System Restore

Hello trent and welcome to the Forum. A system restore provides a limited means to return your system to a previous point in time. A portion of the hard drive is set aside for these points. Depending on how much hard drive space is set aside, and how much data is to be included in the restore point, and how often restore points are created will determine how many restore points can be saved. For some people it might be a couple of weeks while for others it might be a couple of months.

System Restore - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows

There are two usual methods to return a computer to its original condition. Some manufacturers include their own recovery partition on the hard drive and a means to access that partition, usually via the start menu. On my Dell, for example, I have a Dell Backup and Recovery Manager in my start menu. I can use this to restore my machine to its original factory condition including all trialware and bloat.

The second method is to create your own system image and a companion system repair disk. Windows 7 has its own imaging tool/repair disk. Other people recommend a free alternative called Macrium Reflect. Both of these imaging tools let you image your entire computer to include operating system(s), updates, other programs, personal settings, files, folders, etc. In case of a crash or other problem you can return your computer to the exact state it was in at the time the image was created.

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Imaging with free Macrium

But if all you want to do is install Windows 7 and nothing else, you can do a clean install. Only the operating system is installed and anything else on the hard drive is deleted during a format procedure.

Clean Install Windows 7

lordvader said:

I got a new Laptop
updated windows & drivers
& created a Restore point

wondering if i need to on system restore ?
or does that mean once i created a restore point
& it said Restore point created successfully
its already on ?

Thanks

Since you got the message that the restore point was created successfully, system restore should be on. You can verify that by clicking start > right-click Computer > click Properties > System Protection in left column. You should see the drive containing your operating system is "on".

What happens if at point 7 you do not have any restore dates??

Hello LouLou and welcome to Seven Forums. If your computer is misbehaving and you're trying to repair it, without any restore points you just won't be able to use that particular fix. But there are other things you can try to effect a repair depending on what problems you're experiencing. If you're experiencing problems let us know what they are so we can help guide you to a solution.

If your computer is working just fine you can create restore points manually for one of those "just in case" situations we all have. This tutorial will explain how to do that:

System Restore Point - Create

Please post back and let us know what issues you're having.

Hi thanks for the feedback. I have deleted some files in error! And was hoping a restore would help. I have created one as of yesterday but that doesnt help my situation. Emptied my waste bin also! Thank you anyway. Kind regards