Does restroe point work?

[Bob Day]

Using xp pro on high end laptop...

I have had to rebuild the hard disk because of a MS software crash. While
rebuilding it, some of the MS software failed to install. So, I am trying to
use restore.

I picked one restore point, it took about 30 minutes to tell me it could not
restore to that point because nothing has changed.

I picked another and another and another restore point going further back in
time but I gett the same thing after waiting 30 minutes, that it cannot
restore because nothing has changed. I know things have changed, because I
have been doing nothing but installing software.

Why would restore show a restore point if it didn't acutally exists?

Since the software does not operate as advertised (surprise), can some
explain how it really works in the real world? Is it useless?

Thanks
bob

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 11/4/2008 12:33 PM, and on a whim, Bob Day pounded
out on the keyboard:

Using xp pro on high end laptop...

I have had to rebuild the hard disk because of a MS software crash. While
rebuilding it, some of the MS software failed to install. So, I am trying to
use restore.

I picked one restore point, it took about 30 minutes to tell me it could not
restore to that point because nothing has changed.

I picked another and another and another restore point going further back in
time but I gett the same thing after waiting 30 minutes, that it cannot
restore because nothing has changed. I know things have changed, because I
have been doing nothing but installing software.

Why would restore show a restore point if it didn't acutally exists?

Since the software does not operate as advertised (surprise), can some
explain how it really works in the real world? Is it useless?

Thanks
bob

Hi Bob,

As you have found, SR doesn't seem to work when it's really needed. I
rely only on good backups. Of course in situations like yours, a backup
probably won't help since most of the time the changes happen between
backups.

I consider it useless because of my experiences. Those who have been
fortunate enough to have SR work, will say it is a lifesaver. Depends
on which side your experience falls.

--
Terry R.

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[Bob I]

Your description would tend to indicate the System Restore file was
rendered obsolete by your reinstall, and there is no valid restore saved
since. Turn off System Restore and then turn it back on to reset it.
Once you have a good System Restore file then you should be able to use
it again as intended.

 

[Malke]

Using xp pro on high end laptop...

I have had to rebuild the hard disk because of a MS software crash. While
rebuilding it, some of the MS software failed to install. So, I am trying
to use restore.

I picked one restore point, it took about 30 minutes to tell me it could
not restore to that point because nothing has changed.

I picked another and another and another restore point going further back
in time but I gett the same thing after waiting 30 minutes, that it cannot
restore because nothing has changed. I know things have changed, because
I have been doing nothing but installing software.

Why would restore show a restore point if it didn't acutally exists?

Since the software does not operate as advertised (surprise), can some
explain how it really works in the real world? Is it useless?

System Restore works fine in the "real world" under most circumstances. You
didn't provide any details about your computer and its problems, but the
fact that some programs have not installed properly are a clue that all is
not right with this machine. Please look at these links to see what details
you need to include in your next post to get focused help:

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Usenet
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/555375 - How to Ask a Question

Or you may decide to take your computer to a professional repair person
instead. There is no shame in doing this; I don't hesitate to call a
plumber or an electrician. I don't recommend using a
BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of place.

Malke

 

[Bill in Co.]

The date and time was 11/4/2008 12:33 PM, and on a whim, Bob Day pounded
out on the keyboard:


Hi Bob,

As you have found, SR doesn't seem to work when it's really needed. I
rely only on good backups. Of course in situations like yours, a backup
probably won't help since most of the time the changes happen between
backups.

I consider it useless because of my experiences. Those who have been
fortunate enough to have SR work, will say it is a lifesaver. Depends
on which side your experience falls.

Well, in many situations it can work fine, but only if you use it
judiciously. But if you expect too much of it, it fails (say like: too
massive a change has taken place for it to be able to keep complete track
of, and backups for, all the system and file changes). And a similar thing
can be said about using ERUNT. But you're right, by far the best thing to
do is to use an system backup on another drive!

 

[Bob Day]

Thanks for your comments...I will stop using restore points. Any type of
"backup" cannot be a "it works sometimes" deal.

The restore points in question were generated automatically by Windows. I
don't create any manually.

The problem started with a security update to office 2007 that failed to
install. I was on the phone with a Micrsoft support person who took over my
computer and spent 5 hours trying to resolve the problem and wound up
manually uninstalling Office 2007 to to find an unknown error message when
they tried to reinstal. The future looked bleak, so I reinstalled form an
acronis disk image back up.

I hope that answers everything.
Thanks
Bob

 

[Kayman]

Thanks for your comments...I will stop using restore points. Any type of
"backup" cannot be a "it works sometimes" deal.

The restore points in question were generated automatically by Windows. I
don't create any manually.

The problem started with a security update to office 2007 that failed to
install. I was on the phone with a Micrsoft support person who took over my
computer and spent 5 hours trying to resolve the problem and wound up
manually uninstalling Office 2007 to to find an unknown error message when
they tried to reinstal. The future looked bleak, so I reinstalled form an
acronis disk image back up.

How to reinstall System Restore in Windows XP?
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairsr.htm

 

[Ken Blake]

Thanks for your comments...I will stop using restore points. Any type of
"backup" cannot be a "it works sometimes" deal.

Your choice, of course, but I think turning off System Restore is a serious
mistake.

1. The great majority of situations where it doesn't work are caused by
something you've done wrong, such as running other incompatible software

2. For the great majority of people, it *does* work correctly, almost all
the time.

3.It's an easy automatic procedure that can often get you out of serious
trouble. No, it's not perfect, and no, it can't solve all problems, but it
solves enough problems that in my view, it's foolhardy to remove it as a
possible tool for you.

