Restore Points disappearing - space settings problem?

[sassofalco]

My System Restore Points keep disappearing, to a situation where I have not one Restore Point showing - not even a protected "greyed" point.
I have tried to create manually set restore points on a daily basis, but even those seem to vanish.
I'm thinking that this could be because I don't allow enought space for accumulative restore points, but how do I determine the value to allow?

 

[DavidE]

See this tutorial:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/335-system-protection-change-disk-space-usage.html

Also, make sure you have enough free space on your C drive, and you are not running out of free space.
Less than 10% free space can cause problems.

 

[sassofalco]

Deleted Restore Points - Current Protection Settings

Thanks for getting back DavidE,

These are my current Protection Settings which seem to be more than advised in Option 1 of your recommended Tutorial..



I'm somewhat perplexed, but will investgate Option 2 later today.

Cheers, Tony

 

[DavidE]

You have plenty of space available according to your Max Usage setting.

Some programs might delete restore points such as Defrag utilities, Cleanup utilities, AV programs.
If you use a 3rd party defrag program or any cleanup utilities that might be why restore points get deleted.

 

[Layback Bear]

From cmd prompt as admin.

Type vssadmin List Shadowstorage

You should get something like this.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Jack>vssadmin List Shadowstorage
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (C\\?\Volume{cc1934e0-7154-4dc2-86f4-fde6173dce8f}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C\\?\Volume{cc1934e0-7154-4dc2-86f4-fde6173dce8f}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 10.06 GB (4%)
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 10.551 GB (4%)
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 11.167 GB (5%)

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (E\\?\Volume{3f386cfc-8f19-4d03-9db4-618103525c72}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (E\\?\Volume{3f386cfc-8f19-4d03-9db4-618103525c72}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 0 B (0%)
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 0 B (0%)
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 11.167 GB (5%)


C:\Users\Jack>

 

[Layback Bear]

From DavidE post #4
I agree

If you use a 3rd party defrag program or any cleanup utilities that might be why restore points get deleted.

Other members have found this to be true also.

Some times the Restore Points are still there but Windows 7 can't find them after using some 3rd party defrag programs or cleanup utilities

Avast has also been know to mess with Restore Points but it has been a few months ago. So I'm thinking they have solved the problem by now.

 

[sassofalco]

If you use a 3rd party defrag program or any cleanup utilities that might be why restore points get deleted.
Some times the Restore Points are still there but Windows 7 can't find them after using some 3rd party defrag programs or cleanup utilities
Avast has also been know to mess with Restore Points but it has been a few months ago. So I'm thinking they have solved the problem by now.

Thanks Guys,

However, 3rd party defrag program(s) never used, and post-analysis/run (as administrator) of CCleaner shows Restore Points still in place (under CCleaner>Tools>SystemRestore).

The culprit may well be Avast - I do have Avast Premier with SecureLine VPN capability.

I will note any changes/deletions after I run my next full scan with Avast over the next couple of days, and let you know how it goes.

Wait out, and cheers,
Tony

 

[DavidE]

What version of Avast are you using ?
Layback Bear is right, the problem with Restore Points was fixed a while ago.

I looked on the Avast forum and see a few people say Avast is creating a lot of Temp files, causing a low free-space problem.
When you see Restore Points are missing, check how much free space you have on before running CCleaner, or any cleaner. If you are low on free space, Windows might delete old Restore Points to free up more space. I'm just guessing with that, but it's something i would check if i had your problem. Something to consider is use a backup imaging program such as Macrium Reflect Free. Then you can control what is backed up, where, and how long the backup is kept. With Macrium you can save backups on a different drive than [C], and keep them offline. Backup Images include everything on the "C" drive, Restore Points do not include everything and every change. Backup Images are more reliable and controllable than Restore Points imho.

 

[Layback Bear]

Please complete this tutorial by Golden so we can see some more information.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image-2.html