Turn off system restore

Aphelion · 08 Sep 2010

pparks1 said:

Why would you want to? Have you honestly never had a situation where you start up your computer one day and all of a sudden something strange has happened...like your cdrom drive doesn't work, or your second monitor isn't working, or the control panel doesn't open properly when you click on the icon.

1. If I just used system restore to fix those or similar behavior I never would've investigated and/or learned how it happened in the first place.

2. I've had system restore off since it's inception, makes for a cleaner running system, the less Windows interferes with how I work the better. I make a disk image once or twice a week, takes less than 5 minutes. Currently using Macrium by "Reflect".

p.s. In "Task Manager" with "Show Processes From All Users" enabled I'm showing 27 background processes/services running. The joys of running a stripped/clean system are many.

Ap

pparks1 · 08 Sep 2010

Aphelion said:

1. If I just used system restore to fix those or similar behavior I never would've investigated and/or learned how it happened in the first place.

Maybe....and sometimes it's just a strange thing that is much faster to repair by just reverting back.

Aphelion said:

2. I've had system restore off since it's inception, makes for a cleaner running system, the less Windows interferes with how I work the better. I make a disk image once or twice a week, takes less than 5 minutes. Currently using Macrium by "Reflect".

Those images kinda defeat the troubleshooting phase and learning phase by loading from scratch. I own Acronis True Image and make an image about once per month. I've used Macrium and EaseUs at work.

Aphelion said:

p.s. In "Task Manager" with "Show Processes From All Users" enabled I'm showing 27 background processes/services running. The joys of running a stripped/clean system are many.

And my box is running about 60 and it runs great, is fast and battery life lasts 5+ hours. Less is not always better.

Layback Bear · 08 Sep 2010

I would keep system restore on. Does it tell you what caused the problem (NO). If you and others need your computer working now system restore is great. If you are one that wants to figure out what caused the problem, like many of us well you can still use restore when your done looking. Please update your security after using restore.

Maxxwire · 09 Sep 2010

As for myself the decision 'To Restore or not To Restore' is purely situational. If I have the time to investigate and learn what is wrong with my computer I will.

The other day something went wrong early on and I had a full schedule of things to do at the computer. Since I wasn't 100% sure that the problem was not also in the recent restore points also I shut the computer down and restored it from a 100% trusted Macrium Reflect Backup Image I had made several days earlier which was unquestionably without any problems. Reflect restored the backup in 4:40 minutes and I haven't had a single problem with it since.

~Maxx~
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Layback Bear · 09 Sep 2010

I'm glad restore worked for you Maxxwire. That is a very good example of using some kind of restore system. One can use a restore what ever method chosen when needed or wanted. I use Windows built in restore and it works well. I used it yesterday because of lack of time and I didn't need the headache.

Maxxwire · 09 Sep 2010

Layback Bear said:

I use Windows built in restore and it works well. I used it yesterday because of lack of time and I didn't need the headache.

I have used Win 7 System Restore many times as well and the Win 7 System Image Restore is amazingly fast considering it restores a full 24 GB backup image to my computer in 5 1/2 minutes instead of the compressed 7.9 GB image that Reflect restores.

~Maxx~

CarlTR6 · 09 Sep 2010

I concur. I image; but sometimes System Restore is quicker and easier.

Maxxwire · 09 Sep 2010

CarlTR6 said:

I concur. I image; but sometimes System Restore is quicker and easier.

Yes, whatever Restore method is quicker and doesn't contain what your trying to get rid of.

~Maxx~
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Aphelion · 09 Sep 2010

CarlTR6 said:

I concur. I image; but sometimes System Restore is quicker and easier.

Just different needs... My system drive changes very little so i can get by with a weekly image. Files & data are stored on non-system drives.

I need my audio programs to have as little interference from the system as possible so I tend to be fanatical about eliminating all unnecessary background processes.
A side benefit is that everything runs fast and smoothly, even on a fairly slow (by today's standards) computer with modest graphics. I just tried a test playing a multitrack recording in Cubase using a hefty amount of real-time DSP (Reverb, EQ & Compression on almost every track) while playing a Youtube video.

Not sure what the limit would be but I imagine it's possible to run several more application without audio or video dropouts.

Like I said... different needs.

Ap

Maxxwire · 09 Sep 2010

I see from your screenshot that Cubase uses about 10X as much RAM as explorer, that's some well featured program! The screenshot also shows 33 processes running including Task Manager which would make it only 32. Coming from a guy who has only been able to get Win 7 down to 35 running processes you've done an excellent job of cutting back on unnecessary processes running.

~Maxx~
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