System Restore questions

[Jim Marshall]

How far back can one reasonably go in doing a system restore in XP. I would
think that going back further than 1 week, for example, opens up
possibilities of conflict with other things that have happened within that
period of time lessening chances of success (or, increasing chances of
conflict). Also, If you decrease the size of the space used for system
restore ( I have a 160 GB HD so 12% is about 18gigs) what happens to the
existing restore points-are the older restore points deleted first, leaving
only those more recent ones that fit the revised space?

 

[t.cruise]

Yes, the older points are deleted to allow for the newer Restore Points when the maximum
space allocated for System Restore is reached. As for how far back one can reasonably go
without problems, that would vary from user to user. If one doesn't install new software,
drivers, or updates often, then going further back should be less of a risk. I am
constantly installing new software, changing registry entries, and finding new ways to
customize my system, on an almost daily basis. So, for me, using the Disk Cleanup/More
Options tab/System Restore Clean up button, which removes all but the latest Restore
Point, is a frequent action. If I used a Restore Point older than a couple of days, I'd
probably be lost as to the configurations I'd changed, and which software I'd installed
after THAT Restore Point. For me and some other people, using 18 GB for more than a
month's Restore Points would just be a waste of hard drive space. It could also be
potentially dangerous to use a very old Restore Point. Although, if there is a problem,
and you can still boot to your desktop, you can use the System Restore option: Undo my
last restoration. If you couldn't boot into Normal mode, hopefully you'd be able to boot
into Safe Mode, go to System Restore, and select the option: Undo my last restoration.

 

[Alex Nichol]

How far back can one reasonably go in doing a system restore in XP. I would
think that going back further than 1 week, for example, opens up
possibilities of conflict with other things that have happened within that
period of time lessening chances of success (or, increasing chances of
conflict). Also, If you decrease the size of the space used for system
restore ( I have a 160 GB HD so 12% is about 18gigs)

I would have doubts over using it for more than a couple of weeks, for
which something under 1 GB is plenty. And there is evidence that
suggests that having too much space can be bad for it: the default was
set when drives were *far* smaller. On such a drive I would cut back
well below the default, and probably to about 1 GB