Solved Restore points disappeared

[markg2]

I'm posting this because I can't believe what happened happened.

Several days ago there were 2 restore points.

In the process of creating a new restore point the screen not only didn't show those points but was set to off for the system drive. No way I did this either awake or sleep walking.

I turned same back on and created a restore point.

I'm wondering if in conjunction with my post http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware...ash-drive-machine-intermittent-sys-error.html if these conditions are indicative of the OS becoming unstable.

Mark

 

[whs]

You are not the only one that observes irregular behavior of the system restore point facility. I always recommend to make your own images instead of restore points. The images you control and cannot disappear on you.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[Layback Bear]

Some 3rd party defrag program will mess up Restore Points.
They move the Restore Points where Windows 7 can't find them.

I totally agree with whs.
Backup using
Imaging with free Macrium is a great idea.

 

[markg2]

I've created images since the first release of Ghost. Last year I got so fed up with Acronis seemingly doing what it wanted to on various backup scenarios and a (my) history of periodically not being able to restore a recently validated image or the initial image of a sequence saying it couldn't find the original and the program getting more confusing and unintuitive by the year that I uninstalled same from both our machines.

I've just read a bunch of recent positive posts regarding macrium reflect and have downloaded the program.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[maxseven]

While I agree that it's best not to rely upon System Restore points too much, and instead backup regularly to image files, that your RPs are flaky indicates a problem of some sort to me that IMO you should take seriously and try to find/fix.

Maybe related to your USB woes; I would first make sure to chkdsk all drives, also do a sfc /scannow, then try Uwe Sieber's DriveCleanup to see if maybe there's something funky there. Open a command prompt and type

drivecleanup -t

to test and see what it wants to do. Then just drivecleanup and off it goes. I have never suffered any ill effects from using this tool but YMMV. It basic cleans-out any old information about external drives, "old' meaning any external drive that is not currently connected to the computer and appearing in Windows.

 

[Layback Bear]

In my opinion Restore Points and proper backups are two different things and two different purposes and methods.

One does not replace the other. I personally use both methods. I also use a Clone I update about once a week on a separate SSD as another method.

I use Macrium Reflect for backups and cloning.

 

[whs]

You are right Jack. Restore points and images complement each other. If those restore points would only be less volatile.

 

[Layback Bear]

Yes the Restore Points are as volatile as the rest of the operating system.
That is why I wouldn't recommend Restore Points as a sole method and recommend backups also.

Very useful when they work properly and when not backup, backup, and more backups are required.

I personally don't have any problems with Restore Points but some do. Which means to me the system also has some other problems that need taken care of if they have restore problems.

 

[markg2]

Okay, I'll bite, how do you run drivecleanup? I stuck the exe on her desktop, command prompt (right click run as admin), default location=C:\Users\Connie, cd desktop, typed drivecleanup -t and got unrecognized etc?

I edited my USB/flash drive post. When you do so, does the board send email notices as if the post were new?

I had run chkdsk just on C since I'm looking at the system. I just ran it on the second drive E and external D--no problems.

I ran scannow /f on C. No problems.

 

[maxseven]

Okay, I'll bite, how do you run drivecleanup? I stuck the exe on her desktop, command prompt (right click run as admin), default location=C:\Users\Connie, cd desktop, typed drivecleanup -t and got unrecognized etc?

Should have worked. Whereever you have placed DriveCleanup.exe, "Shift-Right-Click-Open command window here" then execute as you've apparently done.

Maybe you downloaded the 32-bit version and need the 64-bit? From the readme: "Under x64 editions of Windows only the x64 version works."

 

[markg2]

Drivecleanup aside for the moment--

I unchecked the autoplay because the screen just referenced CD/DVD's and no USB devices. I don't get it, flash drives were around even with before SP1 let alone initial Win7 and the OS 'autoplays' when the flash drive is inserted. I'm thinking that a solution attempt would have been to reset then add back the applicable auto runs--but like I said, there is no applicable (USB) inserted device option to define after reset. Strange.

(EDIT): I had downloaded deviceclean by mistake. Attached are the results from -t. Two questions:
1. When a device is removed, is it simply automatically reinstalled when seen by the OS next time such as the an external drive, USB's, etc?
2. I think the only device that would be a catastrophe for this tool to remove would be one of the two internal drives. Is the tool just for 'plugged' in devices? Is there any removal (type) that if done would be characterized as a really, really stupid move?

 

[Layback Bear]

Take a read through this tutorial by Brink.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/818-disk-cleanup-open-use.html

 

[markg2]

I don't see the connection. The drivecleanup util and the corresponding file I uploaded relate to connections/devices previously attached or unattached to the machine as a potential source of her USB problem. The OS cleanup is simply unused/no longer needed data that can be removed providing more open disk space?

