Restore points in multi-boot scenario

golem · 30 May 2017

I currently have two bootable partitions and would like to streamline restore point operations. At this time boot-1 is set to create restore points for the boot and data drives (partitions) while boot-2 creates a restore point for the boot drive (partition) only.

Just now I noticed that even while in boot-2 a list of "previous versions" for files located on the data drive can be accesses. I'm not sure how this is possible when boot-2 is set to not include the data drive in restore point generation. This has me wondering - Can I simply set the restore point parameters in Boot-1 to generate for all three targets (Boot-1, Boot-2 & Data) and not have any restore points designated within Boot-2? I boot into both systems each day and am not sure if redundancy or possible conflict are positive/worthy factors to consider. Boot-2 (65GB) is currently set to about 5GB restore allocation so space isn't a big factor.

SIW2 · 30 May 2017

Shadow copies are kept in volumes on your drive. They aren't partitions because they don't have an entry in the partition table. But you can think of them as partitions with no drive letter. You can't see them, but Windows can.

If you like, you can use a tiny little program so you can see the contents and copy out anything you wish.

ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista

golem · 30 May 2017

Appreciate the reply SIW2!

As per ShadowCopyView best I can tell all shadow copies are resident in the same location on the current "C" drive (Boot-2). That being said -- I am running this app from "Boot-2" and, if that location assumption is correct, I'm befuddled as to why it lists copies of files from volumes "D" and "E" as neither of those are selected to be included in restore. Those two volumes are checked for include only when in "Boot-1" (current volume "D").

*EDIT* -- I just confirmed that using ShadowCopyView while in Boot-1 that results are the same. The only difference is the expected active partition drive letter being swapped.