System Restore Has Stopped Automatically Creating Restore Points

My last automatically System Restore Point automatically created by the passage of time was created 2013-01-23.

No further automatic system restore points are being created (that means not ever, not daily, not weekly, simply no longer created automatically by the passage of time since last January).

I do not see restore points automatically created by other programs, like Acronis 2014 or Kaspersky KIS 2014 which I installed last week. (But the problem goes way back to January, so these new versions are obviously not involved.)

System restore points are still automatically created by Windows Update and by nVidia driver updates.

System restore points can still be created manually.

The SR task is present in Task Scheduler.

SFC /SCANNOW found no problems.

System Restore is still turned on.

There is free disk space for restore points.

The computer is a Dell Studio 9000, aka XPS 435T, core i7 960.
Windows 7 Home Premium with all the standard Windows Updates.
KIS 2013, now KIS2014
Acronis 2013, then 2014, and currently uninstalled.

Thanks for your quick reply Dr. Tinkerer.

I ran full scans with SuperAntiSpyware, AdwCleaner and MalwareBytes.

I found some tracking cookies and that was all.

I had earlier run Scandisk on all my drives and CCleaner.

1. I select "Show more restore points" so System Restore shows me all the restore points.
There are no restore points whatsoever at all from 2013-01-23 and 2013-08-05.

So a 6-1/2 month gap.

Since then restore points occur more often than every 7 days, the biggest gap since August 5 was 6 days. (Several Manual, two Windows Update Critical Update, two nVidia driver installs, two 'The Bat' installs and uninstalls.)

So yes, I would not expect an automatic checkpoint since August 5. But that still leaves the unexplained 6-1/2 month gap.

2. I did notice something on the web.

I found one post in Sevenforums that said Volume Shadow Copy was a required service for System Restore.

But this was just one person posting. I could find nothing to confirm that anywhere else.

And since System Restore does work when started manually and when triggered by Windows Update, I do not suspect a missing dependency.

On my computer Volume Shadow Copy is set to Manual start.

3. I tried something.

I went into Task Manager and tried to manually start the SR task there.

It went into Running status, but did not create a restore point. (I left the keyboard locked for 20 minutes. Still didn't run.)

That might be because there were recent restore points, I don't know.

4. There were monthly Windows Updates in February through July 2013. I applied them. But I do not see any restore points automatically created by them. But in August Windows Update did create a restore point.

So, perhaps, IF other people have restore points from Windows Update in that time range, then my problem might be something that was wrong with my computer, but that somehow got fixed. Maybe.

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A. So I don't know if System Restore has a dependency on Volume Shadow Copy being set to automatic, or if manual is okay. System Restore does work if manually triggered or triggered by Windows Update and nVidia driver updates, so I think that means its prerequisites are there.

How is the service Volume Shadow Copy set to start on other people's computers?

B. Did Windows Update automatically create restore points on other people's computers when the regular monthly February through July 2013 Windows Update Critical Updates were applied?

C. If you go into Task Manager on a working normally computer, and manually trigger the SR task, does it run regardless of whether it is less than 7 days since the last Restore Point? (That is, does it still that there is no restore point less than 7 days old.)

I got these replies back from another forum:

A. Mine are all set to manual on multiple Windows 7 systems.

B. Yes, restore points were created for Windows update during that time period.

C. No, going to the task manager and manually triggering the SR task does not create a restore point regardless.


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So I don't know. Maybe this is something that went with my computer in January that got invisibly fixed by some update in August.


Tomorrow is Patch Tuesday, so the computer should make a restore point then. I guess I can wait 8 days and see if it makes a restore point due to the passage of time.

Any other suggestions Dr. Tinkerer? Anyone else?

Here are some screen shots of some of the checkpoints Windows has taken, showing the gap from January to August.

CCleaner did not show any other restore points.

My Windows Update history has a ton of updates from
2013-01-08
2013-01-09 (ergonomic keyboard 4000)
2013-01-11 (windows defender (WD), although I don't use it. probably KIS was uninstalled or disabled)
2013-01-15 (WD)
(there is a restore point at 2013-01-23, system image restore point, no windows update, i suppose triggered by 7 days passing).
2013-02-13 and now restore points stop
2013-03-26
2013-04-06
2013-04-09
2013-05-14
2013-06-11
2013-06-13
2013-07-09
2013-08-14
2013-08-28 which shows up with a restore point, and restore points appear frequently again
2013-09-10

I may use that script to make restore points. Or do them manually.

I will wait 8 days and see if restore points occur automatically now.