When does System Restore refuse to put Restore Point down?

[Bert Kinney]

The purpose of the clean boot was to find if something in the boot
process is causing SR to fail. You don't mention if anything was
found, and if nothing was removed I doubt the problem will be fixed.
While troubleshooting you can use the
XPSystemRestorePointFrequency.vbs script to speed things up.

In the mean time I have created a site for using and troubleshooting
System Restore. In this case it may be a good review and make sure we
didn't miss anything, so far.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi Bert:

I followed your suggestions re clean boot and after
restoring the settings the system made a restore point,
having deleted the earlier Restore Point during the clean
boot process.
Incidentally when the machine is 'clean booted' I was not
able to access 'Help and Support' so could not check
status of SR points but I guess that is to be expected. However,
after restoring the system to 'normal operation'
and checking the System Restore Point status i.e. the
calendar, all previous Restore Points were gone and a new
'Point' made. I have subsequently manually created
another 'Restore Point' and now have two. The two
'Points' have survived over night but the system has yet
to automatically create another Restore Point. That will
be the test as it is when the system automatically
creates another point that all previous points are
deleted. I will keep you posted.

Hi Bert

Thanks for looking at the srdiag.cab for me. Pity
nothing seems amiss. With respect to the deletion of Restore
Points, this
seems to occur when the System tries to automatically
create another Restore Point, it is not associated with
rebooting or indeed the over night shut down as I have
now determined. For example three restore points were
deleted yesterday at 1830h, again the System reports
insufficient space, and a new Restore Point made 30 min.
later. Yes, I found out I cannot monitor a single partition
other than the partition on whichWindows is installed.
:-(. I'll give the 'clean boot' suggestion a try and see what
happens. Regards

Hi Edward,

I have taken a look at the srdiag Cab and nothing jumps
out. A partition other than the Windows partition can not be
monitored by itself.

Are the restore points removed on every reboot, or just
once a day? As the next step I would suggest performing a Clean
Boot using the following article.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353
On each reboot check to see if all the restore points
are removed. --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is designed
to do. I have over 10GB free space on C: partition so
SR should not suspend operation. It seems as if SR is
misreading the available space.
Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one
restore point was showing after running "Print the list
of available System Restore Points.vbs".
I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all
Restore Points, rebooted, then turned on SR for C:,
rebooted. A single SR was automatically made and the
free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB and
space available for SR 1799MB. I then created manually
two other Restore Points, each Restore Point decreased
the free space on the drive by 0.04GB (40MB). After
each Restore Point I ran "Print the list of available
System Restore Points.vbs and the output showed each
Restore Point created for a total of three SRs. After
three restore points the free space was 11.42GB.
With respect to my previous post, what I mean by shut
down, I actually turn the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to solve
this problem.
I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a
full record of the steps taken may assist others with a
similar problem.
I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it again
records that SR was shut down due to insufficient
space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. Do
you know how I check what this refers to? I assume it
must be the C: partition as this is the only partition
being monitored. I ran this through 'Find' in Regedit
but there is no record of this designator in the
message Hi Edward,

SR is doing exactly what it was designed to do when
free disk space reaches 50mb's. At 50mb's SR SR
Suspends, and purges all restore points. So there
should be none. Now what we need to do is track down what's
using up
all the free space causing this to happen.

Use the frequency script to set the auto restore point
time back to 24 hours. We know auto restore is
working. Download the "Print the list of available System
Restore Points.vbs" script from the following page
and run it. It should show only the restore points
made today.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srscripts.html

Check and make note of how much free disk space is
available in the C:\ partition.
Create another restore point and recheck the free disk
space. How much did is use.

When you say shut down at night, how is the system
being shut down? Is it by chance going into Suspend or
Hibernate? --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Your comprehensive suggestions are much appreciated.
I have followed your suggestions and the machine made
multiple Restore Points (every hour setting). The
next day, today, after the machine shut down for the night
there are no Restore Points, all have been deleted
overnight. This is typical of my problem. I can
make multiple restore poiints on day one but after an
overnight shutdown all are gone. Event Viewer/System
shows the following at about 1700h yesterday
"The System Restore service has been suspended
because there is not enough disk space available on the drive
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.
System Restore will automatically resume service once
at least 200 MB of free disk space is available on
the system drive".
At startup today in Event Viewer/System the following
shows
"The System Restore service has resumed monitoring
due to space freed on the system drive."

Only the partition on drive C is being monitoired by
SR and the free space on the drive is shown as 11.65GB.
As only the C: partition is monitored by SR I am
assuming the reference
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.

relates to the C: partition although the designator
\\?\ seems strange.
Any suggestions on how to solve this will be
in message
Hi Edward,

Yes run the RestorePointFrequency.vbs script. Make
sure the frequency is set to no more than 24 hours.

