System Volume Information Won't Die

[M and D]

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos, there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from a command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos, there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from a command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

Perhaps Knoppix ?
http://www.knoppix.org/

 

[M and D]

Knoppix...I once played around with a Knoppix CD that I no longer have. But you gave me an idea. I must have some bootable CDs or even diskettes that will let me delete those folders from outside Windows. Thanks for the inspiration.

Daddy

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos, there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from a command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

Perhaps Knoppix ?
http://www.knoppix.org/

 

[Wesley Vogel]

There should be a System Volume Information folder on every partition on
your computer.
In the root of each volume. I.e. Drive_letter:\System Volume Information

You cannot delete any of the System Volume Information folders or the
contents of those folders if System Restore is running.

Stop the System Restore Service in services.msc long enough to get rid of
the System Volume Information folders that are in the wrong places.

How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

The System Volume Information (SVI) folder is a super hidden system
folder. There will be a SVI folder on each partition or volume Windows
sees. The SVI folder can not be permanently deleted on any partition of
volume. If a particular partition or volume is set to not be monitored
by System Restore, the Indexing Service is turned off, and EFS is not in
use, the SVI should be empty or nearly empty.

System Restore uses the SVI folder to store it's information and hold
restore points.

If the Indexing Service is turned on (it's turned off by default), it
will use the SVI folder to store files. This will evident by the
existence of a folder called catalog.wci. Keep in mind that having the
Indexing Service turned on can cause the SVI folder to grow very large.

If Encrypting File System (EFS) is in use, it will use the SVI folder to
store the log file that is generated during the encryption and
decryption process.

After making the partition changes you described, you will want to check
the "System Restore Setting" to make sure only the Windows or system
partition is the only partition being monitored by System Restore.

You will then want to test System Restore to make sure it is functioning
correctly.
To do so, create a new restore point named TEST.
Create a new shortcut on the desktop and point it to My Computer or any
other file of your choice and name it TEST.
Now restore to the Test restore point.
The system will now reboot, and you will receive a message if the
restore was successful, and the Test shortcut on the desktop will be
gone.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify
my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for
Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the
partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything
went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My
Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media
partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which
is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos,
there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows
shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand
that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in
my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these
buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music
and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System
Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former
partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator
account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried
taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from a
command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move
them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't
suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm
not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[M and D]

"Stop the System Restore Service in services.msc long enough to get rid of the System Volume Information folders that are in the wrong places."

System Restore is turned off for all drives since I am dilligent about backing up. Consequently, the System Restore service is stopped.

Daddy

There should be a System Volume Information folder on every partition on
your computer.
In the root of each volume. I.e. Drive_letter:\System Volume Information

You cannot delete any of the System Volume Information folders or the
contents of those folders if System Restore is running.

Stop the System Restore Service in services.msc long enough to get rid of
the System Volume Information folders that are in the wrong places.

How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify
my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for
Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the
partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything
went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My Music
and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media partition
(formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which
is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos,
there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows
shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand
that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in
my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these
buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music and
Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System Restore.
Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator account
and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried taking
ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from a command
prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't
suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm
not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[M and D]

Hi Bert:

Many thanks for your informative reply.

Because I am dilligent about backing up -- bordering on fanatical -- I turned off System Restore on all drives long ago. I also removed the Indexing Service long ago, from Add/Remove Windows Components. And because I have the Home edition of XP, EFS encryption is not supported.

The SVI folders I'm talking about came from the merged partitions, i.e., partitions that no longer exist. What I have in the resulting partition is that partition's own SVI folder, and two additional SVI folders for partitions that don't exist. I don't understand why it is that I cannot get rid of the two redundant SVI folders.

If I had to do it again, I would delete the two partitions instead of merging them into the third partition. (You recall that I had previously moved the user files from the old partitions to the new.)

Nonetheless, once I realized what had happened, I went to the System Restore tab in Control Panel to be sure that System Restore really was turned off on all drives. It really was. What's more, in the list of available drives to protect, which was greyed out like I thought it would be, there were no entries for the two former partitions.

Unless I'm still not 'getting it', I think my only recourse is a Knoppix CD, as someone else sugested, or one of those DOS disks that can 'see' NTFS. I'm not the sort to go mucking around in the registry. Thanks again for your help.

