Why do people not have any System Restore points

[mpcrsc562]

Just create a system restore point (which is different than a system image).

Now restore using that system restore point.

You will find that restore time is considerably less.

Not necessarily... And honestly, I've never had to use System Restore on my Windows 7 machine. Vista was another story.

I know the difference between the two

which is different than a system image

I've restored an image in Windows 7 when swapping out a different SSD and booting to Acronis boot disk, finding image on external hdd and restoring a 15GB image only takes 7 minutes.

Windows System Restore requires a reboot and will after that reboot, will take anywhere from less-than-a-minute up to about 4 to 5 -- but, again, that was with my Vista system. I have no knowledge of how Windows System Restore is with Windows 7.

 

[helmutcheese]

Turn it off always, chatters Mech HDD less.

PC backs up to an external HDD using Software which is far better.

 

[whs]

It will require a whole long campaign to educate people about the merits of proper preperations for worst case. And that includes

Seperate data partition
Restore points
System imaging
Data backup

I am always stunned how little people know about those concepts let alone using them. But usually they learn the hard way - after a reinstallation and loss of their data.

 

[Thorsen]

Anecdote time....
I had a boss that had a PC that was updated to XP SP3 and it wouldn't start. The update also corrupted all of the system restore points when we tried to load up with a system restore. I was lucky to get it going after about 10 attempts and backed up all his info. Then worked on restoring his system which took finding a fix on MS's site and booting from CD.

Since then I have trusted System Restore only that much. Have it so its there, but also back up all data always to an external drive. Its the only way to be sure its secure.

 

[karlsnooks]

There appears to be a basic misunderstanding here.
There is a system image restore, which incidentally is what most people think of when they hear the phrase "system restore".
There is a "system restore point" which will restore the registry, your settings, system files to their state at the time of the creation of the restore point.

Both System Image and System Restore points function quite differently from the XP days when neither one of them worked.

This will be my last post on this thread.
I beseech you to ACTUALLY create a system restore point and to restore that restore point. Make liberal use of the help (Win + F1) built-in to Win 7. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

CREATE A RESTORE POINT
WIN |type Create system restore | enter

RESTORE TO A RESTORE POINT
WIN | type System Restore | enter

 

[whs]

This will be my last post on this thread.

Karl, Is that a promise or a theat?

 

[Greg S]

I have it turned off because with my setup I don't need it and it would be a pointless space waster. Presently using Comodo Time Machine. In the past I have used Eaz-Fix Pro. Either one in addition to regular Image/Backups is enough.

 

[antharr]

I never run System Restore because it's not needed. It wastes space and system resources. I can restore an image with Macrium Reflect in about 10 minutes so System Restore becomes redundant redundancy. Not only that but I can't count the times it has failed while trying to restore someones system for them.

I would like to say that this is my preference and it may work for some but I would not rely in it solely. I would still perform all scheduled backups.

 

[antharr]

It will require a whole long campaign to educate people about the merits of proper preperations for worst case. And that includes

Seperate data partition
Restore point
System imaging
Data backup

I am always stunned how little people know about those concepts let alone using them. But usually they learn the hard way - after a reinstallation and loss of their data.

Seperate data partition = check
Restore points = nope
System imaging = check......this is my system restore
Data backup = check

3 outta 4 ain't bad

 

[polarbear]

I create a full backup from time to time.. so I would say no... other wise i would recommend it... GL

 

[Greg S]

. Not only that but I can't count the times it has failed while trying to restore someones system for them..

Before using ISR app I used System Restore quite a bit. I always had the opposite affect. It never failed to restore. I said that to say this, If I weren't using ISR, I would be using System Restore for sure!

 

[whs]

It will require a whole long campaign to educate people about the merits of proper preperations for worst case. And that includes

Seperate data partition
Restore point
System imaging
Data backup

I am always stunned how little people know about those concepts let alone using them. But usually they learn the hard way - after a reinstallation and loss of their data.

Seperate data partition = check
Restore points = nope
System imaging = check......this is my system restore
Data backup = check

3 outta 4 ain't bad

Interesting that you do not use shadows. I do them on all my data partitions and data disks (of which I use 6) because it is an additional resource to retrieve lost data with Shadow Explorer. I do, however, not write shadows for the system partitions which are imaged automatically each morning on boot-up.