If the Disk Cleanup utility is being used, make sure
clean up under System Restore is unchecked on the
More Options tab. Having this checked will remove
all restore points except the most recent one. Perform
this test: 1. Confirm that Task Scheduler Service is running.
a. Click Start, click Run, and then type CMD then
press enter. b. Type Net Start at the command
prompt and press enter to make sure that the Task
Scheduler service is up and running. 2. Disable and
re-enable system restore to delete all
the restore points on the system.
3. Turn off SR on all partitions/drives other than
the one Windows is installed on.
4. Reduce the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
5. Open My Computer and right click on the drive
where Windows is installed and SR is monitoring,
then click properties. Confirm that the free disk
space is over 10gbs as noted earlier. In SR reduce
the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
6. Turn off the screen saver, and adjust the power
management options so the system will not go into
standby or hibernate. 7. Use the
RestorePointFrequency.vbs script and set the
frequency to 1 hour. Leave the system unattended
for 1 hour, then check SR for an automatic RP. Restore
points are only created during idle time; for example, when
there is no mouse, keyboard, or disk i/o activity.
8. Check the event viewer to see if there are any
events denoting Restore points being purged.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
My thanks to you and Bert for your replies.
Unfortunately I have tried all the methods
suggested without result. I run KAV and NOD32 as
AVPs and CWShredder, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware and
SpyBlaster so I think I have as much protection as
is available against 'nasties, as there is. I
have also run on line scanners on the machine and
as far as I can determine the the machine is
'clean'. As far as actual free space is concerned
the 10GB plus free is the space free on partition.
I take your point re the need to create restore
points for partitions containing data and program
files. I haven't have yet tried XPSystem
RestorePointFrequency.vbs but will do so.
This problem, while it seems rare is not unique. I
have seen two other references to the same problem
but no solution so far. As I create daily copies
of the Registry using ERUNT the problem for me is
an annoyance rather than 'critical'.
Once more thanks to you and Bert for your kind
advice. "Gerry Cornell" wrote
System Restore will create Restore Points for each
and every drive / partition unless told
otherwise. As Restore Points essentially only contain
information relating to the windows system there is little
point creating Restore Points for drives / partitions
only containing programme files and or data
files. The way you have phrased your message infers that
your
10 gb plus free space is spread across all drives
/ partitions. However, only the free space on the
partition containing your Windows operating
system will be taken into account in determining whether
it is possible to create restore points. How large is
the partition containing the windows operating
system and how large is the free space on that
partition. If I have deduced the cause of your
problem properly it may be possible to resolve
your problem by moving
folders / files to another partition. Where are
your temporary internet files and your My
Documents located? Also where is your Outlook Express store
folder? How much drive space is allocated to
System Restore for your windows partition -System Restore
-Settings. --


Hope this helps.

Gerry

System Restore does not automatically create
Restore Points for me as the vent Log 'claims' I
have insufficient space. All partitions and
drives have 10GB plus free space. Have tried
reloading SR but have not yet been able to solve
the problem. Any suggestions? I can create
Restore Points manually, any number on any day, but all but
one are deleted after 24 hours
presumeably by FIFO.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

Bert

Your new site looks interesting. Congratulations.



--


Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The purpose of the clean boot was to find if something in the boot
process is causing SR to fail. You don't mention if anything was
found, and if nothing was removed I doubt the problem will be fixed.
While troubleshooting you can use the
XPSystemRestorePointFrequency.vbs script to speed things up.

In the mean time I have created a site for using and troubleshooting
System Restore. In this case it may be a good review and make sure we
didn't miss anything, so far.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi Bert:

I followed your suggestions re clean boot and after
restoring the settings the system made a restore point,
having deleted the earlier Restore Point during the clean
boot process.
Incidentally when the machine is 'clean booted' I was not
able to access 'Help and Support' so could not check
status of SR points but I guess that is to be expected. However,
after restoring the system to 'normal operation'
and checking the System Restore Point status i.e. the
calendar, all previous Restore Points were gone and a new
'Point' made. I have subsequently manually created
another 'Restore Point' and now have two. The two
'Points' have survived over night but the system has yet
to automatically create another Restore Point. That will
be the test as it is when the system automatically
creates another point that all previous points are
deleted. I will keep you posted.

Hi Bert

Thanks for looking at the srdiag.cab for me. Pity
nothing seems amiss. With respect to the deletion of Restore Points,
this
seems to occur when the System tries to automatically
create another Restore Point, it is not associated with
rebooting or indeed the over night shut down as I have
now determined. For example three restore points were
deleted yesterday at 1830h, again the System reports
insufficient space, and a new Restore Point made 30 min.
later. Yes, I found out I cannot monitor a single partition
other than the partition on whichWindows is installed.
:-(. I'll give the 'clean boot' suggestion a try and see what
happens. Regards


Hi Edward,

I have taken a look at the srdiag Cab and nothing jumps
out. A partition other than the Windows partition can not be
monitored by itself.