Daddy

Hi,

The System Volume Information (SVI) folder is a super hidden system
folder. There will be a SVI folder on each partition or volume Windows
sees. The SVI folder can not be permanently deleted on any partition of
volume. If a particular partition or volume is set to not be monitored
by System Restore, the Indexing Service is turned off, and EFS is not in
use, the SVI should be empty or nearly empty.

System Restore uses the SVI folder to store it's information and hold
restore points.

If the Indexing Service is turned on (it's turned off by default), it
will use the SVI folder to store files. This will evident by the
existence of a folder called catalog.wci. Keep in mind that having the
Indexing Service turned on can cause the SVI folder to grow very large.

If Encrypting File System (EFS) is in use, it will use the SVI folder to
store the log file that is generated during the encryption and
decryption process.

After making the partition changes you described, you will want to check
the "System Restore Setting" to make sure only the Windows or system
partition is the only partition being monitored by System Restore.

You will then want to test System Restore to make sure it is functioning
correctly.
To do so, create a new restore point named TEST.
Create a new shortcut on the desktop and point it to My Computer or any
other file of your choice and name it TEST.
Now restore to the Test restore point.
The system will now reboot, and you will receive a message if the
restore was successful, and the Test shortcut on the desktop will be
gone.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify
my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for
Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the
partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything
went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My
Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media
partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which
is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos,
there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows
shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand
that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in
my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these
buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music
and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System
Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former
partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator
account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried
taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from a
command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move
them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't
suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm
not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[Wesley Vogel]

Bert knows way more about System Restore and System Volume Information then
I do.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

"Stop the System Restore Service in services.msc long enough to get rid
of the System Volume Information folders that are in the wrong places."

System Restore is turned off for all drives since I am dilligent about
backing up. Consequently, the System Restore service is stopped.

Daddy

There should be a System Volume Information folder on every partition on
your computer.
In the root of each volume. I.e. Drive_letter:\System Volume Information

You cannot delete any of the System Volume Information folders or the
contents of those folders if System Restore is running.

Stop the System Restore Service in services.msc long enough to get rid of
the System Volume Information folders that are in the wrong places.

How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309531

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to simplify
my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for
Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into the
partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media. Everything
went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My
Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media
partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content, which
is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My Videos,
there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows
shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand
that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders in
my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these
buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music
and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System
Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former
partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator
account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried
taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from
a command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't
move them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't
suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and I'm
not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[Ted Zieglar]

You're no slouch yourself, from what I read.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

System Restore is turned off for all drives since I am dilligent
about backing up. Consequently, the System Restore service is
stopped.

Do you image your drives or just backup your data? If the latter, I would
strongly recommend that you turn System Restore back on. System Restore has
nothing to do with data backup. It provides a quick easy way to restore the
operating system back to the state it was in if something goes wrong.

In fact I even recommend that you turn it back on if you *do* image your
drives. It's generally much easier and faster to go back with System Restore
than with a backup. Moreover you probably keep only a generation or two or
backups. System restore provides a daily Restore Point and lets you go back
to yesterday or several days ago, depending on what you need.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Bert:

Many thanks for your informative reply.

You're very welcome.

Because I am dilligent about backing up -- bordering on fanatical -- I
turned off System Restore on all drives long ago.

I can understand turning off SR before making a backup or image to save
space, but would suggest turning it back on for every day use. It can
fix most problems that are detected early. And is much quicker than
restoring a backup.

I also removed the Indexing Service long ago, from Add/Remove Windows
Components. And because I have the Home edition of XP, EFS encryption is
not supported.

Good.

The SVI folders I'm talking about came from the merged partitions, i.e.,
partitions that no longer exist. What I have in the resulting partition
is that partition's own SVI folder, and two additional SVI folders for
partitions that don't exist. I don't understand why it is that I cannot
get rid of the two redundant SVI folders.

Boot into Safe Mode with administrator rights. Take ownership of each
SVI folder and delete them all. One new SVI should be created.

If I had to do it again, I would delete the two partitions instead of
merging them into the third partition. (You recall that I had previously
moved the user files from the old partitions to the new.)

That makes sense. Do all partitioning and restore the saved files to the
new partition. This can still be done if the above doesn't work.

