Restore Point

[Nightowl]

denisedenise wrote on Thu, 7 Jul 2005:

Anyway, the last restore point that I created wasn't there when I needed it
because my computer makes it's own daily restore points and deletes mine
after 5 days. I don't like the fact that my computer does this because when
I create a restore point, it is after I've run all the scans and I know that
my computer is clean.

So, another question . . . how can I tell my computer to create a restore
point every few days instead of daily?

Hi Denise

I don't believe you can do that, and as Bert said, it wouldn't really be
a good idea anyway. If you want the computer to keep the restore point
you make yourself for longer, you need to allocate more disk space for
System Restore -- right-click My Computer > Properties > System Restore.
But again, going back to a restore point made weeks ago could give you
more problems than it solves.

If you are mainly concerned about being able to restore your Registry, I
think you might like an excellent free program called ERUNT, available
here:
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/

It backs up and if necessary restores the Registry for you. You can set
it to run, for example, every day when you start up, and tell it how
long to keep the files; I have mine set for 7 days. Or you can run it
manually before installing a program, then if you decide you don't like
the new app, uninstall and restore your registry to be sure you've got
rid of all traces. It works very well and I can really recommend it.

If you'd like to try it and have any problems setting it up, please feel
free to email me and I'll be glad to help.

Best wishes,

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Bert,

So basically what you're saying is that creating my own
System Restore points after I've done a complete scan and
have run chkdsk is useless since it's deleted 5 days
after I created it, and that it is inadvisable to change
my computer settings to allow my computer to create a
System Restore point once every 2 or 3 days in order for
my computer to maintain the restore point that I created.

The reason you can only keep 5 days of restore points is because you
keep turning off System Restore. Don't shut it off! Let System Restore
do what it was designed to. Check System Restore each day to make sure
a restore point is being created. If not create one manually.
System Restore fails to create an automatic restore point.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srauto.html

At this point if you continue to loose restore points after 5 days let
me know. Event log info will be helpful.

I checked the amount of space my computer saves for
restore points and it's 12% (maximum allowed), or 4703
mb. I have an 80 gig hard drive so that the 4703 mb is
less than 12%.

I would suggest reducing this to 1000mb's, as suggested in the web
page I offered.
Keeping System Restore Healthy
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

I back up everything that I have in my computer onto
CDRW's (my registry included) so I'm not concerned about
losing data. I have a problem with my computer settings
changing for no apparent reason because I don't know how
to go about changing them back to what I want them to be
because the option is unavailable.

When a setting changes, post a new question in this newsgroup
describing the setting you are having the problem with, and maybe
someone can help you figure it out.

The program that I
downloaded and installed yesterday to delete all pop-up
pointers and balloons worked fine until I turned my
computer on this morning. I don't get pop-up
descriptions for files but I get them for hints again.
I'm not a computer genius but I'm not a computer do-do
either that I need a hint to tell me that when I point to
the "Post" button, that I want it to "Post this message."
The question is basically rhetorical, but why did it
start giving me hints again after the third time I
rebooted my computer?

How can you expect someone to give you advise on a program when you
don't mention the name of the program? Please provide the name of the
program and a link to it's location.

Thanks for your advise . . . I appreciate it.

Denise

===============================

Hi,

Having System Restore creating restore points every few
days is a bad approach. The most recent restore points
are the most valuable. The further in time the system is
set back to, the more chance you have of loosing system
and application setting. Along with any application that
were installed in that period.

Here are some tips to follow on keeping System Restore
Healthy. http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

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

Hi t.cruise,

Thanks for the info. I don't remember which
anit-virus/malware/spyware program requires that I turn
off System Restore, but one of them does, but if it does
a scan and finds a virus in a System Volume Information
subfolder, I'll leave it on and when I do a major scan
(all anit-virus/malware/spyware) in Windows and DOS. I
do that either bi-weekly or once a month, depending on
how much I've browsed or downloaded. When I do this, I
turn off all anit-virus/malware/spyware programs except
the one that I'm using so that it isn't stopped from
checking files/folders that are being protected by
another program(s). I also do a defrag and a chkdsk at
the same time and then create a restore point. This was
included in the instructions for that
anit-virus/malware/spyware that said that I had to turn
off System Restore.

I also have SpywareBlaster and SBC Yahoo On-Line
Protection running in the background all the time and
I'm behind Windows Firewall.

Whenever I'm going to turn off my computer for the day,
I always do a disc cleanup and I go into Control Panel >
Internet Options > delete cookies, delete files online
and offline, and clear history. Then I run Spybot,
Yahoo Anti-Spy, Microsoft Malicious Software Removal
Tool, and Microsoft AntiSpyware. I use Microsoft
AntiSpyware to delete my tracks as well. All of this
takes only about 15 minutes and it gives me piece of
mind.