Are the restore points removed on every reboot, or just
once a day? As the next step I would suggest performing a Clean
Boot using the following article.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353
On each reboot check to see if all the restore points
are removed. --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is designed
to do. I have over 10GB free space on C: partition so
SR should not suspend operation. It seems as if SR is
misreading the available space.
Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one
restore point was showing after running "Print the list
of available System Restore Points.vbs".
I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all
Restore Points, rebooted, then turned on SR for C:,
rebooted. A single SR was automatically made and the
free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB and
space available for SR 1799MB. I then created manually
two other Restore Points, each Restore Point decreased
the free space on the drive by 0.04GB (40MB). After
each Restore Point I ran "Print the list of available
System Restore Points.vbs and the output showed each
Restore Point created for a total of three SRs. After
three restore points the free space was 11.42GB.
With respect to my previous post, what I mean by shut
down, I actually turn the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to solve
this problem.
I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a
full record of the steps taken may assist others with a
similar problem.
I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it again
records that SR was shut down due to insufficient
space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. Do
you know how I check what this refers to? I assume it
must be the C: partition as this is the only partition
being monitored. I ran this through 'Find' in Regedit
but there is no record of this designator in the
message Hi Edward,

SR is doing exactly what it was designed to do when
free disk space reaches 50mb's. At 50mb's SR SR
Suspends, and purges all restore points. So there
should be none. Now what we need to do is track down what's using
up
all the free space causing this to happen.

Use the frequency script to set the auto restore point
time back to 24 hours. We know auto restore is
working. Download the "Print the list of available System
Restore Points.vbs" script from the following page
and run it. It should show only the restore points
made today.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srscripts.html

Check and make note of how much free disk space is
available in the C:\ partition.
Create another restore point and recheck the free disk
space. How much did is use.

When you say shut down at night, how is the system
being shut down? Is it by chance going into Suspend or
Hibernate? --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Your comprehensive suggestions are much appreciated.
I have followed your suggestions and the machine made
multiple Restore Points (every hour setting). The
next day, today, after the machine shut down for the night
there are no Restore Points, all have been deleted
overnight. This is typical of my problem. I can
make multiple restore poiints on day one but after an
overnight shutdown all are gone. Event Viewer/System
shows the following at about 1700h yesterday
"The System Restore service has been suspended
because there is not enough disk space available on the drive
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.
System Restore will automatically resume service once
at least 200 MB of free disk space is available on
the system drive".
At startup today in Event Viewer/System the following
shows
"The System Restore service has resumed monitoring
due to space freed on the system drive."

Only the partition on drive C is being monitoired by
SR and the free space on the drive is shown as 11.65GB.
As only the C: partition is monitored by SR I am
assuming the reference
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.

relates to the C: partition although the designator
\\?\ seems strange.
Any suggestions on how to solve this will be
in message
Hi Edward,

Yes run the RestorePointFrequency.vbs script. Make
sure the frequency is set to no more than 24 hours.

If the Disk Cleanup utility is being used, make sure
clean up under System Restore is unchecked on the
More Options tab. Having this checked will remove
all restore points except the most recent one. Perform
this test: 1. Confirm that Task Scheduler Service is running.
a. Click Start, click Run, and then type CMD then
press enter. b. Type Net Start at the command
prompt and press enter to make sure that the Task
Scheduler service is up and running. 2. Disable and
re-enable system restore to delete all
the restore points on the system.
3. Turn off SR on all partitions/drives other than
the one Windows is installed on.
4. Reduce the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
5. Open My Computer and right click on the drive
where Windows is installed and SR is monitoring,
then click properties. Confirm that the free disk
space is over 10gbs as noted earlier. In SR reduce
the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
6. Turn off the screen saver, and adjust the power
management options so the system will not go into
standby or hibernate. 7. Use the
RestorePointFrequency.vbs script and set the
frequency to 1 hour. Leave the system unattended
for 1 hour, then check SR for an automatic RP. Restore
points are only created during idle time; for example, when
there is no mouse, keyboard, or disk i/o activity.
8. Check the event viewer to see if there are any
events denoting Restore points being purged.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
My thanks to you and Bert for your replies.
Unfortunately I have tried all the methods
suggested without result. I run KAV and NOD32 as
AVPs and CWShredder, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware and
SpyBlaster so I think I have as much protection as
is available against 'nasties, as there is. I
have also run on line scanners on the machine and
as far as I can determine the the machine is
'clean'. As far as actual free space is concerned
the 10GB plus free is the space free on partition.
I take your point re the need to create restore
points for partitions containing data and program
files. I haven't have yet tried XPSystem
RestorePointFrequency.vbs but will do so.
This problem, while it seems rare is not unique. I
have seen two other references to the same problem
but no solution so far. As I create daily copies
of the Registry using ERUNT the problem for me is
an annoyance rather than 'critical'.
Once more thanks to you and Bert for your kind
advice. "Gerry Cornell" wrote
System Restore will create Restore Points for each
and every drive / partition unless told
otherwise. As Restore Points essentially only contain
information relating to the windows system there is little
point creating Restore Points for drives / partitions
only containing programme files and or data
files. The way you have phrased your message infers that your
10 gb plus free space is spread across all drives
/ partitions. However, only the free space on the
partition containing your Windows operating
system will be taken into account in determining whether
it is possible to create restore points. How large is
the partition containing the windows operating
system and how large is the free space on that
partition. If I have deduced the cause of your
problem properly it may be possible to resolve
your problem by moving
folders / files to another partition. Where are
your temporary internet files and your My
Documents located? Also where is your Outlook Express store
folder? How much drive space is allocated to
System Restore for your windows partition -System Restore
-Settings. --