Nonetheless, once I realized what had happened, I went to the System
Restore tab in Control Panel to be sure that System Restore really was
turned off on all drives. It really was. What's more, in the list of
available drives to protect, which was greyed out like I thought it
would be, there were no entries for the two former partitions.

Unless I'm still not 'getting it', I think my only recourse is a Knoppix
CD, as someone else sugested, or one of those DOS disks that can 'see'
NTFS. I'm not the sort to go mucking around in the registry. Thanks
again for your help.

I don't think this will be necessary.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org


Daddy

Hi,

The System Volume Information (SVI) folder is a super hidden system
folder. There will be a SVI folder on each partition or volume Windows
sees. The SVI folder can not be permanently deleted on any partition
of
volume. If a particular partition or volume is set to not be monitored
by System Restore, the Indexing Service is turned off, and EFS is not
in
use, the SVI should be empty or nearly empty.

System Restore uses the SVI folder to store it's information and hold
restore points.

If the Indexing Service is turned on (it's turned off by default), it
will use the SVI folder to store files. This will evident by the
existence of a folder called catalog.wci. Keep in mind that having the
Indexing Service turned on can cause the SVI folder to grow very
large.

If Encrypting File System (EFS) is in use, it will use the SVI folder
to
store the log file that is generated during the encryption and
decryption process.

After making the partition changes you described, you will want to
check
the "System Restore Setting" to make sure only the Windows or system
partition is the only partition being monitored by System Restore.

You will then want to test System Restore to make sure it is
functioning
correctly. To do so, create a new restore point named TEST.
Create a new shortcut on the desktop and point it to My Computer or
any
other file of your choice and name it TEST.
Now restore to the Test restore point.
The system will now reboot, and you will receive a message if the
restore was successful, and the Test shortcut on the desktop will be
gone.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org

[Windows XP Home SP 2]

After reading some good advice in these newsgroups I decided to
simplify
my life with fewer partitions. I used to have separate partitions for
Pictures, Music and Videos.

Using Partition Magic I combined the Music and Video partitions into
the
partition formerly known as Pictures, which I renamed Media.
Everything went great.

Prior to combining the partitions, I moved the shell folders for My
Music and My Videos out of their former partitions into the Media
partition (formerly known as Pictures.) Everything went great.

When Partition Magic merges partitions, it combines their content,
which
is as you would expect. Since I already moved \My Music and \My
Videos,
there was nothing left in these partitions besides a few empty Windows
shell folders, including System Volume Information (SVI). I understand
that SVI is used by System Restore. So now I have the old SVI folders
in
my Media partition, and here's the problem: I can't get rid of these
buggers.

I never understood why I had SVI folders in my former Pictures, Music
and Videos partitions, since they weren't being monitored by System
Restore. Anyway, now I'm stuck with the old SVI folders from my former
partitions.

I tried deleting them from Safe Mode, using both my Administrator
account and the machine Administrator account. No success. I tried
taking ownership...I already had ownership. I even tried deleting from
a
command prompt in Safe Mode. No success. Can't delete them. Can't move
them.

What do I have to do to get rid of these SVI folders? Please don't
suggest the Recovery Console. I don't have a slipstream version and
I'm
not going to make one just for this. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[Bert Kinney]

I agree Ken, very well said.

 

[mhc]

Hi Bert:

Many thanks for your informative reply.

Because I am dilligent about backing up -- bordering on fanatical -- I turned off System Restore on all drives long ago. I also removed the Indexing Service long ago, from Add/Remove Windows Components. And because I have the Home edition of XP, EFS encryption is not supported.

The SVI folders I'm talking about came from the merged partitions, i.e., partitions that no longer exist. What I have in the resulting partition is that partition's own SVI folder, and two additional SVI folders for partitions that don't exist. I don't understand why it is that I cannot get rid of the two redundant SVI folders.

If I had to do it again, I would delete the two partitions instead of merging them into the third partition. (You recall that I had previously moved the user files from the old partitions to the new.)

Nonetheless, once I realized what had happened, I went to the System Restore tab in Control Panel to be sure that System Restore really was turned off on all drives. It really was. What's more, in the list of available drives to protect, which was greyed out like I thought it would be, there were no entries for the two former partitions.

