System Restore won't back up to a prior month

[Guest]

Until now, I have had no problems with System Restore. Now, when I click the arrow to return to a restore point in a previous month, the Restore wizard just states "Shows previous month," but does not go back -- just stays in February

I 'm using maximum space for restoration on a nearly empty 120 GB hard drive. Any ideas? Thanks, Alex.

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

Alex;
Many things can cause loss of Restore Points, when they are gone, they
are gone and can not be recovered or used.
Some of the things are:
Available space on hard drive
Computer usage
Space you dedicate to System Restore

If you use Real Player, try doing without it for a few days:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=812119
And others.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/

Until now, I have had no problems with System Restore. Now, when I

click the arrow to return to a restore point in a previous month, the
Restore wizard just states "Shows previous month," but does not go
back -- just stays in February.

I 'm using maximum space for restoration on a nearly empty 120 GB

hard drive. Any ideas? Thanks, Alex.

 

[Guest]

Donald
There may be corrupted data in system Restore
Turn off/on System Restore to delete corrupted files
Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore
Click System Restore Settings on left side
Check "Turn off System Restore", click OK, follow prompts and reboot
This deletes ALL Restore Points including corruption
Then go back and turn on system Restore and create a Restore Point
Otherwise
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...l=/technet/itcommunity/newsgroups/faqsrwxp.as
------
I have been reading the many posts on system restore, and I have similarly suffered consequences for relying on it. What I'm wondering is whether there are many things that inevitably delete points. In the hope that at least one would work, I'm running both MS's system restore and Symantec's Go Back. Both failed

Symantec documents the causes, and they're scary. Go back points will be wiped by disk fragmentation and by anti-virus scans. So, while users are urged (by this selfsame Symantec) to defragment our drives and to do frequent scans to avoid infection, these procedures undermine data safety.

I would assume the same processes wiped the restore points in MS's System Restore, and may have caused the bulk of the problems reported.

Windows XP Home doesn't even contain conventional backup software. Users are encouraged, thereby, to _rely_ on System Restore. But it may be more unreliable than anyone suspects.

What do you recommend? What should users forego, virus checks and defragmentation or System Restore? What should we rely on.

I'm amazed at all the concern about esoteric problems of security against snooping and hacking, with so little intelligence devoted to the simple matter of proper backup. It is just too hard to backup properly, where one recommended procedure for other problems negates the main backup utility on offer

 

[Jupiter Jones [MVP]]

System Restore is far from a back-up plan.
It primarily protects system files but not personal files.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...=/technet/itcommunity/newsgroups/faqsrwxp.asp
Go-Back is more of a Back-up plan, however it is usually on the same
drive and thus vulnerable.
Neither of them are a magic bullet and should not be thought of as
such.
As you have seen, they both have their weaknesses.
You should not forgo basic security just to protect these functions:
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/security.htm

Nothing replaces backing up data to another location.

--
Jupiter Jones [MVP]
An easier way to read newsgroup messages:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/newsgroups/setup.asp
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/

Donald;
There may be corrupted data in system Restore.
Turn off/on System Restore to delete corrupted files:
Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Restore.
Click System Restore Settings on left side.
Check "Turn off System Restore", click OK, follow prompts and reboot.
This deletes ALL Restore Points including corruption.
Then go back and turn on system Restore and create a Restore Point.
Otherwise:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tr...=/technet/itcommunity/newsgroups/faqsrwxp.asp

similarly suffered consequences for relying on it. What I'm wondering
is whether there are many things that inevitably delete points. In the
hope that at least one would work, I'm running both MS's system
restore and Symantec's Go Back. Both failed.

Symantec documents the causes, and they're scary. Go back points

will be wiped by disk fragmentation and by anti-virus scans. So, while
users are urged (by this selfsame Symantec) to defragment our drives
and to do frequent scans to avoid infection, these procedures
undermine data safety.

I would assume the same processes wiped the restore points in MS's

System Restore, and may have caused the bulk of the problems reported.

Windows XP Home doesn't even contain conventional backup software.

Users are encouraged, thereby, to _rely_ on System Restore. But it may
be more unreliable than anyone suspects.

What do you recommend? What should users forego, virus checks and

defragmentation or System Restore? What should we rely on.

I'm amazed at all the concern about esoteric problems of security

against snooping and hacking, with so little intelligence devoted to
the simple matter of proper backup. It is just too hard to backup
properly, where one recommended procedure for other problems negates
the main backup utility on offer.