System Restore

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Milt said:
Can someone please tell me where System Restore data is saved in WinXP Home?

Thanks,
Milt
Click to expand...


The System Volume Information is the hidden, protected operating
system folder in which WinXP's System Restore feature stores
information used to recover from errors. It's really not a good idea
for you, or any utilities or antivirus applications, to directly
access the contents of that folder, unless you expect to have no
future use for the restore points, in which case it would be simpler
just to turn off the System Restore feature.

However, if you're confident that you know exactly what you're doing:

How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;309531


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Bruce Chambers

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Milt said:
Can someone please tell me where System Restore data is saved in
WinXP Home?
Click to expand...


Whether XP Home or Professional, the answer is the same--in the folder
\System Volume Information.

However you should not attempt to do anything with the files there. There is
nothing there that is in a format you can view or edit or delete. Any
attempt to manipulate what you find there can only screw up the System
Restore feature.
 
Hello Ken and Forum!

We had a strong storm and power outage last night that crashed my Dell 3000
with XP Home. My daughter was on line at the time. So when the power came
back hours later, ol'Dad gets the black screen then "missing DLL: warning.
K, so I get out my WindowsXP and F12 during start up. I then boot from
CD-ROM and it merrily installs WindowsXP. Now here's the pinch. It asked me
for a decision about a partition... I took the 3rd option. So... now I've a
brand new edition of XP and that's it! None of my old files and photos. Now
I head for the System Restore only to find that there are no saved restore
points except the one made during installation this morning. Can anyone
help... or is it all gone....:(

Stephen
 
peaches6_8 said:
Hello Ken and Forum!

We had a strong storm and power outage last night that crashed my
Dell 3000 with XP Home. My daughter was on line at the time. So
when the power came back hours later, ol'Dad gets the black screen
then "missing DLL: warning. K, so I get out my WindowsXP and F12
during start up. I then boot from CD-ROM and it merrily installs
WindowsXP. Now here's the pinch. It asked me for a decision about a
partition... I took the 3rd option. So... now I've a brand new
edition of XP and that's it! None of my old files and photos. Now I
head for the System Restore only to find that there are no saved
restore points except the one made during installation this morning.
Can anyone help... or is it all gone....:(
Click to expand...


It 's probably all gone.

When you reinstall an operating system, the result is normally that
everything that used to be on the drive is gone. However it depends on
exactly what you did, and what choices you made. For example you are given
the choice early on to delete the existing partition by pressing "D". Did
you take that choice? Exctly what did it ask when it "asked [you] for a
decision about a partition," and when you say "I took the 3rd option," what
option was that?

If you deleted the existing partition, you're out of luck. But if you
didn't, please explain exactly what you did; if you didn't, it's possible
that your files may still be recoverable.

Or perhaps you don't have an installation CD, but an OEM manufacturers
restoration or recovery CD that came with the computer. In that case, almost
certainly everything is gone. Those can only restore to factory condition
and wipe everything off.

In the future when electrical storms are in the neighborhood, you should
always turn off the computer and unplug both the power line and internet
connection. If you only lost files, consider yourself lucky. You could have
physically destroyed the computer.

Note three other things:

1. System Restore is part of Windows. When you replace Windows, you replace
System Restore, so any old restore points are gone.

2. Even if you had old restore points, they wouldn't be of any help to you.
System Restore can restore the operating system, but does nothing to protect
your files and photos. Note that its name is "System" Restore, not data
restore.

3. You've learned the hard way that if you have things on your computer that
are important to you, you need to always have a backup of them, stored
externally to the computer. It is always possible that a hard drive crash,
user error, nearby lightning strike, virus attack, even theft of the
computer, can cause the loss of everything on your drive. As has often been
said, it's not a matter of whether you will have such a problem, but when.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
 
Thanks Bruce and Ken,

I didn't intend to do anything with the System Restore data. But I realized
that I didn't know where it was, and was curious.

Milt
 
I appreciate your interest Ken. Perhaps I should have explained further. I
lost all restore points today. I can't identify any reason; they were just
gone. I was thinking that if they had been stored in a file or folder, I
might restore them from my Ghost backup image. But when you and Bruce showed
me where they were, I realized I should leave it alone. I'll just keep an eye
on System Restore and see if it's working OK now.

Milt
 
Bert,

Thanks for your comment on my problem with Restore Points. After reading it,
I believe I now understand what happened.

I made a Ghost full backup to my C:/ partition. That backup represented
almost six gigabytes. My System Restore Storage was set at about 5%, which
represents about five and one half gig. And my System Restore already had
about a month's restore points in it. I believed that I simply "swamped" it's
storage capacity.

Normally, I make my monthly Ghost backup image directly to a set of eleven
spanned CD's. But this time I tried bacing up directly to my C:/ partition
and then cutting and pasting to CD's from there. I wanted to see if it would
be faster or easier. It wasn't!

So I now understand why I lost my restore points.

Milt
 
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