Unless I'm still not 'getting it', I think my only recourse is a Knoppix CD, as someone else sugested, or one of those DOS disks that can 'see' NTFS. I'm not the sort to go mucking around in the registry. Thanks again for your help.

Daddy

If System Restore is disabled, the System Volume Information folders CAN
be deleted permanently. Here's how to do it in XP Home:

Click Start, and then click My Computer. On the Tools menu, click Folder
Options. On the View tab in the Advanced settings box, click "Show
hidden files and folders", and clear the "Hide protected operating
system files" box by clicking on it (click Yes when you are prompted to
confirm the change). Then click OK.

Boot into safe mode, go back to My Computer, and you will now see the
System Volume Information folders listed in the root directory of each
drive on your system. Right-Click on the SVI folder, select Properties,
and then click on the Security tab. Find your name in the Users box,
click on it, and then in the permissions box, add check marks in all the
"allow" boxes, and then click OK. Repeat this for each SVI folder on
your system.

You will now be able to delete the System Volume Information folders.

mhc

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I agree Ken, very well said.

Thanks, Bert.

 

[M and D]

Many thanks for your continued interest in my situation. My backup plan, in a nutshell, is that I image my system partition and backup my (two) data partitions.

I agree that it's faster to go back to a restore point than to restore an image. And it's convenient that System Restore automatically makes restore points, for example, before I install a driver. Norton Ghost can do that too but I banished anything with the name Norton from my computer ;-)

While System Restore certainly has its advantages, I would rather restore an image than a restore point. If I were hit by malware (which has never happened and hopefully never will) I would want nothing less than a known good image of my system. If I made a wrong move with Windows or other software (which, unfortunately, has happened) I can't be sure that an earlier restore point will completely fix the problem, since restore points contain a limited, albeit critical, number of system and user files.

All files in an image are stored at the same time, but if I restore a restore point I'll have some files from one date and other files from another. Which may or may not matter, but I'd rather not have that if there's another choice. And if my computer can't boot, for instance if my master boot record gets hosed, I may not be able to get to system restore under any circumstances.

From reading these newsgroups I know that restore points can become corrupted. That's less likely to happen to an image stored on an external hard disk away from the computer.

On the other hand, disk imaging is not easily understood. I've spent a lot of time learning the ins and outs, but then computers are something of a hobby for me. And you need to have good discipline to stick with a backup plan (and to hone when needed), whereas system restore is almost like that oven you see on TV - just set it and forget it.

I feel comfortable with imaging but that's a personal choice. And having made that choice, turning off system restore makes the imaging go that much faster. Thanks again for your advice.

Daddy

 

[M and D]

To mhc (and to Bert and Ken):

Ta da! Your method worked. It got a little scary, since I discovered that the owner of those redundant SVI folders was SYSTEM, and my account didn't even appear in the list. After going through the various tabs I was able to replace SYSTEM with my account and then I was able to delete the folders. I was relieved to know that I could limit whatever changes I was making to that 'folder, subfolders and files'. Thanks for your help.

Daddy

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Many thanks for your continued interest in my situation. My backup
plan, in a nutshell, is that I image my system partition and backup
my (two) data partitions.

I agree that it's faster to go back to a restore point than to
restore an image. And it's convenient that System Restore
automatically makes restore points, for example, before I install a
driver. Norton Ghost can do that too but I banished anything with the
name Norton from my computer ;-)

While System Restore certainly has its advantages, I would rather
restore an image than a restore point. If I were hit by malware
(which has never happened and hopefully never will) I would want
nothing less than a known good image of my system. If I made a wrong
move with Windows or other software (which, unfortunately, has
happened) I can't be sure that an earlier restore point will
completely fix the problem, since restore points contain a limited,
albeit critical, number of system and user files.

All files in an image are stored at the same time, but if I restore a
restore point I'll have some files from one date and other files from
another. Which may or may not matter, but I'd rather not have that if
there's another choice. And if my computer can't boot, for instance
if my master boot record gets hosed, I may not be able to get to
system restore under any circumstances.

From reading these newsgroups I know that restore points can become
corrupted. That's less likely to happen to an image stored on an
external hard disk away from the computer.

I certainly don't recommend that you substitute System Restore for your
imaging. I recommend using both. If you have a problem, try SR first, which
is much easier than restoring a backup. If that doesn't work, you have your
image to fall back on.