darned update or other is hogging it.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks.
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