System Restore not keeping restore points

[Twayne]

In

....


Ok, I went back to look for the System Restore tab and
found it this time. Maybe I was logged on my User Account
when I tried previously. In any case, I tried to disable
the drives D and F and all went well until I received the
message :

New volume D:
You have choosen to turn off System Restore on this
drive. If you continue, you will not be able to track or
undo harmful changes to this drive.

Unless you installed programs to that drive or had Windows use it for some
of its system files, it's perfectly safe to not track it. I used drive D for
download, so I definitely don't want anything mucking around with it!
System Restore affects System Files ONLY. It's a waste of time & cpu to
be monitoring drives without System Files on them.

Funny thing though, you should have received that message for ALL the drives
you turned off the monitoring for. Did you forget that you have to click on
SET in order to change anything? If monitoring was ON and you turned it OFF,
you definitely should have seen that message. Better do another check to see
if you forgot to tick the SET control.

 

[magineer02]

So, you are saying that even in your Admin account, there is no System

Restore tab in System properties? If that's the case, you may have that

policy set to hide it. If you are not familiar with using the Registry

Editor, then we have to adjust it a different way, because you can do

damage in the Registry if you do the wrong things there.



Are you using XP Home or XP Pro?

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

OK, this is what I've done, I went back to My Documents>Properties>System Restore tab and disabled the System Restore monitoring of the D and F drivesvia the set button as I have my OS on the C drive. I then made a restore point and logged off System Restore and then logged back on and the test restore point was there but a previous one I set a few days earlier wasn't.

To Twayne - I'm very leery about messing around with the registry for the very reasons you stated and do not know how to export. I can follow step by step directions but simply telling me to do this or that without instructions isn't going to work. Not everyone is as computer literate.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[magineer02]

So, you are saying that even in your Admin account, there is no System

Restore tab in System properties? If that's the case, you may have that

policy set to hide it. If you are not familiar with using the Registry

Editor, then we have to adjust it a different way, because you can do

damage in the Registry if you do the wrong things there.



Are you using XP Home or XP Pro?

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Glen,
You may or may not have seen my reply to your last message but I indicated that I went back and did find the System Restore tab in System Properties and then disabled the monitoring of the D and F drives.

I'm using XP Home version.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[magineer02]

I sincerely apologize for the inclusion of attached message to my previous reply

Robert

 

[magineer02]

From: <[email protected]>






















What is the size of the hard disk(s) and what is the size of the System

Restore cache ?



--

Dave

Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk

http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

The disk space is:
C=44.58
D= 47.70
D= 56.76
Total = 149.05 disk space


I'm not sure what you mean by the size of the System Restore cache or where to find it? If you mean how many restore points there are there's only (1). The previous test restore point is gone and I only made it recently.

Robert

 

[glee]

Glen,
You may or may not have seen my reply to your last message but I
indicated that I went
back and did find the System Restore tab in System Properties and then
disabled the
monitoring of the D and F drives.

I'm using XP Home version.

Thanks,
Robert

Yes, I saw it. I was busy elsewhere... sorry. Turning off SR on D and
F are fine. I only leave it on my C, and I have a D drive with all my
programs installed so I leave it on there too.

I'm not sure what your status is now. Are automatic restore points
being created? In other words, when you start System Restore (Start>
All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> System Restore), select
"Restore my computer to an earlier time" and click Next, does the
calendar show restore points available?

Your settings are apparently the default of making a point every 24
hours, so unless you have deleted them all during that time, by turning
off SR and turning it back on, there should be some points there.

 

[magineer02]

Yes, I saw it. I was busy elsewhere... sorry. Turning off SR on D and

F are fine. I only leave it on my C, and I have a D drive with all my

programs installed so I leave it on there too.



I'm not sure what your status is now. Are automatic restore points

being created? In other words, when you start System Restore (Start>

All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> System Restore), select

"Restore my computer to an earlier time" and click Next, does the

calendar show restore points available?



Your settings are apparently the default of making a point every 24

hours, so unless you have deleted them all during that time, by turning

off SR and turning it back on, there should be some points there.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

I tried checking System Restore for restore points as you suggested but it only shows the last test. It doesn't show any of my previous restore points which I've created.

I thought I had turned off System Restore when I inadvertently disabled System Restore monitoring all the drives. I was able to enable it again and then proceed with disabling the monitoring of System Restore of the D and F drives.

So how exactly do I turn off system restore?

Thanks,
Robert

 

[magineer02]

From: <[email protected]>












The System Restore cache uses a percentage of the disk. So if the System

Restore cache is set for 10% of a 60GB HD then only 6GB is allocated to the

cache. Thus the cache size can limit the number of System Restore points

stored within that cache.



--

Dave

Multi-AV Scanning Tool - http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk

http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp

Understood but I still don't know how or where to find the System Restore cache or what its set at. I do seem to remember however that at one point System Restore cache was set too high and was eating my HD memory so I was given instructions to lower it but I don't remember how I got there or how I did it.

Robert

 

[David H. Lipman]

Understood but I still don't know how or where to find the System Restore cache or what
its set at. I do seem to remember however that at one point System Restore cache was set
too high and was eating my HD memory so I was given instructions to lower it but I don't
remember how I got there or how I did it.