 

[Bob I]

Thanks for your comments...I will stop using restore points. Any type of
"backup" cannot be a "it works sometimes" deal.

As with anything in this world, it works UNLESS something breaks it.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 6:09 AM, and on a whim, Bob I pounded
out on the keyboard:

As with anything in this world, it works UNLESS something breaks it.

As with many things in this world, they break on their own without
"something" else being blamed for it.

Unfortunately, one never knows SR IS broken until they need it to work
properly and it doesn't. THAT is what makes it useless IMO.

--
Terry R.

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[Terry R.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 12:27 AM, and on a whim, Ken Blake
pounded out on the keyboard:

Your choice, of course, but I think turning off System Restore is a serious
mistake.

1. The great majority of situations where it doesn't work are caused by
something you've done wrong, such as running other incompatible software

And as I stated to Bob, the great majority of times where it doesn't
work, is just when you need it TO work. At that point, no one cares why
it doesn't work, and blaming the user or other software is a poor excuse
IMO.

Backup software tells you when it has completed or failed (although it's
up the user to test the media), why doesn't SR inform the user when
something has gone awry? Are the users expected to test all the points
to verify they work? That's a scary thought.

2. For the great majority of people, it *does* work correctly, almost all
the time.

ALMOST isn't good enough when it fails once when you really need it.

3.It's an easy automatic procedure that can often get you out of serious
trouble. No, it's not perfect, and no, it can't solve all problems, but it
solves enough problems that in my view, it's foolhardy to remove it as a
possible tool for you.

Maybe it should be called, "Maybe System Restore", or "Possible System
Restore" instead! ;-)

--
Terry R.

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[Bill in Co.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 6:09 AM, and on a whim, Bob I pounded
out on the keyboard:


As with many things in this world, they break on their own without
"something" else being blamed for it.

Unfortunately, one never knows SR IS broken until they need it to work
properly and it doesn't. THAT is what makes it useless IMO.

It's not useless, if used prudently. Neither is ERUNT.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 12:51 PM, and on a whim, Bill in Co.
pounded out on the keyboard:

It's not useless, if used prudently. Neither is ERUNT.

Please explain how someone would use SR "prudently". I've had SR unable
to restore on enough computers to say, if it works at all, great! But
regardless of how "prudent" someone is, when SR fails, it's useless.

I install ERUNT on every workstation I touch. Quick install and
additional protection, especially with the Autobackup feature.

--
Terry R.

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[Bill in Co.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 12:51 PM, and on a whim, Bill in Co.
pounded out on the keyboard:


Please explain how someone would use SR "prudently". I've had SR unable
to restore on enough computers to say, if it works at all, great! But
regardless of how "prudent" someone is, when SR fails, it's useless.

By not expecting it to be able to recover from (for example):

a) either too big a system change between setpoints (like perhaps installing
MS Office or some other albatross, and then trying to "undo it" by using
System Restore, possibly even in conjunction with an uninstall operation on
top of that), or

b) something done to the system that could really screw it up, like a
complete mismash of operations, of, for example, using System Restore,
ERUNT, and installing some critical updates (and perhaps undoing, and then
redoing some of those in between, since it didn't fix the problem to the
user)

c) expecting it to be able to recover from something SR is not fully
monitoring that could potentially affect its system recovery on the main
drive C:, say like some important file operations on another partition,
drive, or in any unmonitored directories that are unmonitored by System
Restore, that could potentially impact SR's ability to do a complete system
recovery.

I install ERUNT on every workstation I touch. Quick install and
additional protection, especially with the Autobackup feature.

ERUNT is great too, but it, too, has its limitations. For one thing, it
doesn't save (or restore) as much of the system, but that's obviously not
its design intent. It's design intent is only to backup and restore the
system registry and its associated files, and no more. And sometimes that
is a good thing.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 10:01 PM, and on a whim, Bill in Co.
pounded out on the keyboard:

By not expecting it to be able to recover from (for example):

a) either too big a system change between setpoints (like perhaps installing
MS Office or some other albatross, and then trying to "undo it" by using
System Restore, possibly even in conjunction with an uninstall operation on
top of that), or

b) something done to the system that could really screw it up, like a
complete mismash of operations, of, for example, using System Restore,
ERUNT, and installing some critical updates (and perhaps undoing, and then
redoing some of those in between, since it didn't fix the problem to the
user)

c) expecting it to be able to recover from something SR is not fully
monitoring that could potentially affect its system recovery on the main
drive C:, say like some important file operations on another partition,
drive, or in any unmonitored directories that are unmonitored by System
Restore, that could potentially impact SR's ability to do a complete system
recovery.

Well, that doesn't leave a whole lot left does it! I guess if you are
just trying to recover a deleted icon, it should work perfectly. ;-)

ERUNT is great too, but it, too, has its limitations. For one thing, it
doesn't save (or restore) as much of the system, but that's obviously not
its design intent. It's design intent is only to backup and restore the
system registry and its associated files, and no more. And sometimes that
is a good thing.

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
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[Bill in Co.]

The date and time was 11/7/2008 10:01 PM, and on a whim, Bill in Co.
pounded out on the keyboard:


Well, that doesn't leave a whole lot left does it! I guess if you are
just trying to recover a deleted icon, it should work perfectly. ;-)

Oh, come on now. It can do better than that! (And it also can come in
really handy for the vast majority of people who are too clueless to have
backups.

I do admit, however, that I generally end up either using ERUNT (for the
relatively small system or application changes), or system backups (for the
really large system or application changes), much more often than using SR.
But I'd rather keep the complete arsenal of tools of all of them.