I would like to know the differences between System Restore Point and System Checkpoint. What happens when someone restores his system using System Restore Point or using System Checkpoint? What are actually restored after both processes? How much memory is consumed by each Restore Point? I will be grateful if someone enlighten me with his knowledge. Sorry if my language seems halting to someone.
Restore point is a Windows 7 default ability.
As far as I know Windows 7 has no such thing as check point.
System Restore Point : Sort of snaphot of current state of disk volume. It will be made when:
After you make a restore point (either manually or by operations described above):
- At program install (if program is well written)
- At program uninstall (if program is well written)
- At windows patch install
- At windows patch uninstall
- When doing a system restore.
- When you make a manual restore point
So win7 knows what the block contents was at time of making "restore point". So it can reconstruct the disk let's say "go back in time". This is used for "previous versions of files" Previous Versions - Restore Files and Folders and for "system restore" System Restore
- Every block on disk that's written to: old state will be save in antoher block on disk. So old contents will be saved. Old state will be saved once for each block (and only if it was really used by a file). If you use a free block it will mark the block "was free earlier" .that's why restore points are so small. Only overwritten blocks are saved. Pagefile.sys and other volatile stuff will not be in restore point.
Assume the following:
-you have files now
-you have a restore point 1 day ago
-you have a restore point 2 days ago
Now you can revert two days back in time. System will first rollback to 1 day ago state, then to 2 days ago state. It does it in one run, but logically that's what happens.
System Checkpoint never heard about it. I think it's just a synomym (?)
The only reference to "system checkpoint" I found was when it is used interchangeably with "restore point". Different terms that mean the same thing. Unfortunately terms are not always used consistently. Different terms may have the same meaning or the same term may have multiple meanings.
Restore points consume disk space, not memory. The amount of space will vary widely depending on the reason for creation and the system changes that occurred since the last restore point.
This article explains system restore more fully:
System Restore - Microsoft Windows
Indeed terms are not always used consistently. Drives me crazy sometimes. People use the term disk, partition, volume.... totally wrong most of time
Another example. "I can move my cursor, but nothing else is on screen". They mean the mouse pointer, not the text cursor. (although a mouse pointer is sometimes called "mouse cursor")
Lot of thanks to you guys for the coherent and meaningful replies, I know how to manually create a restore point or schedule to create restore point but lately I have got a good program to create a restore point or scheduled restore point with one click (snapshot in the attachment), from that I got the term "System Checkpoint", Hence the meaning is clear to me now for you guys. Thanks.
You are trying to use a 3rd party program to do what Windows 7 does quiet well all by itself.
Are you having any problems using Windows 7 Restore points?
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