Robert

Right-Click on "My Computer" --> properties --> system restore --> settings

Example:
http://multi-av.thespykiller.co.uk/other/SysRestore-settings.jpg

 

[magineer02]

Yes, I saw it. I was busy elsewhere... sorry. Turning off SR on D and

F are fine. I only leave it on my C, and I have a D drive with all my

programs installed so I leave it on there too.



I'm not sure what your status is now. Are automatic restore points

being created? In other words, when you start System Restore (Start>

All Programs> Accessories> System Tools> System Restore), select

"Restore my computer to an earlier time" and click Next, does the

calendar show restore points available?



Your settings are apparently the default of making a point every 24

hours, so unless you have deleted them all during that time, by turning

off SR and turning it back on, there should be some points there.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

I kind of figured out what to do I think;

I opened up System Restore and clicked System Restore settings, then clicked settings again and it shows that my disk space usage is set to the max 12% (5478 MB).

I also saw that System Restore has to be turned off on all drives not just the C: drive to turn it off.

So I turned off System Restore and then restarted my computer then turned System Restore back on and checked for restore points and there were none!@ All the test and previous restore points have been deleted.

I also had to disabled the System Restore monitoring D and F drives again.

Thoughts/Suggestions

Robert

 

[glee]

I kind of figured out what to do I think;

I opened up System Restore and clicked System Restore settings, then
clicked settings again and it shows that my disk space usage is set to
the max 12% (5478 MB).

I also saw that System Restore has to be turned off on all drives not
just the C: drive to turn it off.

So I turned off System Restore and then restarted my computer then
turned System Restore back on and checked for restore points and there
were none!@ All the test and previous restore points have been
deleted.

I also had to disabled the System Restore monitoring D and F drives
again.

Thoughts/Suggestions

Robert

Turning off system restore for all drives deletes all restore points you
had, as you discovered. It is set to create a restore point every day,
so see if a restore point shows up in SR's calendar tomorrow.... that
will show that the automatic points are being made.

The 12% setting is too large on newer larger hard drives. XP's System
Restore can have trouble if its cache is too large. Slide the slider to
the left till you have about 2 MB for the SR space setting. That's all
you need and keeps it within an amount it can manage. System Restore
should not be to be used for going back months, only days are a couple
of weeks.

 

[magineer02]

Turning off system restore for all drives deletes all restore points you

had, as you discovered. It is set to create a restore point every day,

so see if a restore point shows up in SR's calendar tomorrow.... that

will show that the automatic points are being made.



The 12% setting is too large on newer larger hard drives. XP's System

Restore can have trouble if its cache is too large. Slide the slider to

the left till you have about 2 MB for the SR space setting. That's all

you need and keeps it within an amount it can manage. System Restore

should not be to be used for going back months, only days are a couple

of weeks.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Ok, I moved the slider to 2MB and will check tomorrow if there are any restore points and will let you know.

Thanks,
Robert

 

[glee]

Surely Glen that was in error "...about 2 MB for the SR space
setting."

You did mean, 2GB - Yes ?

YES! 2 GB... 2046 MB. I hate when that happens....
Thanks.

 

[glee]

Ok, I moved the slider to 2MB and will check tomorrow if there are any
restore points and will let you know.

2GB, not MB.... I made a typing error..... sorry. Set it to 2046MB or
thereabouts..... between 1GB and 2GB is enough.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

YES! 2 GB... 2046 MB. I hate when that happens....

LOL! You did mean 2048MB - Yes ? <vbg>

 

[magineer02]

2GB, not MB.... I made a typing error..... sorry. Set it to 2046MB or

thereabouts..... between 1GB and 2GB is enough.

--

Glen Ventura

MS MVP Oct. 2002 - Sept. 2009

CompTIA A+

Ok, you guys have now confused me. The slider is in MB not GB, what should I do?

I checked System Restore today and it did indeed make a restore point for the 9th.

Thoughts/Suggestions?
Robert

 

[magineer02]

Ok, you guys have now confused me. The slider is in MB not GB, what should I do?



I checked System Restore today and it did indeed make a restore point for the 9th.



Thoughts/Suggestions?

Robert

I set the slider to 2311 because it wouldn't allow 2046, only 1783(4%) or 2311(5%). Hopefully this is ok?

Robert

 

[Twayne]

In

....



Ok, you guys have now confused me. The slider is in MB
not GB, what should I do?

You do realize of course, that 1,000 MB is 1 Gig, right? Not sure I see why
you're confused.

 

[magineer02]

In





You do realize of course, that 1,000 MB is 1 Gig, right? Not sure I see why

you're confused.

No I did not know that. I'm not mathematically inclined. I was confused with the MB versus GB comment. The slider is in MB not GB so I was a bit confused until I saw Glens comment about sliding to 2046. As I stated, I set itto 2311 which is the nearest I could get to 2046 because it wouldn't allow2046, only 1783 or 2311.

Robert

 

[glee]

LOL! You did mean 2048MB - Yes ? <vbg>

I was told there would be no math!! lol.... yes, 2048... hope I get
through this post without a tpyo!