Defragmenter programs can delete System Restore Points

From what I read of Bill's research the MS defragger can have this problem too. We need to determine this with certainty to advise consumers best. I may need to change my tutorials to MS defragger perhaps with a caveat to monitor Restore Points after doing only an on-demand defrag. But I could keep advising my preferred Puran and just add the same suggestion. What do you think?

I am loyal to Puran because after Cluberti prescribed a boot time defrag on a slow HD's Startup it cut it from 2 minutes to 1 minute which is one of the most dramatic results I've ever seen from a tool. I later cut other boot times and sped up older hardware using Puran Boot Time defrag after enabling Intelligent Optimizer that moves most-used files to the outer edge of the drive for faster reads.

But if this deletes or hides the restore points it isn't a valuable enough trade-off since that is a consumer's first and often best repair and recovery option.

Layback Bear said:

I have never had a problem using Windows 7 built in defrag.
I do them manually on spinners. No scheduled.

I'm thinking that s 3rd party defrag don't always remove Restore Points.
The 3rd party defrag just puts them where Windows 7 can't find them. Windows 7 built in defrag knows where Windows 7 wants things on a disk and in which order.

Sometime I just don't get it.
For years people have requested that Microsoft put things in their system like quality defrag and as soon as they put a good one in their system many still want a 3rd party program.

For sure whether it is Windows 7 built in defrag or a 3rd party defrag program we really don't know for sure what its done.
Some will say they defrag the boot, startup, moved things to the outside of of disk ect. but we really don't know.

I used Auslogics for about a year. After the most recent defrag I started getting a "Windows is running Slow - Click here for Details" error. Clicking for details told me nothing. This happened even at idle and showed up every 20 minutes or so. A re boot would resolve the error for about 45 minutes then it would happen every 15 to 20 minutes after the first time all at idle.

I didn't have a clue as to why this was happening. Looking in the Event Viewer I noticed a VSS error on the same day as the Auslogic defrag. I didn't know if it was related to the running slow error or not.

I decided to run the Windows 7 defrag, I figured I couldn't do any more harm at this point and if needed I could restore from my 3 day old backup. Now I'm not one to sit and watch defrag work but because it had been a long time since I used it I decided to keep an eye on it. Watching paint dry comes to mind for the level of excitement. I watched it run none-the-less and it did 8 passes, I don't know if that's normal or not.

This was 5 days ago and I haven't seen the running slow error since and I notice a definite speed improvement in both start up - Boot Duration on 5/22: 97977ms on 5/28: 60409ms. Shut down time improved as well - Shutdown Duration on 5/22: 89445ms on 5/28: 11813ms. I'm not seeing the spinning wheel as often or as long either when starting other programs. All and all a definite improvement. Through this experiment my 10 SR points remained and were unchanged. I use a self imposed delay between certain application start ups at boot using the free standard Startup Delayer Overview | r2 Studios as well as a AV Boot scan.

What you said above "Windows 7 built in defrag knows where Windows 7 wants things on a disk and in which order" makes a lot of sense to me now.

The error you were receiving is not generated by Windows that I've ever seen, but is most often generated some type of sneakware allowed in during a program or tool install without guarding closely enough to prevent it.

Check your Browser Add-Ons and Search services to make sure nothing is there except Flash, a reader helper and Google in the stable search box with all others precluded. Then check in Control Panel that nothing that you don't use and know is installed, or uninstall it. Finally run a full scan with SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes declining their free trial to use only the on-demand scanner as needed.

I also always run CCleaner before a defrag. Never heard of it deleting Restore points.

gregrocker said:

The error you were receiving is not generated by Windows that I've ever seen, but is most often generated some type of sneakware allowed in during a program or tool install without guarding closely enough to prevent it.

Check your Browser Add-Ons and Search services to make sure nothing is there except Flash, a reader helper and Google in the stable search box with all others precluded. Then check in Control Panel that nothing that you don't use and know is installed, or uninstall it. Finally run a full scan with SUPERAntiSpyware and Malwarebytes declining their free trial to use only the on-demand scanner as needed.

I also always run CCleaner before a defrag. Never heard of it deleting Restore points.

I didn't quote the error correctly it should read "Windows has detected slow performance".

Before any backup I use CCleaner, AdwCleaner, JRT, SuperAntiSpyware free, Mbam premium is installed and runs a scan every evening, a full Eset Smart Security AV scan and I did defrag with Auslogics but from now on I'll be using the Win7 defrag utility. I have uninstalled Auslogics. At boot Eset runs a boot scan. So far nothing has been found.

The Windows Running Slow error opened Windows reporting screen but I never tried to use it as previous use leads to a series of troubleshooters that have rarely been useful to the problem at hand. I have had better success in correcting a problem by first searching these forums and then if no luck Goggle the error.
To be on the safe side I ran all of the above again and everything comes up clean. I also checked the Search Services, Installed programs and
Browser add on items, all is in order.

Again, I haven't received the slow performance notification in 5 days.

Sounds like it might have been the Action Center, so be sure you clear all of the issues there at all times. Action Center, Problems>Solutions reporting, Win7 troubleshooters can all help resolve a problem as given in Troubleshooting Steps for Windows 7.