Interesting. It is dated & time stamped exactly at the completion of image creation. I suppose if I have time to burn I could delete it & see if the system reboots. If it does not I can simply reconstruct the image.
So this directory is analogous to a living organ with the host body? It changes as the system is used & evolves?
Hi Shawn,
I have another follow up on this disabling of SYS RESTORE. Disabling this utility prevents the user from creating RESTORE PTS manually. What about RESTORE PTS created by the system when a backup is initiated or defragmenting occurs? It appears that a new RESTORE PT was created when I recently backed up my system by creating a system image even though I had the SYS RESTORE utility disabled (I thought I had disabled it). I did not restore a past image I simply created a new one. As a consequence of this new RESTORE PT, older restore pts got eliminated.
By the way why is a RESTORE PT created when creating a SYS IMAGE? The IMAGE should suffice, correct?
Curious on what you know.
Hello betaupsilon,
The "system image restore point" is part of shadow copy for "previous version" and system restore.
I don't quite understand. Creating a SYS IMAGE is a snapshot of the system. Are you saying that the "system image restore point" is a snapshot of the system at the time the last RESTORE PT was created?
Also, what about the disabling of SYS RESTORE, does that prevent the system from creating RESTORE PTS? I thought I conducted an experiment in the past when I was installing LabView to prevent automatic RESTORE PTS from being created. If I recall correctly, I disabled the SYS RESTORE & avoided the dozens of automatic RESTORE PTS that would have been created by the dozens of driver installations that accompany LabView.
No. Just that when you create a system image, it also creates a special "system image restore point" that can be used as a restore point, and also used with previous versions for your system files.
Disabling system restore will only prevent Windows and users from creating restore points. It won't stop the creation of "system image restore points" and Windows Backup restore points.
It would be best to increase the max storage size to be able to keep more restore points saved before they get replaced when space runs out.
However, restore points are only meant for a quick short term recovery. For long term recovery options, it's best to rely on system images.
Figure between 500MB to 1GB per restore point. But I would not keep more than 3 to 5 restore points. They also have the habit of mysteriously disappearing. Brink is right, images are a better vehicle because that's what you control.
I have another ? on this matter:
It is not clear to me if the WIN 7 defrag utility overwrites existing RESTORE PTS. I had the defrag on auto schedule & noticed my RESTORE PTS missing the next day. Whether the defrag utility was responsible, I am not sure. Anyway, I copied a bunch of files from another drive & performed a defrag once again. However, prior to the defrag I employed your OPTION #1 to disable SYS RESTORE. After completion of the defrag I then enabled SYS RESTORE.
ALL RESTORE PTS vanished. I do not know the nuts & bolts of SYS VOL INFO & the VSS, but is this to be expected? If so, how can I defrag without risking RESTORE PTS?
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