Problem with System Restore in RC2

[Exiddor]

System Restore in RC2 (and previous Vista betas) only saves the latest
restore point. A new restore point is created each day as usual but
only this one point is ever shown in System Restore.

I can create as many manual restore points as I want and these, and the
previous system restore point, are shown - until the next automatic
restore point is created then I am back to the single restore point.

I have 2GB RAM and hundreds of GB of disk space available.

Any ideas?

 

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

System Restore in RC2 (and previous Vista betas) only saves the latest
restore point. A new restore point is created each day as usual but
only this one point is ever shown in System Restore.

I can create as many manual restore points as I want and these, and the
previous system restore point, are shown - until the next automatic
restore point is created then I am back to the single restore point.

I have 2GB RAM and hundreds of GB of disk space available.

Any ideas?

If you are dual-booting with XP:

Anytime you boot into XP the Vista SR Points and Shadow copies will be
deleted by XP. This is because both O/S's use the same file format, and
when XP discovers files it did not create, it deletes them as a matter of
protection. This is widely known. Search the newsgroups for "volsnap.sys."

If you are not dual-booting with XP:

Bug it!

 

[Exiddor]

If you are dual-booting with XP:

Anytime you boot into XP the Vista SR Points and Shadow copies will be
deleted by XP. This is because both O/S's use the same file format, and
when XP discovers files it did not create, it deletes them as a matter of
protection. This is widely known. Search the newsgroups for "volsnap.sys."

I am dual-booting with XP and was aware of this problem so I've
deliberately kept Vista running for the past six days without booting XP
and still have the problem.

If you are not dual-booting with XP:

Bug it!

I will! Thanks for the reply.

 

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

I am dual-booting with XP and was aware of this problem so I've
deliberately kept Vista running for the past six days without booting XP
and still have the problem.


I will! Thanks for the reply.

MICHAEL has had success in this situation by enabling BitLocker on the Vista
system partition. I was able to work around it by "hiding" the two system
partitions from each other. This doesn't really address your particular
situation, however. Strange behavior, indeed!

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

Exiddor,

From the command prompt try running "vssadmin list shadowstorage" to see how
much of your available space is being used up at any given time. Since there
is a configurable limit for the amount of space used for restore points,
it's possible you are running low on this space after you create your manual
restore points.

 

[Guest]

In discussing this further with the System Restore team, we're wondering
this: where are you looking to see whether the restore points exist? Are you
running the Restore wizard? This wizard suggests a single restore point even
if others are available. If you can provide the outputs of both vssadmin list
shadowstorage and vssadmin list shadows, we can better analyze this.

 

[Exiddor]

In discussing this further with the System Restore team, we're wondering
this: where are you looking to see whether the restore points exist? Are you
running the Restore wizard? This wizard suggests a single restore point even
if others are available. If you can provide the outputs of both vssadmin list
shadowstorage and vssadmin list shadows, we can better analyze this.

It was probably misleading in my original post to say that I have
hundreds of GB of free disk space - that was referring to the total
system spread over 3 hard drives and 8 partitions. Vista is on a 120 GB
partition which currently has 72 GB free.

I am clicking on System Tools/System Restore from the start menu and
this gives me the options of "Recommended restore" and "Choose a
different restore point" - when I have manually created additional
restore points.

Here are the outputs you requested:

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line
tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (F\\?\Volume{412a0111-4f5d-11db-a19c-806e6f6e6963}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume:
(F\\?\Volume{412a0111-4f5d-11db-a19c-806e6f6e6963}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 5.808 GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 6.092 GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 6.781 GB

vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line
tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {b4c627f6-3f93-4ae2-a17c-772c653295a2}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 09/10/2006 11:26:41
Shadow Copy ID: {e93ec0a1-4209-4ce1-842a-7ffb439179e4}
Original Volume:
(F\\?\Volume{412a0111-4f5d-11db-a19c-806e6f6e6963}\
Shadow Copy Volume:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy3
Originating Machine: garapan500
Service Machine: garapan500
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release,
Differential, Auto recovered

Contents of shadow copy set ID: {591b7923-e45a-4387-a049-357287a22a8d}
Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 10/10/2006 03:22:00
Shadow Copy ID: {93b6fdc7-0ae2-4003-b888-21a6df0675d7}
Original Volume:
(F\\?\Volume{412a0111-4f5d-11db-a19c-806e6f6e6963}\
Shadow Copy Volume:
\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy4
Originating Machine: garapan500
Service Machine: garapan500
Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
Type: ClientAccessibleWriters
Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release,
Differential, Auto recovered

Actually I've never, ever, had to do a system restore since the facility
was first introduced into Windows several years ago, but it's reassuring
to know that it's there!

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

We are still discussing this but I wanted to give you a quick update.

First, based on your printouts, there are actually two restore points on the
disk, not one. The wizard picks a recommended restore point, even if there
are multiple ones available. The vssadmin command is the way in which you
can see them all.

The fact that you only have two restore points is due to your relatively
small 6 GB shadow copy storage space. We would expect this to be much bigger
based on the total size of your volume. Unless you resized this yourself
using vssadmin, our theory is that your volume was fairly full when you
created the first restore point. Because you didn't have much free space,
the shadow copy storage area was automatically sized to 15% of that free
space. Even if you clear up space on the volume later, this storage space
does not automatically resize itself.

I'll let you know when I hear more...the thread is still making the rounds.

 

[Jill Zoeller [MSFT]]

FYI, to make room for additional restore points, you can increase the shadow
copy storage area using this command:

(from elevated cmd) vssadmin resize shadowstorage /On=C: /For=C:
/MaxSize=18GB

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Want to learn more about Windows Server file and storage technologies? Visit
our team blog at http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/default.aspx.

 

[Exiddor]

FYI, to make room for additional restore points, you can increase the shadow
copy storage area using this command:

(from elevated cmd) vssadmin resize shadowstorage /On=C: /For=C:
/MaxSize=18GB

Many thanks for the information. I've decided that build 5744 is stable
enough for my purposes, so I'm in the process of making it my main
operating system.

I'll keep you advised of any further difficulties with System Restore.

Regards.

 

[Guest]

I am having this restore problem in XP. I did a reinstall of the system
a few months ago. I looked to do a restore and their were no restore points
shown and only the current day was in bold. I selected to do a manual
restore. Later in checking it shows no restore points available.

I tried running vssadmin list shadowstorage and all I see is a black DOS
type of window flash on the screen and dissapear before I can see what is on
the screen.

I tried to access Restore from System/Tools and from Help and Support,
both act the same way. Please help if you can.

 

[John Barnes]

Try typing cmd at the first command prompt then your command from the next
prompt