Hope this helps.

Gerry

System Restore does not automatically create
Restore Points for me as the vent Log 'claims' I
have insufficient space. All partitions and
drives have 10GB plus free space. Have tried
reloading SR but have not yet been able to solve
the problem. Any suggestions? I can create
Restore Points manually, any number on any day, but all but
one are deleted after 24 hours
presumeably by FIFO.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Thanks Gerry. It's a work in progress.

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

Hi Bert:

After the 'clean boot' exercise, the system automatically created a Restore
Point and during the day I made manually two other points, total 3 . At
1630h yesterday (from the event viewer) the system reported insufficient
space and SR was shutdown at 1730h Event Viewer reported SR was restarted
and a new Restore Point was made. At the time of this 'activity' I was not
at the machine.

I assume this problem must be related to an entry in the Registry, do you
agree? If it is a Registry problem running 'repair' won't fix it and the
only fix will be a fresh install, are you of the same opinion?

Haven't looked at your new site yet but will and apply all that is relevant.

Thanks for your kind assistance

The purpose of the clean boot was to find if something in the boot process
is causing SR to fail. You don't mention if anything was found, and if
nothing was removed I doubt the problem will be fixed.
While troubleshooting you can use the XPSystemRestorePointFrequency.vbs
script to speed things up.

In the mean time I have created a site for using and troubleshooting
System Restore. In this case it may be a good review and make sure we
didn't miss anything, so far.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi Bert:

I followed your suggestions re clean boot and after
restoring the settings the system made a restore point,
having deleted the earlier Restore Point during the clean
boot process.
Incidentally when the machine is 'clean booted' I was not
able to access 'Help and Support' so could not check
status of SR points but I guess that is to be expected. However, after
restoring the system to 'normal operation'
and checking the System Restore Point status i.e. the
calendar, all previous Restore Points were gone and a new
'Point' made. I have subsequently manually created
another 'Restore Point' and now have two. The two
'Points' have survived over night but the system has yet
to automatically create another Restore Point. That will
be the test as it is when the system automatically
creates another point that all previous points are
deleted. I will keep you posted.

Hi Bert

Thanks for looking at the srdiag.cab for me. Pity
nothing seems amiss. With respect to the deletion of Restore Points,
this
seems to occur when the System tries to automatically
create another Restore Point, it is not associated with
rebooting or indeed the over night shut down as I have
now determined. For example three restore points were
deleted yesterday at 1830h, again the System reports
insufficient space, and a new Restore Point made 30 min.
later. Yes, I found out I cannot monitor a single partition
other than the partition on whichWindows is installed.
:-(. I'll give the 'clean boot' suggestion a try and see what
happens. Regards


Hi Edward,

I have taken a look at the srdiag Cab and nothing jumps
out. A partition other than the Windows partition can not be
monitored by itself.

Are the restore points removed on every reboot, or just
once a day? As the next step I would suggest performing a Clean
Boot using the following article.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353
On each reboot check to see if all the restore points
are removed. --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is designed
to do. I have over 10GB free space on C: partition so
SR should not suspend operation. It seems as if SR is
misreading the available space.
Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one
restore point was showing after running "Print the list
of available System Restore Points.vbs".
I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all
Restore Points, rebooted, then turned on SR for C:,
rebooted. A single SR was automatically made and the
free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB and
space available for SR 1799MB. I then created manually
two other Restore Points, each Restore Point decreased
the free space on the drive by 0.04GB (40MB). After
each Restore Point I ran "Print the list of available
System Restore Points.vbs and the output showed each
Restore Point created for a total of three SRs. After
three restore points the free space was 11.42GB.
With respect to my previous post, what I mean by shut
down, I actually turn the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to solve
this problem.
I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a
full record of the steps taken may assist others with a
similar problem.
I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it again
records that SR was shut down due to insufficient
space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. Do
you know how I check what this refers to? I assume it
must be the C: partition as this is the only partition
being monitored. I ran this through 'Find' in Regedit
but there is no record of this designator in the
message Hi Edward,

SR is doing exactly what it was designed to do when
free disk space reaches 50mb's. At 50mb's SR SR
Suspends, and purges all restore points. So there
should be none. Now what we need to do is track down what's using up
all the free space causing this to happen.

