Solved Windows 7 deletes all restore points Help!

[marktedrow]

My computer with Windows 7 wants to keep deleting all of it's restore points after a few days. I have read many posts about people saying they lose the restore points after a reboot but with me that is not the case. They are still there upon reboot. I have two computers with Windows 7 and the 2nd has restore points going back two months. The settings are the same on both, but the 1st computer keeps deleting all of them, system made or manual.

I have tried the fix of removing and reinstalling the paging file as well as disabling and re enabling system restore, but nothing works. Everything with Windows works great but this. Please Help.....

 

[Sir George]

My computer with Windows 7 wants to keep deleting all of it's restore points after a few days. I have read many posts about people saying they lose the restore points after a reboot but with me that is not the case. They are still there upon reboot. I have two computers with Windows 7 and the 2nd has restore points going back two months. The settings are the same on both, but the 1st computer keeps deleting all of them, system made or manual.

I have tried the fix of removing and reinstalling the paging file as well as disabling and re enabling system restore, but nothing works. Everything with Windows works great but this. Please Help.....

Can't help you with the "why" it happens, but I make backups daily to be sure I can restore the system to a prior time. In my opinion, a much better choice.

I know, I know, it doesn't answer the question; that's why I started with "Can't help..."

 

[marktedrow]

Thanks for trying. I have spent too many hours on this.

 

[DavidE]

What anti-virus do you use ?
Avast has problems.

 

[Callender]

System Restore points vanish

The number of days that restore points are kept before being automatically deleted is the value stored in the registry here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore\RPSessionInterval

This value specifies, in seconds, the restore points Time to Live (TTL). When a restore point reaches this time and it is still on the system, it gets deleted. The default value is (7776000), which will be 90 days.

Also see this post:

http://www.sevenforums.com/backup-r...d-only-one-month-post2607458.html#post2607458

Check the tutorial here if you don't have enough space allocated to system restore points:

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

 

[marktedrow]

Should I try to disable avast and see? I have 2015

 

[DavidE]

The Avast Secure Virtual Machines option is what causes problems with restore points.
If you have it installed, uninstall it and see if that fixes the problem
Here are instructions to uninstall it:
http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/368050-dwindling-free-space-my-c.html#post3053256

 

[Callender]

Those problems with Avast and SR have been posted in many places in SevenForums. I'd suggest waiting for someone who knows about that to post.

Edit:

Oops. Already posted - see above!

 

[marktedrow]

The Avast Secure Virtual Machines option is what causes problems with restore points.
If you have it installed, uninstall it and see if that fixes the problem
Here are instructions to uninstall it:
http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/368050-dwindling-free-space-my-c.html#post3053256

Don't see that option in my avast. I have the free version

 

[DavidE]

If you don't have Secure Virtual Machines installed your problem might be different.
Secure Virtual Machines is not shown in my screen print in the instructions because i uninstalled it before the screen print.

Here is a very recent thread on the Avast forum about restore points problems:
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=171395.0

 

[GokAy]

A friend here fixed system restore problem by uninstalling grimefighter of Avast. Remove it and see if it will solve your problem.

Also run vssadmin list shadowstorage in a command prompt and copy/paste or post screenshot here please.

 

[marktedrow]

I do not have Grimefighter because it comes with the paid version of Avast and I have the freebie.
Below is the screenshot you requested......


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

C:\Windows\system32>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: (E\\?\Volume{20839213-6949-11e4-af26-0021700078fd}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (E\\?\Volume{20839213-6949-11e4-af26-0021700078
fd}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 725.109 MB (0%)
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 3.536 GB (0%)
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 116.44 GB (25%)

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (C\\?\Volume{d332e21d-920d-11e3-aa90-806e6f6e6963}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C\\?\Volume{d332e21d-920d-11e3-aa90-806e6f6e69
63}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 4.207 GB (0%)
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 6.399 GB (1%)
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 116.416 GB (25%)


C:\Windows\system32>

 

[GokAy]

Allocated and actual seem logical but did you set that 25% maximum? That's a bit high. 10% is the default.

