Deleting System Restore points?

[Swifty]

Is there a way to delete System Restore points?

I recently had a battle royal trying to get an X-Fi soundcard to replace
my faulty Audigy 2 ZS card. In the process, I installed, and uninstalled
dozens of times. This created lots of useless restore points, but
importantly, "aged out" all but the one useful restore point, from a few
days before the X-Fi card arrived.

As soon as another restore point is created, my last good one will be
gone. I'm already using the maximum allowed space, so there's no obvious
way of preserving this good one, if only for a few days more, unless I
can delete one of the intermediate bad ones.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Restore points can't be deleted or preserved individually. Each restore
point is linked with previous restore points, so all restore points
created prior to a given restore point are needed to complete a
restoration. You can only delete all but the most recent restore point.

System Restore is not a backup. To backup and restore your system in a
matter of minutes, use disk imaging software. Acronis True Image is an
example. Disk imaging has a learning curve, but it's so worthwhile.

You didn't say what operating system you have. Vista makes disk images,
albeit in a clunky way. Windows 7 has a much better imaging utility.

 

[Swifty]

Restore points can't be deleted or preserved individually. Each restore
point is linked with previous restore points, so all restore points
created prior to a given restore point are needed to complete a
restoration.

I presumed it worked this way, but the mathematician in me is insisting
that I ask: "How does it age out the oldest restore points then?". I'm
half joking; I can imagine how this is done.

I'm toying with the idea of Acronis, all the more so since my soundcard
"gripper" (a word used in the city that I come from, but recognisable
nonetheless)

 

[Jose]

I presumed it worked this way, but the mathematician in me is insisting
that I ask: "How does it age out the oldest restore points then?". I'm
half joking; I can imagine how this is done.

I'm toying with the idea of Acronis, all the more so since my soundcard
"gripper" (a word used in the city that I come from, but recognisable
nonetheless)

You don't have to imagine how RP "aging" is done. There is a method.

It is a configurable process with easily changed default values that
work out of the box for most people.

Here is a fair article about why/when they get deleted:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301224

I have yet to come across any SR default value that cannot be adjusted
for those people that insist they are smarter than SR.

SR is not a time machine and it does not equal backup.

 

[db]

respectfully, SR can be
considered as a method
of backup.

since the feature is dedicated
to only system files.

when a SR point is being
created, it can be stated that
the system files are being
backup'd and archived for
future "restoration".

like backup files, archives
are "restored".

further, if I recall the restore
points also restore "program
files" since they are integrated
with the system as well.

this is also one of the reasons
why I promote that user
files be located off the c drive.

because user files cannot be
restored via SR.

--
db·´¯`·...¸><)))º>
DatabaseBen, Retired Professional
- Systems Analyst
- Database Developer
- Accountancy
- Veteran of the Armed Forces
- @Hotmail.com

"share the nirvana mann" - dbZen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bill Sharpe]

Is there a way to delete System Restore points?

I recently had a battle royal trying to get an X-Fi soundcard to replace
my faulty Audigy 2 ZS card. In the process, I installed, and uninstalled
dozens of times. This created lots of useless restore points, but
importantly, "aged out" all but the one useful restore point, from a few
days before the X-Fi card arrived.

As soon as another restore point is created, my last good one will be
gone. I'm already using the maximum allowed space, so there's no obvious
way of preserving this good one, if only for a few days more, unless I
can delete one of the intermediate bad ones.

Why not restore to your last good restore point, then delete all of the
restore points?

Create one restore point and continue with your soundcard efforts.

Bill

 

[Swifty]

I have yet to come across any SR default value that cannot be adjusted
for those people that insist they are smarter than SR.

Until now, perhaps. I can't increase the C: usage beyond 12%.
See: http://swiftys.org.uk/images/XP_Restore.gif
At that, with one more restore point, I'll lose the one I've been
relying on should something go wrong. Actually, too late; it's gone; I
just checked.

This is because my system took about 30 restore points while I was
struggling with the drivers for my new soundcard. None of these interest
me; my system was fine before, and it is now fine after the soundcard
upgrade finally worked. In between, (those 30 restore points) the audio
was hosed.