This might sound like over-kill but I went through a
terrible time with my computer about 3 months ago. It
kept freezing up and crashing every 2 to 3 minutes and
had to take it to a computer tech. He transferred all
the files in my computer to his computer and ran a
number of scans on the files, and found no viruses. He
then reformatted my computer and transferred all of my
files back into my computer but my computer still kept
freezing and crashing. It turned out that my RAM was
bad and was replaced. The whole procedure cost me over
$300.00 and I don't want to go through that again.
Besides the money that it cost me, I was without my
computer for about 10 days . . . ughhhh !!!!

Anyway, the last restore point that I created wasn't
there when I needed it because my computer makes it's
own daily restore points and deletes mine after 5 days.
I don't like the fact that my computer does this because
when I create a restore point, it is after I've run all
the scans and I know that my computer is clean.

So, another question . . . how can I tell my computer to
create a restore point every few days instead of daily?

Denise

:

I do not know which spyware/malware software, or
antivirus software you are using. But, NO
spyware/malware/antivirus software that I have ever
used, or tested, has required turning off System
Restore to SCAN my drives. It is only when a virus IS
found while scanning, and is in any of the System
Volume Information subfolders, where Restore Point
files are kept, and where that software cannot gain
access to remove the virus from Restore Points, that I
would consider disabling System Restore. If
spyware/malware/viruses are in Restore Points, they are
harmless unless you Restore from a Restore Point which
contains the infection. But, for scanning purposes
alone, I would not recommend disabling System Restore.
If an infection is found while scanning, then yes, I
would disable System Restore, because I would not know
which of my recent Restore Points also contained that
infection (be it virus/worm/malware/spyware).
Unfortunately, the way System Restore is set up, you
only have two choices: Either turning off System
Restore which deletes ALL Restore Points, or using the
Disk Cleanup/More Options tab/System Restore Clean up
button, which removes all but the most recent Restore
Point. So, if I knew that a Restore Point from last
month was not infected, there is no native Windows XP
way to retain that Restore Point while deleting all of
the others. --

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
Remove [NoSpam] to reply






"denisedenise" <[email protected]>
wrote in message
Hi Bert,

I didn't know that this troubleshooting method was
available. I followed your directions and there were
about 20 srservice listings. The first one said that
I did a system restore. The remainder of them said
that I enabled and disabled System Restore, which I
do when I run my anti-virus/malware programs. I
pasted them into this post but I was answering a
number of posts and I must have forgotten to click
"Post" for this one. Since all they showed was that I
did a System Restore and that I turned System Restore
on and off a number of times, I didn't go back to do
it again for this post.

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it.

Denise

=======================================

:

Hi Denise,

Here are some troubleshooting tips for System Restore
in Windows XP.

Go to Start - Run and type eventvwr.msc and press
enter.
Click on System in the left pane.
Click the gray title "Source" at the top of the
source name column in the right pane to sort by
source name, look for "sr" and "srservice". Double
click on each of these events, then click on the
button below the two arrows in the upper right
corner. This will copy the event information to the
clipboard. Paste the information for each of the two
event here. This will help us in diagnosing the
problem.
System Restore Failures to restore:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srfail.html

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


denisedenise wrote:
Hi again

Sorry to be such a pest but I have another problem.
I run all of my anti-spyware/malware programs, disc
defrag, chkdsk every week. I then create a restore
point. Today, for the first time ever, I needed to
restore my computer to a previous date because my XP
view changed to Classic view and the option to
change it back to XP view wasn't available. But
the restore points that I saved were not available.
I was given a choice of July 1,2,3,4 and 5. The
last time I created a restore point was last
Monday, June 27th, but when I clicked on the <<
arrow to go back to the month of June, it wouldn't
go back.

What happened to the restore points that I created
and why couldn't I access them? I know that they
were saved because I received a message that they
were created.

And I have no idea why my XP view changed to Classic
View when I turned my computer on yesterday.

Any help that you could give me would be greatly
appreciated. I hope you all had a nice 4th!