Also did you look for NG in avast? That is the virtual machine portion, maybe you have missed. No idea if it is available in free version.

If all fails uninstall avast and get MSE or some other AV, run for a few days and see if the problem corrects.

 

[DavidE]

GrimeFighter is available in the free version, i think it's a "limited" version.
Just because a tool should not be available in the free version doesn't mean it might not be installed.
Secure Virtual Machines (aka NG, sandbox) is not available in the free version.
But a recent Avast program update installed it for me ...
Is it a buggy updater/installer ??? I think so.
I now check after any program update to make sure something didn't sneak in that i don't want.
Double check and make sure of what you really have installed, and it is what you want.

GokAy has a good suggestion, to uninstall Avast and use MSE at least temporarily to see if that fixes the problem.
@GokAy - I didn't know about the problem with GrimeFighter, thanks for that info !

When I change AV's i like to have everything downloaded before starting to make a change.
I like to keep my time without an AV to a minimum when making changes.
That way I don't have to go online to find and download files if something goes wrong.

Download the Avast uninstaller and know how to use it.
https://www.avast.com/en-gb/uninstall-utility

Download the MSE installer:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5201

I would rather have files downloaded beforehand and never use them, than run into a problem and need them.
If i don't need them later, i can delete them.
I also always use the AV uninstaller to make sure everything possible is uninstalled and cleaned.

Some other things that might cause your issue:
Dual booting can delete restore points, do you dual-boot ?
Do you run any system cleaners, system optimizers, registry cleaners, etc. ?
Some of these programs might delete restore points.

For better "backup protection" consider using a program to create System Backup Images.
Then you have full control of what, when, where, how long, ... is backed up.
And, it is a complete backup of the "OS" drive, restore points are not a complete backup.

Macrium Reflect free is the most reliable/recommended program that i know of.
I use it, it works reliably for me.
Macrium Reflect Free

How important is backup/restore ?
If the HD crashes all restore points are lost, recovery is not possible.
If malware gets on the PC, restore points can be infected, they are always online.

With System Imaging (Macrium), full backups can be stored on an external/offline device.
If the "OS" HD crashes, recovery is possible.
If malware gets on the PC, it can't infect offline backup images ...

For me, Backup/Restore is #1 most important followed by security protection.
Hope you don't mind my long-winded reply ... it's my opinion from what i've learned ...

 

[GokAy]

@GokAy - I didn't know about the problem with GrimeFighter, thanks for that info !

You can check post #4 http://www.sevenforums.com/performa...cessible-space-139gb-c-drive.html#post3068361

After we directed him towards Avast, he did get a hunch and it worked for him

 

[marktedrow]

Allocated and actual seem logical but did you set that 25% maximum? That's a bit high. 10% is the default.

Also did you look for NG in avast? That is the virtual machine portion, maybe you have missed. No idea if it is available in free version.

If all fails uninstall avast and get MSE or some other AV, run for a few days and see if the problem corrects.

I did lower it down to 10% but I cannot find NG in the free version.

 

[gregrocker]

There is a reason why over the life of Win7 we have stopped suggesting Avast for AV. I would uninstall it using its special tool needed for uninstalling the bloatware AV's then install free lightweight MSE to test the difference.

Avast Uninstall Utility | Download aswClear for Avast Removal
Microsoft Security Essentials

The other suggestions are also good to check your disk space apportioned to restore points and save regular backup images using Macrium, or scheduling Win7 image and file backups regulalry.

 

[Layback Bear]

I sure as heck would not argue with a anti virus program. I would just remove it and use something else.

From what I have read in the last 2 or 3 weeks Avast has been nothing but problems for many users.

I use MSE and Malwarebytes Premium and have not problems.

I will not keep any program on my computers that don't get along with Windows 7 and me.

 

[paul1149]

Make sure you're using a VSS-compatible defragger.

 

[Layback Bear]

Good point Paul. Some 3rd party defrags do loose the restore points. I just don't remember which defrag program.

I use and recommend the built in defrag in Windows 7 if a hard drive is being used and not a SSD.