If I had my way, I'd increase the usage to 25% for a couple of weeks. I
have plenty of space. I'll just have to be careful what I get up to for
a few weeks, until I'm certain that I've stabilised on the new audio card.

 

[Swifty]

Why not restore to your last good restore point, then delete all of the
restore points?

That's an interesting approach. It doesn't quite fit my situation,
because ideally, I'd like a restore point from before the episode (which
I've now already lost, so this discussion is now moot) and at least one
afterwards.

For the curious: the problem with the sound cards was that I couldn't
uninstall the drivers for the old card, and when I installed the new
card, some of the software conflicted. Since I had nothing to lose, I
resorted to the Windows Install Cleanup utility to eradicate the old
drivers. Even so, the new stuff didn't all work. After 24 hours fiddling
with it, it all came right. So that pre-soundcard restore point was
precious to me; it was the way I got out of my predicament.

 

[Jose]

Until now, perhaps. I can't increase the C: usage beyond 12%.
See:http://swiftys.org.uk/images/XP_Restore.gif
At that, with one more restore point, I'll lose the one I've been
relying on should something go wrong. Actually, too late; it's gone; I
just checked.

This is because my system took about 30 restore points while I was
struggling with the drivers for my new soundcard. None of these interest
me; my system was fine before, and it is now fine after the soundcard
upgrade finally worked. In between, (those 30 restore points) the audio
was hosed.

If I had my way, I'd increase the usage to 25% for a couple of weeks. I
have plenty of space. I'll just have to be careful what I get up to for
a few weeks, until I'm certain that I've stabilised on the new audio card..

Sufficiently enchanted, anything is possible.

Go here:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore

Change DiskPrecent to whatever you want. It defaults to 12 as you can
see.

I cannot agree with your approach to problem solving.

Installing/replacing a sound device is generally a minor annoyance.

Why is this one giving you such a headache?

 

[Gerry]

Leonard

"Each restore point is linked with previous restore points, so all
restore points
created prior to a given restore point are needed to complete a
restoration."

Where did you get this idea from? It is inconsistent with your next
point"

"You can only delete all but the most recent restore
point."

--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Leonard Grey]

Hi Gerry:

To find the source for my information, I would like you to read an
excellent website written by Bert Kinney, who, in addition to being an
MS-MVP, is particularly knowledgable about System Restore.

The name of the website is "How to use System Restore in Windows XP" and
the URL is: http://bertk.mvps.org/index.html

 

[Gerry]

Leonard

Bert Kinney is a good source but I think you are misintrepreting what is
written. Each restore point stands on it own i.e it is not dependent on
others.

--


Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Swifty]

Installing/replacing a sound device is generally a minor annoyance.

Why is this one giving you such a headache?

Normally I would agree entirely with your sentiment, but (for no reason
that I know) the drivers and software for my old card would not
uninstall. I got an error partway through the uninstall that ?????.log
was missing, and the uninstall failed. It failed every time I tried.

I tried re-installing the old software (from the original Creative Labs
CD) but it offered only repair, upgrade, remove. None of these worked.

So, I couldn't repair the old software, neither could I remove it.

Although the old software was still in Add/Remove programs, it did not
appear in the Windows Install Cleanup utility. I used "My Uninstaller"
to remove what I could. And so it went on. Eventually, my system seemed
clean, with no sign of the old software. My system booted without error.
I installed the new software and it did not work. Parts did, but most
didn't.

I did a system restore back to my oldest available (17th August),
installed the new software, and it worked.

The system restore had resurrected parts of the old system, but they
were easy to eradicate.

I decided to call it a day at this point, but would have been more
comfortable if my 17th August Restore point could have been protected.

Now I know the trick (Thank you), I'll probably replace my 80Gb C: drive
with a 1Tb drive, and use 95% of it for system restore points. Maybe
exaggerating… slightly.

 

[Swifty]

Bert Kinney is a good source but I think you are misintrepreting what is
written. Each restore point stands on it own i.e it is not dependent on
others.