Use the frequency script to set the auto restore point
time back to 24 hours. We know auto restore is
working. Download the "Print the list of available System
Restore Points.vbs" script from the following page
and run it. It should show only the restore points
made today.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srscripts.html

Check and make note of how much free disk space is
available in the C:\ partition.
Create another restore point and recheck the free disk
space. How much did is use.

When you say shut down at night, how is the system
being shut down? Is it by chance going into Suspend or
Hibernate? --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Your comprehensive suggestions are much appreciated.
I have followed your suggestions and the machine made
multiple Restore Points (every hour setting). The
next day, today, after the machine shut down for the night
there are no Restore Points, all have been deleted
overnight. This is typical of my problem. I can
make multiple restore poiints on day one but after an
overnight shutdown all are gone. Event Viewer/System
shows the following at about 1700h yesterday
"The System Restore service has been suspended
because there is not enough disk space available on the drive
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.
System Restore will automatically resume service once
at least 200 MB of free disk space is available on
the system drive".
At startup today in Event Viewer/System the following
shows
"The System Restore service has resumed monitoring
due to space freed on the system drive."

Only the partition on drive C is being monitoired by
SR and the free space on the drive is shown as 11.65GB.
As only the C: partition is monitored by SR I am
assuming the reference
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.

relates to the C: partition although the designator
\\?\ seems strange.
Any suggestions on how to solve this will be
in message
Hi Edward,

Yes run the RestorePointFrequency.vbs script. Make
sure the frequency is set to no more than 24 hours.

If the Disk Cleanup utility is being used, make sure
clean up under System Restore is unchecked on the
More Options tab. Having this checked will remove
all restore points except the most recent one. Perform
this test: 1. Confirm that Task Scheduler Service is running.
a. Click Start, click Run, and then type CMD then
press enter. b. Type Net Start at the command
prompt and press enter to make sure that the Task
Scheduler service is up and running. 2. Disable and
re-enable system restore to delete all
the restore points on the system.
3. Turn off SR on all partitions/drives other than
the one Windows is installed on.
4. Reduce the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
5. Open My Computer and right click on the drive
where Windows is installed and SR is monitoring,
then click properties. Confirm that the free disk
space is over 10gbs as noted earlier. In SR reduce
the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
6. Turn off the screen saver, and adjust the power
management options so the system will not go into
standby or hibernate. 7. Use the
RestorePointFrequency.vbs script and set the
frequency to 1 hour. Leave the system unattended
for 1 hour, then check SR for an automatic RP. Restore
points are only created during idle time; for example, when
there is no mouse, keyboard, or disk i/o activity.
8. Check the event viewer to see if there are any
events denoting Restore points being purged.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
My thanks to you and Bert for your replies.
Unfortunately I have tried all the methods
suggested without result. I run KAV and NOD32 as
AVPs and CWShredder, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware and
SpyBlaster so I think I have as much protection as
is available against 'nasties, as there is. I
have also run on line scanners on the machine and
as far as I can determine the the machine is
'clean'. As far as actual free space is concerned
the 10GB plus free is the space free on partition.
I take your point re the need to create restore
points for partitions containing data and program
files. I haven't have yet tried XPSystem
RestorePointFrequency.vbs but will do so.
This problem, while it seems rare is not unique. I
have seen two other references to the same problem
but no solution so far. As I create daily copies
of the Registry using ERUNT the problem for me is
an annoyance rather than 'critical'.
Once more thanks to you and Bert for your kind
advice. "Gerry Cornell" wrote
System Restore will create Restore Points for each
and every drive / partition unless told
otherwise. As Restore Points essentially only contain
information relating to the windows system there is little
point creating Restore Points for drives / partitions
only containing programme files and or data
files. The way you have phrased your message infers that your
10 gb plus free space is spread across all drives
/ partitions. However, only the free space on the
partition containing your Windows operating
system will be taken into account in determining whether
it is possible to create restore points. How large is
the partition containing the windows operating
system and how large is the free space on that
partition. If I have deduced the cause of your
problem properly it may be possible to resolve
your problem by moving
folders / files to another partition. Where are
your temporary internet files and your My
Documents located? Also where is your Outlook Express store
folder? How much drive space is allocated to
System Restore for your windows partition -System Restore
-Settings. --


Hope this helps.