That said, I'm glad you posted it since I didn't realize how much OS unneeded data that crap cleaner doesn't address and was living on my machine. I'll run same on her machine just to get rid of similar stuff.

Mark

(EDIT): This is strange. We both have Win7 although one of the might be higher than the home version. Disk Clean on mine has 1 tab--Disk Cleanup and the 'Clean up sys files' button. On her machine she has 2 tabs, the second being for More Options--shadow copies and programs but she doesn't have the 'Clean up sys files'. So it appears we each have more than and less than each other?

 

[Layback Bear]

Your thread. Restore points disappeared.

Then you went to usb problems which has nothing to do with Restore Point problems.

From your post # 10.

Okay, I'll bite, how do you run drivecleanup?

My suggestion from my post # 13.

Take a read through this tutorial by Brink.

Disk Cleanup - Open and Use

To me that is a connection.

Dummy me thought that a drive cleanup was a Disk Cleanup.

Have a nice day.

 

[maxseven]

(EDIT): I had downloaded deviceclean by mistake. Attached are the results from -t. Two questions:
1. When a device is removed, is it simply automatically reinstalled when seen by the OS next time such as the an external drive, USB's, etc?
2. I think the only device that would be a catastrophe for this tool to remove would be one of the two internal drives. Is the tool just for 'plugged' in devices? Is there any removal (type) that if done would be characterized as a really, really stupid move?

In Post #1 you wondered if the USB problem might be related to the SR point question, and IMO the answer to that was "maybe" though Windows should NOT have ever allowed you to set-up SR points on a removeable drive. In any case, I learned a long time ago that one should "fix known problems, then if you do that sometimes other ones go away". Hence the USB thing.

I have used DriveCleanup for years and have never had a problem with it as I said before. Further I have never seen as long a list of items to remove as yours. So it looks ugly to me because the entries represent a lot of junk for the OS to wade through. What DC does AFAIK is it starts with: what is Connected? Ignore that. Then it proceeds with: what is Not Connected and what regvalues are associated with the unconnected items? That's your 53.

To your questions:

1. Yes, if you remove a device and uninstall its driver, when you re-insert the device it will re-install the driver

2. The tool does only affect non-present, not-currently-plugged-in USB devices. For grins plug something(s) in, run drivecleanup -t again, and observe those items are missing from the "stuff to remove" list.

As for potential problems/stupid moves I would ask: Do you know about Windows Device Manager (right-click computer on desktop, select Manage, then Device Manager)? If you were to eg. use Device Manager to uninstall an internal drive, you could reboot, or just select Action/Scan for hardware changes and the drive would re-install itself. So I don't know how the USB tool, even if it somehow screwed-up, could break your PC, but neither can I promise you it won't.

So if you're not comfortable with doing it, or if the problem is so minor you don't care about it, then don't do it.

 

[markg2]

Sorry for the confusion. No points on the USB/flash drive. I comingled the RP oddity with the USB error thinking they might be related having cropped up within a similar time frame. My wife volunteers as bookkeeper/treasurer for 2 nonprofits and uses the flash drives to shuttle QB and excel/word data files between home and the 2 locations plus backup. She's convinced putting different program data on the same drive could mess up something, hence, the 'plethora' of flash drives . As you have explained I feel fine running the removal and will do so when I get home. I'll then turn the auto run back on, try a few USB insertions and see.

There's another problem that seems to have cropped up with the other two that I've been trying to diagnose with no success but I'm holding off posting until these two are about done.

 

[maxseven]

I see now that the way your wife uses portable drives means that you probably aren't even ABLE to connect them all at one time so that DriveCleanup only cleans the missing ones. Further, she no doubt plugs devices in and out into different ports each time as well, adding to the "ghost" (greyed) items in DevMgr. I myself could never remember "only plug this stick into this port", and I can't disagree either with her plethora of drives--the more baskets she uses, the less chance of losing all her eggs so-to-speak. I can only imagine that BACKUPS of the myriad of drives might be hard to make and track!!!

FWIW Mark I just DL'ed another Uwe Sieber tool called DeviceCleanup which appears to affect a superset of Device Manager items (not just USB) and also is a Windows app (not cmd.exe). What it basically does is uninstall EVERYTHING that is not currently connected, not just USB stuff. The joy of this tool for nerds like me is that while I often times go into DevMgr and Uninstall every greyed item, I have to do them one-at-a-time. Instead I ran it just now and could "Select All" and then use CTRL-click to De-select items I was certain I wanted to keep, and all the rest got deleted at once. It also has under its File menu a "Create Restore Point" selection which is always a good idea to do before system changes.

Which is where we started. Image backups are great (I use Acronis TI 2014 but only from the startup iso, not with Windows running) and so are Restore Points for those "oops" moments. I see this thread is checked as "Resolved" and I must've missed the solution. Maybe you just turned it back on and it's working again. If yes that's best to have done and make a fresh SR before fiddling with the USB problem.