Denise

 

[Guest]

Hi Nightowl,

Thanks for your response. I won't be changing the frequency of the
automatic restore points that my computer makes. I can't increase it because
my computer allows only 12% and even though I have 80 gigs, it allows me only
4000+ mb for it. I manually make copies of my registry every day so if
anything goes seriously wrong, I can fix it. The more programs that I put
into my computer to do things automatically, the more problems I have with my
computer, and some of them don't work in my computer. I don't know why
because I use them as directed, but it happens. I downloaded a program to
get rid of the pointer, balloon, tips and all pop-ups yesterday and it worked
for a while, but the pop-ups came back. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it
today but the pop-ups still appear. I also downloaded a new clock that
includes ddd - mmm, dd - hh:mm and I lost my XP view and the only option that
I had was Classic View. The only way to get XP view back was to restore my
computer. So I'm giving up on downloading anymore programs for a while, even
ones that could be helpful. I think I walk this earth hand-in-hand with
Murphey's Law, lol, but thanks for the tips. I might decide to try the
program somewhere down the road, if I get bored and wouldn't mind wrestling
with something.

Denise

==========================

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Nightowl,

Yes, the time interval that restore points are automatically created
can be changed via a registry setting, but it's a bad idea. She also
has over 4.5 GB's of space to hold restore points. That's to big. I
have suggested she reduce it to around 1 GB. Having more than two
weeks of restore points is kinda useless.

ERUNT is a good product. I wonder what she is using to backup the
registry!

 

[Guest]

Hey you guys! I'm not "she" . . . I'm Denise

And, I don't have 4.5 gigs of space to hold restore points. I have only
4000+ mb and that's the max my computer will allow.

I don't actually back up my registry. Start > run > regedit > file > export

F drive (disc). I wouldn't dare edit my registry but the copy is a

safeguard for Windows installation. I can recover my Windows configuration
by restoring the backup if something goes wrong.

So far, nothing has gone wrong with my computer until I installed the stupid
clock (except that my RAM went bad and I had to replace it). I need my
computer and I take very good care of it. I learned a lot from a computer
tech/almost engineer, and I don't touch anything that isn't broken. That's
the reason I don't download a program that may or may not be useful in the
future.

But I really do appreciate all your advice. I've bookmarked all the URL's
that you've all given me, just in case.

Denise

==========================

 

[Rock]

denisedenise wrote:

Answers inline:

And, I don't have 4.5 gigs of space to hold restore points. I have only
4000+ mb and that's the max my computer will allow.

Denise 1000 MB is about 1 gb so having 4000+ is having more than 4 GB...lol

I don't actually back up my registry. Start > run > regedit > file > export

That is not a good way to backup the registry. The full registry can't
be restored if something goes wrong.

Better is to use ERUNT, a free program that backups the regsitry and
allows for recovery of the registry from the recovery console. Get it
from here:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm

http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe

 

[Nightowl]

denisedenise wrote on Thu, 7 Jul 2005:

Hi Nightowl,

Thanks for your response. I won't be changing the frequency of the
automatic restore points that my computer makes. I can't increase it because
my computer allows only 12% and even though I have 80 gigs, it allows me only
4000+ mb for it.

Hi Denise

I didn't realise you had it set so high. As Bert said, that is *way* too
much. I have mine set to 1075MB, which is 3% of my drive. I just checked
in System Restore and I currently have 9 days' worth of restore points,
12 actual points because some days have more than one. I really wouldn't
want to "go back" that far anyway.

Why not try resetting the amount of space you allow to about the same,
then don't turn it off and monitor it for a week or so to see if your
restore points are being kept? If you then don't get to keep them longer
than 5 days (and you haven't been madly installing tons of software), it
is not working properly and one of the experts here will help you.

I manually make copies of my registry every day so if
anything goes seriously wrong, I can fix it.

Hmm, well, I'm cheating here because I've read what you said further up
the thread about exporting your registry. But as Rock said in his reply,
this isn't really a good way to do it. This is from the "readme" file
that comes with ERUNT:

Note: The "Export registry" function in Regedit is USELESS (!) for
making a complete backup of the registry. Neither does it export the
whole registry (for example, no information from the "SECURITY" hive
is saved), nor can the exported file be used later to replace the
current registry with the old one. Instead, if you re-import the file,
it is merged with the current registry without deleting anything that
has been added since the export, leaving you with an absolute mess of
old and new entries.
[Denise]
The more programs that I put
into my computer to do things automatically, the more problems I have with my
computer, and some of them don't work in my computer. I don't know why
because I use them as directed, but it happens. I downloaded a program to
get rid of the pointer, balloon, tips and all pop-ups yesterday and it worked
for a while, but the pop-ups came back. I uninstalled it and reinstalled it
today but the pop-ups still appear. I also downloaded a new clock that
includes ddd - mmm, dd - hh:mm and I lost my XP view and the only option that
I had was Classic View. The only way to get XP view back was to restore my
computer. So I'm giving up on downloading anymore programs for a while, even
ones that could be helpful.

