Where are system restore points saved?

[Thebeholder]

@ tedcredted...

The following link should 'satisfy' your curiosity....
Windows XP System Restore

From the looks of things, you may be able to copy the restore point to a temp directory and then burn to disk, but you may have to copy the restore point back to that same location to have the system register it.

I guess it's trial and error from here on....

Hope this helps...

Thank you so much indeed,
I really did this and worked for me, but I am sking myselfy, if there are more than a restore piont, do all they show after burning them in a CD/DVD?

Should I copy all files and folders shown this screenshot to a temp directory and then burn to disk?

Also, Is the DVD/CD will be bootable atutomatically?

 

[LMiller7]

System Restore works best when used as soon as possible after a problem develops. The few times I have used System Restore it was always the most recent restore point. The further back you go the more likely that the restore will fail or cause more problems than it solves. I would consider using a restore point such as you are proposing to be very high risk, if you can get it to work at all.

Making an image of the drive is a much more reliable way of restoring to a properly working OS.

 

[Rene]

Hey. sry for popping up an old thread, but I have a question:

Can one change the location where System Restore saves restore points? Let's say that I would want to save sys res points of drive C: to drive F:? Is this possible?

 

[LMiller7]

Can one change the location where System Restore saves restore points? Let's say that I would want to save sys res points of drive C: to drive F:? Is this possible?

No. System Restore points will always be stored in the "System Volume Information" folder of the drive that contains Windows. There is no provision for changing this.

 

[whs]

I would not muck around with the system restore points. In Vista and Windows 7 they will only function from the shadowstorage which has to be on the C: partition.

If you want to store recovery points on another partition or different media, I suggest you make images. Images you can store on any partition (but not C) any internal or external disk, on DVDs and on USB sticks. The best imaging program to use is free Macrium.

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

 

[Legbiter]

Taking Ownership manually is tiresome.

Google for the batch file "Take Ownership", I've used it for nearly 2 years and it saves a lot of time and frustration.

(Or get it from http://www.howtogeek.com/downloads/TakeOwnership.zip like I did)

 

[artanbori]

system images instead of favoured restore point

But just ask yourself are they worth it?

It is a lot (I mean A LOT) easier to just make system images with either Windows itself or with all those free Imagining programs.

Please correct me if I am wrong but imaging programs will simply copy the hard drive and re render it - ergo any new files or updates to files are lost

Over the years struggling with annoying glitches wondering if this is virus or hardware issue trying to decode the event logs and finally giving up and reinstalling Windows (and these days you cant even do a repair, the back doesnt really back up just fills more space) you have to wonder again why cant windows add a field to the system restore point which says I really like this system restore point please dont over write it

 

[LMiller7]

Welcome to the forum.

you have to wonder again why cant windows add a field to the system restore point which says I really like this system restore point please dont over write it

Because it wouldn't work.

Design decisions were made for System Restore to keep restore points relatively small and these preclude it's use over the long term. It is designed for and is suitable only for resolving problems in the short term. The further back you go the more likely that the restore will fail or cause more problems than it solves. This is all well known to Microsoft so they did not provide an option that is likely to fail.

On the few occasions I have used System Restore it was always the most recent restore point. Do not ask something from System Restore it was never designed for. If you want to have the ability to restore to a point farther back you need to maintain images of the OS. Many members of this forum do this.

 

[Layback Bear]

Restore points were never designed to be Backups.
They do come in hand for me when I'm tinkering or doing things like Windows 7 Updates that go astray.

Restore points and backup used in the desired combination should take care of your needs.

When you do a backup you have drawn a time line.
What is on the backup is all you get nothing more. You can update your backups as often as you need.
Some do backups daily. Me I do them when I get in the mood.

Restore points and backup do not replace each other. I believe one should use both.

 

[mjf]

Please correct me if I am wrong but imaging programs will simply copy the hard drive and re render it - ergo any new files or updates to files are lost

Imaging is more involved than a simple copy but certainly data files and updates made after the image was made will be lost. "Regular" system imaging along with an even more regular data backup process is the safest approach.

