Restore Points gone!

[fermat]

Hi Bertie11
I think you misunderstood what I wrote. I used the ms registry patch, but instead of D I used H.

Boot xp.
When you Start > My Computer , what drive letter is shown for your win7 system? That's the one that you use in the hack.

The downloadable registry update from the vista tutorial contains


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\Offline]
"\\DosDevices\\D:"=dword:00000001


This assumes that win7 is on the D: drive
If your xp sees win7 on the H: drive, you edit it to


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\Offline]
"\\DosDevices\\H:"=dword:00000001


The simplest way is to start Notepad
click on File > open
change Files of Type from Text Documents to All Files
navigate to where you saved Stop_Xp.reg
open Stop_XP
change D: to H: and save


Then
take a restore point
Start > My Computer and navigate to Stop_XP.
Double click on Stop_XP and Regedit will run and apply the change

After you reboot XP, the H drive should be offline.
Double click on its icon should give you an empty window.

OK?

 

[bertie11]

Hello fermat. Many thanks for the detailed writeup.
I followed your instructions carefully, I took a restore point in XP, I also looked in Regedit and the Offline key was not there, I then modified the Stop_Xp.reg file in Notepad to show as you described. I clickrd on the (modified) file and I got confirmation that it had been added. I rebooted and looked in Regedit again and the fix 'appeared' to have taken, but what it showed was:
\DosDevices \H: REG_DWORD 0x00000001(1).

Your notes do not show the (1) so I don't know if it is correct or not.
The bottom line is that nothing has changed. When I boot to C:\XP I can still see H:\Win 7 and all it's files and folders, and vice versa.

I went back to the restore point previously created and applied the reg again, but it still won't work. It still showed the (1) as above.
I also applied this reg to my testbed laptop and that worked. The Win 7 partition became Local Disk G and I couldn't access it. It did show the (1) though so I guess it is correct.
I then went back to an earlier XP restore point (yesterday) and tried all over again. Same result, it doesn't work, I can still access Win 7 on H:\
Oh dear.

 

[fermat]

Oh dear, indeed!

Yes, your registry entry is perfectly correct. The (1) should be there.
And the hack works fine on your laptop, which proves that it's a good one. So at least that machine won't give you the same problem anymore.

I can only guess that there's something weird about your desktop, but I can't begin to guess at what it might be. Sorry, but I can't get you any further on this. Hope it hasn't taken too much of your time.
regards

 

[bertie11]

Hi fermat

Computers, don't you just love them?
Unfortunately, I do stilll need XP (I was going to ditch it) but my hand-held satnav won't connect to Win 7 using the new Mobile Connection Centre so I need XP still.
But I am very grateful to you for your patience. I still have the option of deleting XP and doing a fresh instal, it may work then. Maybe someone else may have some more suggestions?
Regards

 

[exis]

Hello,

I have a dual boot with Win 7 and Win XP.
In "My Computer" of Win XP
C: is the system reserved partition (about 100 Mb)
D: is the partition with Win 7 files
E: is the partition with Win XP files

I followed the guide and managed to hide drive D: so restore points in Win 7 do work
My question is if I can hide drive C: too or there will be problem with Win XP boot.

Thank you

 

[fermat]

Hi exis,
I'm not sure exactly what it is you are asking.

Is C: the reserved partition that was created when you installed win7? (the hidden recovery partition for win7)
If it is, can you 'see' it when you are running XP?

I don't have the recovery partition on my win7, so I need to understand what happens on your box before I can comment.

regards

 

[exis]

Hello fermat,
That's right, C: is the reserved partition that was created when I installed win7.
I think this partition is not for recovery perposes but it holds the boot files of Win7. That's why it is only 100 Mb
Of course in Win7 this partition is hidden but WinXP "see" it as drive C:
To be more precise:
I installed XP after Win7 and they gave C: to the reserved partition, D: to the partition that holds the Win7 files and E: is the partition where the XP is installed.
Hiding the drive D: with the registry hack, I fixed the problem with restore points in Win 7. Now I am wondering if I can hide drive C: too so as not to have problems with viruses or this action may cause problems in booting of WinXP.

Thank you

 

[fermat]

Thanks exis,
Now I understand.
Yes you can put C: offline in your XP system. XP is completely self-contained on E: , it does not need anything on C:.

Merry Christmas!

 

[exis]

Thank you, fermat
It worked without problem.

Merry Christmas!

 

[xoral]

That is a load off my mind knowing that because of a dual boot system with xp on another drive it is happening and not some unknown boogie man who comes in the night and messes with my computer. I guess I will create a restore point each time I boot up to windows 7 but the thing that bothers me is that in the process it took out some other files with it. I had 66% of my evet log files missing and some 3.5 gigs of premiere elements extras taken out too.

 

[cace2002]

My problem with disappearing restore points (Windows 7) is resolved. I chatted with ms win7 support and they did two things:

(1) Made sure 'System Restore' (SR) had all the authority it needed: system restore icon-> right click-> properties->click to security tab and put checks in all auth columns

(2) gave SR all the space it wanted: within the 'Search programs and Files' of the START menu type 'create restore point' -> click on link found for 'create restore point' -> Custom->stretch slider ALL the WAY to right (max). apply, Reboot. Go back to 'create restore point' and create one and reboot. See i restore point is there. Mine was hope yours is.

Note: this is clearly a Windows problem. You should NOT have to specify all you available free space to this component. It will surely come back and haunt you. If this solves it for many others then someone should open a bug under MS Windows 7.

Hope this helps others!
cace2002

 

[bertie11]

He Cace2002

glad you got your problem sorted and thanks for the update!

I moved on from this by removing XP from the dual boot and I just have Win 7 only so I don't have restore point problem now.

 

[xoral]

In my case the problem was not with the windows 7 but with the xp that I have on the other drive. The xp sees the restore points as shadow copies and deletes them. I have since reinstalled windows 7 as not only the restore points were taken out but the rest of the OS was disintegrating like soap bubbles popping. I now will not let the two meet. This has solved most of the problems with windows 7 but the media player still gives me some problems and needs to be fixed as many others are having similar problems. This itteration I have not even touched the media center and that seems to have eliminated the most severe of the media player problems as that is what set the thing off downloading every graphic it could find and every noise anywhere on the computer as well as every video clip from every program.