 

[antharr]

It will require a whole long campaign to educate people about the merits of proper preperations for worst case. And that includes

Seperate data partition
Restore point
System imaging
Data backup

I am always stunned how little people know about those concepts let alone using them. But usually they learn the hard way - after a reinstallation and loss of their data.

Seperate data partition = check
Restore points = nope
System imaging = check......this is my system restore
Data backup = check

3 outta 4 ain't bad

Interesting that you do not use shadows. I do them on all my data partitions and data disks (of which I use 6) because it is an additional resource to retrieve lost data with Shadow Explorer. I do, however, not write shadows for the system partitions which are imaged automatically each morning on boot-up.

The images cover my system partition. I also backup all my data on an external hard drive as well. This is all I have ever needed.

 

[whs]

I also backup all my data on an external hard drive as well.

And on those external harddrives, I would enable the shadows (for the reasons above). Data shadows are a lot smaller than system shadows and the external drives are massive these days anyhow. So a few GBs less make no difference.

 

[CommonTater]

Lots of people believe they don't "need" the "handholding" provided by restore points and they read that they "Slow down the system and create unnecessary" overhead so they turn them off to tweak the most from their machine. Although using them is rare, I find them to be extremely valuable and believe they serve a great purpose. They have always been there for me on my machines.

Y'know what... In all my years with XP and now Win7, I don't think I've ever used system restore... So in Win7 I turned it off (Disabled the service, actually).

 

[antharr]

Lots of people believe they don't "need" the "handholding" provided by restore points and they read that they "Slow down the system and create unnecessary" overhead so they turn them off to tweak the most from their machine. Although using them is rare, I find them to be extremely valuable and believe they serve a great purpose. They have always been there for me on my machines.

Y'know what... In all my years with XP and now Win7, I don't think I've ever used system restore... So in Win7 I turned it off (Disabled the service, actually).

I concur.

 

[01101001]

I'm with antharr, CommonTater,etc.

System Restore just isn't a viable solution for me and as such is disabled. (The first time I test drove SR on XP it failed so I would never depend on it And what good is a back up/restore solution if you can't depend on it??)

I make good use of partitions and separate all my data from the OS. All the data is backed up regularly to externals and DVD. I image the OS partition with Macrium -- and the image creation takes about 1 1/2 minutes. The resulting images are copied to an external and occasionally burned to a DVD. To restore I have a dedicated thumb drive that I boot Macrium from -- the restore process is equally lickety-split.

Fast, simple and 100% dependable.

 

[fatedquest]

I don't think it's of any loss to those whose computers fail to create system restore points automatically for them. I've used system restore a few times when my computer started locking up for no reason, or when some installation failed, or other problems I can't fix manually. Everytime though, system restore manage to restore the computer to a state free from those unexplained problem, but it ends up giving me a system that has various other problem because it doesn't exactly restore the computer to how it was on the system restore time. It leaves back alot of traces because it attempts not to delete user files and whatnot. In the end, I'm forced to reinstall Windows and all my programs from scratch.

As to the original question of why some installations of Windows 7 don't automatically create system restore. The answer is Windows is built by a team made up of brilliant visionaries and sharp marketeers but lazy programmers.

 

[Thorsen]

System Restore for me has fixed issues quickly on occasion. I dont rely on it as my sole means of backup, but in a pinch, you can undo a change that you didn't want. It is a useful tool in my opinion.

Example: The Undo button in Word or any other program. you dont revert the whole document, you press undo to undo the last change made.

 

[antharr]

System Restore for me has fixed issues quickly on occasion. I dont rely on it as my sole means of backup, but in a pinch, you can undo a change that you didn't want. It is a useful tool in my opinion.

Example: The Undo button in Word or any other program. you dont revert the whole document, you press undo to undo the last change made.

It can useful for getting a machine back to a state where the user can backup data but I would never trust a system restore point on my own machine. I have just seen it fail too many times and most of the time when it works there are still issues.