Gerry

System Restore does not automatically create
Restore Points for me as the vent Log 'claims' I
have insufficient space. All partitions and
drives have 10GB plus free space. Have tried
reloading SR but have not yet been able to solve
the problem. Any suggestions? I can create
Restore Points manually, any number on any day, but all but one
are deleted after 24 hours
presumeably by FIFO.

 

[da_test]

Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is designed to do. I have over
10GB free space on C: partition so SR should not suspend operation. It
seems as if SR is misreading the available space.

Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one restore point was showing
after running "Print the list of available System Restore Points.vbs".

I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all Restore Points,
rebooted, then turned on SR for C:, rebooted. A single SR was automatically
made and the free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB and space
available for SR 1799MB. I then created manually two other Restore Points,
each Restore Point decreased the free space on the drive by 0.04GB (40MB).
After each Restore Point I ran "Print the list of available System Restore
Points.vbs and the output showed each Restore Point created for a total of
three SRs. After three restore points the free space was 11.42GB.

With respect to my previous post, what I mean by shut down, I actually turn
the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to solve this problem.

I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a full record of the steps
taken may assist others with a similar problem.

I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it again records that SR was
shut down due to insufficient space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. Do you know how I check
what this refers to? I assume it must be the C: partition as this is the
only partition being monitored. I ran this through 'Find' in Regedit but
there is no record of this designator in the Registry.

There is a way to relate this to the drive letter.
Navigate to the same key as seen here:
http://home.comcast.net/~davetest/mounted.JPG

Look at the right pane and find the entry that matches the one in
the event viewer. Take a look at the corresponding data,
and match it to the data with the drive letters below. When you
find the one that's the same, that's the drive letter.
For example, in mine
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
"\\??\\Volume{f9c914c1-c3da-11d6-94b5-806d6172696f}"=hex:a7,02,a7,02,00,7e,00,\
00,00,00,00,00
this corresponds to
\\DosDevices\\C:"=hex:a7,02,a7,02,00,7e,00,00,00,00,00,00
Since the "hex=" data is the same.

To state simply,
Volume{f9c914c1-c3da-11d6-94b5-806d6172696f} = drive C in my system.
Dave

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Edward,

The only SR registry setting that differs from my system is:

[Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore]
"RPSessionInterval"=REG_DWORD or REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN:500000

Yours is set to the default (0)

This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that System
Restore waits before it creates the automatic computer check points
for session time (the amount of time that the computer has been on).
The default value is zero (0), which means that this feature is turned
off.

You can change yours to (500000) by double clicking on
"RPSessionInterval" then selecting Decimal and entering 500000

I don't think this will fix your particular problem, but give it a go.

I'm thinking it's a program running in the background.

Please send me a copy of the Startup Programs from System Information
so I can take a look?
Open System Information - Expand Software Environment and select
Startup Programs.
On the File menu click Export, and save it as a text file.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi Bert:

After the 'clean boot' exercise, the system automatically
created a Restore Point and during the day I made
manually two other points, total 3 . At 1630h
yesterday (from the event viewer) the system reported
insufficient space and SR was shutdown at 1730h Event
Viewer reported SR was restarted and a new Restore Point
was made. At the time of this 'activity' I was not at
the machine.
I assume this problem must be related to an entry in the
Registry, do you agree? If it is a Registry problem
running 'repair' won't fix it and the only fix will be a
fresh install, are you of the same opinion?
Haven't looked at your new site yet but will and apply
all that is relevant.
Thanks for your kind assistance

The purpose of the clean boot was to find if something
in the boot process is causing SR to fail. You don't
mention if anything was found, and if nothing was
removed I doubt the problem will be fixed. While troubleshooting
you can use the
XPSystemRestorePointFrequency.vbs script to speed things
up. In the mean time I have created a site for using and
troubleshooting System Restore. In this case it may be a
good review and make sure we didn't miss anything, so
far. http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi Bert:

I followed your suggestions re clean boot and after
restoring the settings the system made a restore point,
having deleted the earlier Restore Point during the
clean boot process.
Incidentally when the machine is 'clean booted' I was
not able to access 'Help and Support' so could not check
status of SR points but I guess that is to be expected.
However, after restoring the system to 'normal
operation' and checking the System Restore Point status i.e. the
calendar, all previous Restore Points were gone and a
new 'Point' made. I have subsequently manually created
another 'Restore Point' and now have two. The two
'Points' have survived over night but the system has yet
to automatically create another Restore Point. That
will be the test as it is when the system automatically
creates another point that all previous points are
deleted. I will keep you posted.

in message Hi Bert

Thanks for looking at the srdiag.cab for me. Pity
nothing seems amiss. With respect to the deletion of
Restore Points, this
seems to occur when the System tries to automatically
create another Restore Point, it is not associated with
rebooting or indeed the over night shut down as I have
now determined. For example three restore points were
deleted yesterday at 1830h, again the System reports
insufficient space, and a new Restore Point made 30
min. later. Yes, I found out I cannot monitor a single
partition other than the partition on whichWindows is installed.
:-(. I'll give the 'clean boot' suggestion a try and
see what happens. Regards


Hi Edward,

I have taken a look at the srdiag Cab and nothing
jumps out. A partition other than the Windows partition can
not be monitored by itself.