That being the case, why do you occasionally get System Restore Points
which cannot be restored?

I was assuming that they were in some way incremental, and a prior one
was missing. If that's not the case, then I'm puzzled (nothing new there).

This is merely intellectual curiosity for me, now. I managed to get back
far enough to get me out of difficulty. I just had to go further back
than I'd intended, because all of my recent restore points were
unusable. To put it in concrete terms: My new hardware arrived on
Tuesday. I had restore points every day, so in theory Monday's should
have got me out of the problems that I caused on Tuesday. But I had to
go back to the previous Friday, because Monday, Sunday and Saturday all
said that they couldn't be used.

 

[Leonard Grey]

Restore points are, in fact, incremental, which is why they cannot be
saved individually.

The particular implementation in Windows XP allows you to delete all but
the most recent restore point. You see this in the Disk Cleanup Wizard.

Incremental backup is not exactly intuitive; I can explain in more
detail if you wish.

When a restore point becomes corrupted, it can no longer be restored.
Restore points often become corrupted due to malware infection, but this
is not the only reason.

If a restore point becomes corrupted, it can take other restore points
down with it. In some cases there may be no other choice than to erase
them all and start over.

In any case, while System Restore is useful for as far as it goes, it's
no match for a disk image. Honestly, once you've learned the art of
imaging, you'll never worry about a driver messing up your system.

 

[Gerry]

Swifty

Restore points are not incremental. They are a snapshot of system
settings at as particular time.

The most common cause of an inability to restore is interference by
security software, notably Norton. However, individividual restore
points can be messed up if partitions, other than the Windows partition,
are monitored (they should not be monitored ). If drives (notably an
external drive) are swapped in and out the system can become confused. A
host of reasons for falure are described in this link:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Swifty]

The most common cause of an inability to restore is interference by
security software, notably Norton. However, individividual restore
points can be messed up if partitions, other than the Windows partition,
are monitored (they should not be monitored ). If drives (notably an
external drive) are swapped in and out the system can become confused. A
host of reasons for falure are described in this link:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

I don't have Norton, but I do monitor my D: drive as I install software
there (C: is my employers, D: is mine). However, my D: drive is always
my D: drive, otherwise desktop icons get screwed up.

I'm running out of curiosity now, but thanks for the explanation.

 

[Bennett Marco]

I don't have Norton, but I do monitor my D: drive as I install software
there (C: is my employers, D: is mine).

Wasted effort: System Restore doesn't monitor programs. It monitors
system settings that are stored on the system drive.

 

[Just D.]

Leonard,

There are much better ways to go. The system restore is not perfect, it
doesn't work in many cases. So after making several tries I just disabled
this worthless feature and started using another one. It's priceless and I
can completely trust it. THere are many apps able to make a complete backup
of the system hard drive. I usually use Acronis True Image Home. The best
version ever was 11. It's Linux based and it installs a pretty small
partition if you want to get a simple but powerful recovery menu pressing
F11 before Windows starts. Using this interface you can make a complete,
incremental or differential backup of your entire disk, partition,
directory(ies), etc. to any internal or external hard drive except the one
tha you're backing up. They also have the Windows based part, much more
powerful and flexible. I don't want to describe all the features. You can
find them on the Internet. Just one addition - there is a new version called
Acronis True Image Home 2009. They completely migrated it to Windows. It's
more powerful and much faster, but it's not completely compatible with the
previous versions. I'm having all of them and can compare in detail. I just
don't want to. But I can add one cent to what I already wrote. It saved me
many times since I'm a professional developer and I don't want to lose my
time (3-4 days) reinstalling and customizing the system after each MS
mistake. For example 1.5 years ago there was a very nice service pack/update
published in Dcember. It killed many machines. It took around 20-30 minutes
to automatically complete restore by system drive and keep working. This
update was fixed a little later for sure, but we should never forget about
many surprises called service packs. I'm not talking about viruses, human
errors, hardware failures, etc. Having a complete backup on a separate drive
is always a very good idea.

Just D.
MS NVP