I think system restore deleted lots of my cs files on Vista Ultimate

[Dave]

I did a system restore to a restore point 2 days ago before I installed some
drivers that screwed up my ability to eject a sata drive.

Then I noticed that all my csharp .cs files were missing in my VS2008 folder
from my project files under mydocuments. The other files were there but not
th e.cs files. Weird is that they showed up in search but I could not open
them and properties showed 0 bytes.

Attrib showed no hidden files.

This is one of the worst of many bugs I have seen in Vista. The system
restore and shadow copies are real pieces of crap imo.

Anyone else had problems in this area or have suggestions on what happened
to these files. They certainly are not in the recycle bin and an undelete
program showed nothing and the disk checks just fine.

Really upset at Vista...

 

[Dave]

It's too bad that MSFT took something that worked fine and totally screwed
it up. Now I totally distrust their file management. I do image and
differential backups but did not do them for four days though did save my
coding work fortunately. Problem is the drive is in an unknown state now
becuase they totally violated their promise of not touching file in
mydocuments. I did nto even "install" these files. I merely unzipped files
and they felt it necessary to go delete some of them but not all of them. So
I don't know what they heck they deleted.

The shadow copy stuff is real garbage as well. Was causing horrible problems
in IIS server when you replaced files and directories and it kept using the
old ones.

So many things in the XP GUI were fine as well and now are gone in Vista.
Such as their ingenious crap they put on the top of the explorer window now
instead of the actual file path and removing the up arrow so that you can't
easily get back to a parent file when you have a small window and their
segmented file path can't display but the current node.

Anyway to truly turn off system restore and shadowing as well as indexing?

Why does turning off indexing have to touch EVERY file on the C: drive?

Why could I not uninstall the Silicon Image software that screwed up my
being able to eject a removable sata drive? Was not listed in drivers or
installed software and I had no other way to remove it besides a full
restore or a system restore.

I could go on and on...

Dave

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Dave,

File type (.cs) is monitored by System Restore. How far back did you restore
the system? And were the files there prier to the creation of the restore
point the system was restored to?

And in Vista, the Documents folder is not exempt from System Restore as the
My Documents folder was in XP.

If the files removed by System Restore were not backed up, you can preform a
undo restore to get them back. Then restore back to just before the problem
driver was installed.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[Jabez Gan [MVP]]

Cool.

Dave should follow up over here.

And I also do think that System Restore should leave the Documents folder
alone.

 

[WTC]

Hi Dave,

You can tell System Protection (System Restore) not backup certain
folders and files at this location in the Registry.

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\BackupRestore\FilesNotToBackup]

--
William Crawford
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

I did a system restore to a restore point 2 days ago before I
installed some drivers that screwed up my ability to eject a sata
drive.

Then I noticed that all my csharp .cs files were missing in my VS2008
folder from my project files under mydocuments. The other files were
there but not th e.cs files. Weird is that they showed up in search
but I could not open them and properties showed 0 bytes.

Attrib showed no hidden files.

This is one of the worst of many bugs I have seen in Vista. The system
restore and shadow copies are real pieces of crap imo.

Anyone else had problems in this area or have suggestions on what
happened to these files. They certainly are not in the recycle bin
and an undelete program showed nothing and the disk checks just fine.

Really upset at Vista...

r

 

[Jabez Gan [MVP]]

Hey Bert,

From Windows Help and Support:
What types of files does System Restore change?

System Restore can make changes to Windows system files, registry settings,
and programs installed on your computer. It also can make changes to
scripts, batch files, and other types of executable files on your computer.
Personal files, such as documents, e-mail, photos, and music files, are not
changed.

May I know from what source that said even Documents folder is not exempted?

 

[Bert Kinney]

Here you go Jabez.

Understanding how System Restore in Windows Vista treats executable files:
https://blogs.technet.com/filecab/a...in-windows-vista-treats-executable-files.aspx

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[Jabez Gan [MVP]]

Thanks Bert

 

[Bert Kinney]

You're welcome.

This would be easy to test.
Create a (Test) restore point.
Place a copy of an .exe file into the Documents folder.
Restore to the (Test) restore point just created and see if the .exe file is
missing.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org

 

[webster72n]

"*System Restore*" in Vista (Windows 7 as well) is a *horrible, horrible
thing!!!* My client lost several weeks of his work - a lot of files
erased from Desktop and Program Files (e.g. Skype, Winrar, collections
of drivers...), installations ruined, ... and I got fired.

Not because of System Restore, that's for sure, you had to have screwed up
something else to arrive at those results.
If those lost files and drivers were installed after the restore date, you
shouldn't have used the feature in the first place, as you well know.
Before condemning something, you should learn to use it properly first.

Harry.

 

[webster72n]

So it *wasn't* system restore that did it ?

Getting him fired? Impossible.
System restore doesn't do anything, unless someone induces it to.
And in this case that someone must be familiar with the workings of SR.
It is also to say, something else could very well have been the cause of the