System Restore - changing data?

[Terry Pinnell]

I've just realised that System Restore actually ALTERS data, i.e adds
duplicate folders. Is that correct? Has this always been the case? Or
is it just on my newish XP Pro PC, as against my old XP Home system?

Surely that screws up the whole concept, which I'd thought was to
backup/restore just the REGISTRY?

 

[Unknown]

No, that is not correct. System restore does not add duplicate folders.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Not quite. See http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html and
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/filesfolders.html

 

[Bill in Co.]

I've just realised that System Restore actually ALTERS data, i.e adds
duplicate folders. Is that correct?

No. At least not that I have ever seen.

Has this always been the case? Or
is it just on my newish XP Pro PC, as against my old XP Home system?

Surely that screws up the whole concept, which I'd thought was to
backup/restore just the REGISTRY?

System Restore backs up (and restores) more than just the registry.

If you just want to backup and restore the registry and its associated
files, you can use ERUNT. I find that they each have their own place,
however (aka: using the right tool for the right job).

And of course, you should have a complete system backup utility, like
Acronis True Image, or Casper. This is most foolproof approach,
guaranteed to be 100% effective in restoring your system.

 

[John A]

Yes it does!

I have often seen duplicate folders generated by system restore -
mainly folders in c:\program files, and documents & settings. The
duplicates appear with the same folder name with (1) or (2) appended.
Seems to happen if there were application updates done since the
restore point was taken. In most cases the duplicates can be safely
deleted, but they may indicate that a uninstall/reinstall of the
affected application is warranted.

 

[Daave]

No. At least not that I have ever seen.

There are some reports that this behavior does happen:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30520&st=0&p=195636&#entry195636

 

[Bill in Co.]

There are some reports that this behavior does happen:

http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=30520&st=0&p=195636&#entry195636

Well, if you System Restore back far enough, to where some monitored folders
or files were moved since the current point in time, I could see it
happening. And if it finds a folder already there with the same name, it
might still add it (with the same name, but with a different suffix number).