Well, I can understand that you don't want to cause yourself problems,
but it's a shame if it makes you afraid to change anything on your
computer or try new programs. There is always help around, from Google
and newsgroups like this one.

I think I walk this earth hand-in-hand with
Murphey's Law, lol, but thanks for the tips. I might decide to try the
program somewhere down the road, if I get bored and wouldn't mind wrestling
with something.

Okay, your choice. As I said, feel free to mail me if you do try ERUNT
and need any help setting it up. Take care.

 

[Bob I]

Sounds like you have a Fat32 file system there.

Hey you guys! I'm not "she" . . . I'm Denise

And, I don't have 4.5 gigs of space to hold restore points. I have only
4000+ mb and that's the max my computer will allow.

I don't actually back up my registry. Start > run > regedit > file > export


safeguard for Windows installation. I can recover my Windows configuration
by restoring the backup if something goes wrong.

So far, nothing has gone wrong with my computer until I installed the stupid
clock (except that my RAM went bad and I had to replace it). I need my
computer and I take very good care of it. I learned a lot from a computer
tech/almost engineer, and I don't touch anything that isn't broken. That's
the reason I don't download a program that may or may not be useful in the
future.

But I really do appreciate all your advice. I've bookmarked all the URL's
that you've all given me, just in case.

Denise

==========================

:

 

[Guest]

Here I sit with egg on my face, lol.

denisedenise wrote:

Answers inline:

And, I don't have 4.5 gigs of space to hold restore points. I have only
4000+ mb and that's the max my computer will allow.

Denise 1000 MB is about 1 gb so having 4000+ is having more than 4 GB...lol

I don't actually back up my registry. Start > run > regedit > file > export

That is not a good way to backup the registry. The full registry can't
be restored if something goes wrong.

Better is to use ERUNT, a free program that backups the regsitry and
allows for recovery of the registry from the recovery console. Get it
from here:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm

http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe

 

[Guest]

Yes, I do.

Sounds like you have a Fat32 file system there.

 

[Guest]

Well I checked out ERUNT and I didn't like it . . . it's too involved for me,
setting strings and all. I then checked out Backup and decided to create a
backup of System State data and the programs that I have in my computer. I
have a Windows XP Pro disc if anything happens to Windows. These are all
good preventative measures and I'm glad that you pointed it out to me.

Many thanks to all of you . . . Denise

denisedenise wrote:

Answers inline:

And, I don't have 4.5 gigs of space to hold restore points. I have only
4000+ mb and that's the max my computer will allow.

Denise 1000 MB is about 1 gb so having 4000+ is having more than 4 GB...lol

I don't actually back up my registry. Start > run > regedit > file > export

That is not a good way to backup the registry. The full registry can't
be restored if something goes wrong.

Better is to use ERUNT, a free program that backups the regsitry and
allows for recovery of the registry from the recovery console. Get it
from here:

http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/
http://www.larshederer.homepage.t-online.de/erunt/erunt.txt

[Installing & Using ERUNT]
http://www.silentrunners.org/sr_eruntuse.html
http://www.winxptutor.com/regback.htm

http://www.aumha.org/downloads/erunt-setup.exe

 

[Bert Kinney]

Sorry about that Denise, my mistake.

Hey you guys! I'm not "she" . . . I'm Denise

And, I don't have 4.5 gigs of space to hold restore
points. I have only 4000+ mb and that's the max my
computer will allow.

Yes, you have around 4.5 GB's.
Here's a conversion chart.
1,024 Byte = 1 Kilobyte (KB)
1,024 Kilobyte (KB) = 1 Megabyte (MB)
1,073,741,824 Bytes = 1 Gigabyte (GB)
1 Gigabyte (GB) = 1,024 Megabyte (MB)

ERUNT is a much better alternative. If windows doesn't start a
registry restore can still be performed.

 

[Guest]

Hi all . . . you're becoming like family to me

Okay, this is funny and it's not funny. TweakUI ver 2.10 was already
installed in my computer on 6/25/03 but I didn't know it . . . there was no
icon for it in my program list. So I downloaded it and installed it and when
the wizard was finished, there was no icon on my desktop. So I did a search
for TweakUI and found that it had already been installed, as I said, on
6/25/03, which I don't understand because I had my computer reformatted in
March-April of this year. Anyway, when I opened TweakUI, I saw the "Enable
Balloon Tip" box was already unchecked. I also downloaded and ran
disableall.reg from kellys-korner two times and I still get the pointer tips.
So it looks like I'll have to grin and bear those very annoying and juvenile
little yellow boxes that pop up every time I point to something. *mumble,
grumble, swear, miffed*

Denise

============================