Are the restore points removed on every reboot, or
just once a day? As the next step I would suggest
performing a Clean Boot using the following article.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353
On each reboot check to see if all the restore points
are removed. --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is
designed to do. I have over 10GB free space on C:
partition so SR should not suspend operation. It
seems as if SR is misreading the available space.
Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one
restore point was showing after running "Print the
list of available System Restore Points.vbs".
I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all
Restore Points, rebooted, then turned on SR for C:,
rebooted. A single SR was automatically made and the
free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB and
space available for SR 1799MB. I then created
manually two other Restore Points, each Restore
Point decreased the free space on the drive by
0.04GB (40MB). After each Restore Point I ran "Print
the list of available System Restore Points.vbs and
the output showed each Restore Point created for a
total of three SRs. After three restore points the
free space was 11.42GB. With respect to my previous post, what
I mean by
shut down, I actually turn the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to
solve this problem.
I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a
full record of the steps taken may assist others
with a similar problem.
I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it
again records that SR was shut down due to
insufficient space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. Do you know
how I check what this refers to? I
assume it must be the C: partition as this is the
only partition being monitored. I ran this through
'Find' in Regedit but there is no record of this
designator in the Registry. "Bert Kinney"
Hi Edward,

SR is doing exactly what it was designed to do when
free disk space reaches 50mb's. At 50mb's SR SR
Suspends, and purges all restore points. So there
should be none. Now what we need to do is track
down what's using up all the free space causing
this to happen. Use the frequency script to set the auto
restore
point time back to 24 hours. We know auto restore is
working. Download the "Print the list of available
System Restore Points.vbs" script from the following page
and run it. It should show only the restore points
made today.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srscripts.html

Check and make note of how much free disk space is
available in the C:\ partition.
Create another restore point and recheck the free
disk space. How much did is use.

When you say shut down at night, how is the system
being shut down? Is it by chance going into Suspend
or Hibernate? --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Your comprehensive suggestions are much
appreciated. I have followed your suggestions and the machine
made multiple Restore Points (every hour setting).
The next day, today, after the machine shut down for
the night there are no Restore Points, all have
been deleted overnight. This is typical of my
problem. I can make multiple restore poiints on day one but
after
an overnight shutdown all are gone. Event
Viewer/System shows the following at about 1700h yesterday
"The System Restore service has been suspended
because there is not enough disk space available
on the drive
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. System
Restore will automatically resume service
once at least 200 MB of free disk space is available on
the system drive".
At startup today in Event Viewer/System the
following shows
"The System Restore service has resumed monitoring
due to space freed on the system drive."

Only the partition on drive C is being monitoired
by SR and the free space on the drive is shown as
11.65GB. As only the C: partition is monitored by SR I am
assuming the reference
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.

relates to the C: partition although the designator
\\?\ seems strange.
Any suggestions on how to solve this will be
in message
Hi Edward,