 

[artanbori]

thanks for reply

trouble with constant update to imaging for the stand alone user is that you may update image the problem
most stand alones want to install the software then get on with life download create write etc

perhaps future sofware will allow image of c: partition
i guess that is kind of what restore does
but it is a mystery why windows does not allow stand alone users to lock / write-protect favoured restore points -
I am sure most users will learn when to delete favoured restore points
and we can all be saved from software that installs on a promise it fails to fulfill without our paying through the nose, but by the time we have found out all restore points have been overwritten

perhaps future laptops will have two hardrives - maybe one smaller fixed drive built into motherboard for c: drive software which can be imaged and a second port which will allow users to switch in and out -

i knowright now we use exteral drives and they are great for back up but i dunno - once my stuff is backed up i like to put it away in drawer and not take out until i need to - ie there is time for a house keeping pc / laptop day - sigh when you leave nerdville and enter real life there really does not seem to be the time does there?

when drives can be so small you have to wonder why a small space cant be allocated for a c drive which can be imaged to hearts content leaving the fixed drive for partitions, files and data, etc

 

[LMiller7]

but it is a mystery why windows does not allow stand alone users to lock / write-protect favoured restore points

It is not a mystery at all. There are limitations in the design of System Restore in the interests of keeping the size requirements relatively low. These limitations preclude long term storage of restore points. If you want long term storage you need to maintain image backups. For the sake of reliability these should be stored external to the computer.

There are reasons why things were designed the way they are. When you understand these reasons things tend to fall into place. But reaching that point requires much time and effort.

 

[maxseven]

trouble with constant update to imaging for the stand alone user is that you may update image the problem

No, the imaging software can be set to save data at a specific point in time, then you can go back to that point and retrieve a file anyway. It sounds though that you may be concerned with programs that stop working as they used to. What I do is when my system is working well I make an image. Then whether it's working well or not, a week later I make another separate image. I have images going back Years which owes more to TB of storage than a need or specific intent on my part (I'll never completely Restore my PC to a really old image). But my imaging software Acronis True Image allows me to mount any old image just as if it were a drive on the PC, so I can retrieve any files or configurations from that mounted image that I want.

May Macrium does this too, I tried it once but don't recall.

Imaging is the way to go, but you do of course need big-time external storage to save a lot of images.

BTW the idea of saving System Volume Information is I believe just plain wrong--I would never trust that a current Windows setup would work with any old Sys Vol files copied-back onto it.

 

[SorryForMyEN]

I was able to manually manage the SystemVolumeInformation content in XP.

Was like a perfect dream. It was enough to create a restore point before any change in the system and transfer it to a flash drive where I could rename them by date and subject, each with a maximum of 150MB. So, at any time, I could copy them back to SVI directory and points appear again in Windows Restore Manager with their new names. Much more practical and less heavy than install third-party programs to create piles and piles of terabytes with images and cloning.

Unfortunately, in Seven I still not discovered what to do each file within SVI and unfortunately all the sites on the internet on this subject culminate in an almost philosophical discussion about interfering or not in the system. I think if I paid by the system, also paid for the risk of adjust it my needs. And that is what soon I will do once have a machine with W7 for necessary tests and find out by trial and error how to restore the system manually, because the native Windows restoration is smart enough to just delete those points you need most.

Sorry if it was an outburst too much for a first post, or if the subject is too old to be resumed. But old discussions without a consensus must be resumed until a solution.

Thanks

 

[maxseven]

Well, "whatever works for you" of course, but I for one don't ever want to think that hard about how to make/keep/restore backups.

FWIW and IME it seems the easiest solution of all, at least for me, is to have a Windows Server i.e. WHS2011 running on my network with all the PCs, including XP, as clients. Then they are backed-up automagically in the background to my specifications and all files from all backups are easily available. I do also have a NAS that accepts SyncBack file backups from my key PCs, and also make and keep Acronis True Image backups of every PC--most will say this is "overboard" but I don't think it's possible to have too many backups...