Automatic System Restore point creation

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

In this article,
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/techart/Windowsxpsystemrestore.htm

it says this:
Scheduled restore points
In addition to creating restore points before certain events, System Restore
provides users with the ability to restore to other specific days and times.
It does this by creating a restore point every 24 hours of calendar time. By
default, System Restore will create a restore point every day that the
machine is running. These restore points are only created during idle time;
for example, when there is no mouse, keyboard, or disk i/o activity.
Scheduled restore points saved and compressed (NTFS only) are made available
to the user, in the event of a problem, through the System Restore user
interface. Also, users have the flexibility at any time to manually create
and name a restore point from within the System Restore user interface.





My system does NOT automatically create a restore point every day that the
machine is running. There are days in-between days with restore points that
do not have any! (If you see what I mean!) Why should this be?

 

[cimex]

Good question, and one which most of us ask, as well.
I think the article is inaccurate on the daily aspect of Restore Points. The
question is: what prompts the automatic setting of a Restore Point? From
Help and Support:

"Restore monitors changes to the system and some application files, and it
automatically creates easily identified restore points. These restore points
allow you to revert the system to a previous time. They are created daily
and at the time of significant system events (such as when an application or
driver is installed). You can also create and name your own restore points
at any time."

I think the "daily" reference is in error, and that XP emphasizes
"significant system events" in choosing to set a restore point. After all,
if no "events" occur, one daily restore point would be identical to another,
creating redundancy and wasting space in the System Restore area of the
disk. For instance, if a person had reduced the area for System Restore to
the extent that it only saved four Restore Points, and they were all
identical, what would be the point of allocating even that much space to
System Restore?

I think, therefore, that the "blank" days in the System Restore calendar are
simply redundant Restore Points, and can be assumed to be identical to the
immediately preceding Restore Point.

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Some software can restrict the creation of SR points, such as Seti@Home or in some cases a Real Time AV program. You can check to see if SR is setup to create points every 24 hours - navigate to the following key in the Registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore (RPGlobalInterval)

and make sure it is set to 86400 seconds(24 hours) which is the default, although I can't see that it would have changed, unless done so manually.

Have you got more than 200 Mb free disk space? If not SR will automatically turn itself off until enough free space is made available again.

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

Hi

Some software can restrict the creation of SR points, such as
Seti@Home or in some cases a Real Time AV program. You can check to
see if SR is setup to create points every 24 hours - navigate to the
following key in the Registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore (RPGlobalInterval)

and make sure it is set to 86400 seconds(24 hours) which is the
default, although I can't see that it would have changed, unless done
so manually.

Yep, that's set.

Have you got more than 200 Mb free disk space? If not SR will
automatically turn itself off until enough free space is made
available again.

841 MB on the XP Partition.

 

[Will Denny]

Yep, that's set.

841 MB on the XP Partition.

Hi

With both of those looking OK, that leaves the possibility of a program/process running in the background, that is somehow restricting the creation of SR Points. It could a sub-program of either. Is there any pattern as to when days are being left out, or is it random?

--

Will Denny
MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

Yep, that's set.

841 MB on the XP Partition.

Hi

With both of those looking OK, that leaves the possibility of a
program/process running in the background, that is somehow
restricting the creation of SR Points. It could a sub-program of
either. Is there any pattern as to when days are being left out, or
is it random?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/techart/Windowsxpsystemrestore.htm

I have 6 on the 16th, when I installed 6 Windows updates, none on the 17th,
one automatic on the 18th at 08:19, one automatic on the 19th at 18:58, and
none so far today

 

[Will Denny]

I have 6 on the 16th, when I installed 6 Windows updates, none on the 17th,
one automatic on the 18th at 08:19, one automatic on the 19th at 18:58, and
none so far today

If you didn't install any updates/programs on the 17th and none today it looks as though you aren't having any System Checkpoints created - only SR Points created when you use WU. Is the Task Scheduler Service running?

Will

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

If you didn't install any updates/programs on the 17th and none today
it looks as though you aren't having any System Checkpoints created -
only SR Points created when you use WU. Is the Task Scheduler
Service running?

Will

Yep - automatic!

 

[Will Denny]

Yep - automatic!

Is the RPC Service running? Task Scheduler is 'dependent' on that:

"Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore in Windows XP"
http://tinyurl.com/rn3e

 

[Gordon Burgess-Parker]

Is the RPC Service running? Task Scheduler is 'dependent' on that:
Yes!


"Frequently Asked Questions Regarding System Restore in Windows XP"
http://tinyurl.com/rn3e

Dead link!

I have to say I'm not unduly bothered about this, just interested as to why
it doesn't appear to be happening!

 

[mrtee]

This is from MS to me on 5/29/2002 RE: System Restore not working as advertised:

Subject: RE: system restore


Jeff,



I think that one of the applications installed is causing this. By looking at the information you sent to us, it is virtually impossible for us to know what could be causing this. Most likely one of those application is somehow accessing the hard drive or doing something on the background thus not allowing the system to go idle. You can try a few things:



1- Rebuild your system and start monitoring when the problem start, after installing each application;

2- Put your machine in a clean boot. Start, Run, type msconfig and select diagnostic mode. Reboot and see if the rp will be created. Hopefully the many apps will not load at startup and affect the idle time of the system;

3- Check your task scheduler to see if there anything present;

4- You can configure Performance Monitor to create logs on what is running on your system;

5- We usually don't want to change this values, but just for testing, on the Registry Editor, go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore and then change either of this values, so your system creates restore points faster.



RPGlobalInterval



This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that System Restore waits before it creates the automatic computer check points for elapsed time. The default value is 24 hours.



RPSessionInterval



This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that System Restore waits before it creates the automatic computer check points for session time (the amount of time that the computer has been on). The default value is zero (0), which means that this feature is turned off.



Hope this helps,



Jamir Correa (MS)

Beta Technology Support

This message is provided "As Is" with no warranties, and confers no rights

It is still not working correctley, I'll live with it.
--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________
| SNIP»
| Dead link!
|
| I have to say I'm not unduly bothered about this, just interested as to why
| it doesn't appear to be happening!
|
|
|