Yes run the RestorePointFrequency.vbs script. Make
sure the frequency is set to no more than 24
hours. If the Disk Cleanup utility is being used, make
sure clean up under System Restore is unchecked on the
More Options tab. Having this checked will remove
all restore points except the most recent one.
Perform this test: 1. Confirm that Task Scheduler Service
is running. a. Click Start, click Run, and
then type CMD then press enter. b. Type Net
Start at the command prompt and press enter to make sure
that the Task
Scheduler service is up and running. 2. Disable
and re-enable system restore to delete all
the restore points on the system.
3. Turn off SR on all partitions/drives other than
the one Windows is installed on.
4. Reduce the "Disk space usage" to just under
1GB. 5. Open My Computer and right click on the drive
where Windows is installed and SR is monitoring,
then click properties. Confirm that the free disk
space is over 10gbs as noted earlier. In SR reduce
the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
6. Turn off the screen saver, and adjust the power
management options so the system will not go into
standby or hibernate. 7. Use the
RestorePointFrequency.vbs script and set the
frequency to 1 hour. Leave the system unattended
for 1 hour, then check SR for an automatic RP.
Restore points are only created during idle time;
for example, when there is no mouse, keyboard, or
disk i/o activity. 8. Check the event viewer to see if there
are any
events denoting Restore points being purged.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
My thanks to you and Bert for your replies.
Unfortunately I have tried all the methods
suggested without result. I run KAV and NOD32 as
AVPs and CWShredder, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware and
SpyBlaster so I think I have as much protection
as is available against 'nasties, as there is. I
have also run on line scanners on the machine and
as far as I can determine the the machine is
'clean'. As far as actual free space is concerned
the 10GB plus free is the space free on
partition. I take your point re the need to
create restore points for partitions containing
data and program files. I haven't have yet tried
XPSystem RestorePointFrequency.vbs but will do
so. This problem, while it seems rare is not unique.
I have seen two other references to the same
problem but no solution so far. As I create
daily copies of the Registry using ERUNT the
problem for me is an annoyance rather than
'critical'. Once more thanks to you and Bert for your kind
advice. "Gerry Cornell" wrote
System Restore will create Restore Points for
each and every drive / partition unless told
otherwise. As Restore Points essentially only
contain information relating to the windows
system there is little point creating Restore
Points for drives / partitions only containing programme
files and or data
files. The way you have phrased your message
infers that your 10 gb plus free space is
spread across all drives / partitions. However,
only the free space on the partition containing your
Windows operating
system will be taken into account in
determining whether it is possible to create restore
points. How
large is the partition containing the windows operating
system and how large is the free space on that
partition. If I have deduced the cause of your
problem properly it may be possible to resolve
your problem by moving
folders / files to another partition. Where are
your temporary internet files and your My
Documents located? Also where is your Outlook
Express store folder? How much drive space is
allocated to System Restore for your windows partition
-System Restore -Settings. --


Hope this helps.

Gerry

System Restore does not automatically create
Restore Points for me as the vent Log 'claims'
I have insufficient space. All partitions and
drives have 10GB plus free space. Have tried
reloading SR but have not yet been able to
solve the problem. Any suggestions? I can create
Restore Points manually, any number on any
day, but all but one are deleted after 24 hours
presumeably by FIFO.

 

[Lester Stiefel]

Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is designed to do. I have over
10GB free space on C: partition so SR should not suspend operation. It
seems as if SR is misreading the available space.

Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one restore point was showing
after running "Print the list of available System Restore Points.vbs".

I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all Restore Points,
rebooted, then turned on SR for C:, rebooted. A single SR was automatically
made and the free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB and space
available for SR 1799MB. I then created manually two other Restore Points,
each Restore Point decreased the free space on the drive by 0.04GB (40MB).
After each Restore Point I ran "Print the list of available System Restore
Points.vbs and the output showed each Restore Point created for a total of
three SRs. After three restore points the free space was 11.42GB.

With respect to my previous post, what I mean by shut down, I actually turn
the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to solve this problem.

I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a full record of the steps
taken may assist others with a similar problem.

I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it again records that SR was
shut down due to insufficient space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\. Do you know how I check
what this refers to? I assume it must be the C: partition as this is the
only partition being monitored. I ran this through 'Find' in Regedit but
there is no record of this designator in the Registry.

There is a way to relate this to the drive letter.
Navigate to the same key as seen here:
http://home.comcast.net/~davetest/mounted.JPG

Look at the right pane and find the entry that matches the one in
the event viewer. Take a look at the corresponding data,
and match it to the data with the drive letters below. When you
find the one that's the same, that's the drive letter.
For example, in mine
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]
"\\??\\Volume{f9c914c1-c3da-11d6-94b5-806d6172696f}"=hex:a7,02,a7,02,00,7e,00,\
00,00,00,00,00
this corresponds to
\\DosDevices\\C:"=hex:a7,02,a7,02,00,7e,00,00,00,00,00,00
Since the "hex=" data is the same.

To state simply,
Volume{f9c914c1-c3da-11d6-94b5-806d6172696f} = drive C in my system.
Dave

SR will shut down if the AntiVirus is operating during the
creation of a restore point. SR is nothing more than an
active backup method.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Lester,

Please explain what you mean by "AntiVirus is operating".
My antivirus program is running all the time an I get restore points
every day.

System Restore is not a backup utility!
System Restore which monitors only a core set of specified system and
application file types (e.g. .exe, .dll etc), the Backup Utility
usually backs up all files including users personal data files,
ensuring a safe copy stored either on the local disk or to another
medium. System Restore does not monitor changes to or recover users'
personal data files such as documents, drawings, e-mail, and so forth.
While system data contained in System Restore's restore points are
available to restore to for only a limited period of time (by default
restore points older than 90 days are deleted), backups taken by the
Backup Utility can be recovered anytime.

Monitored File Types in System Restore
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/filetypes.html

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Edward,

Did you get my email with direction on cleaning up programs at
startup?
Just wondering how you are progressing.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Hi Edward,

The only SR registry setting that differs from my system
is:
[Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore]
"RPSessionInterval"=REG_DWORD or
REG_DWORD_LITTLE_ENDIAN:500000
Yours is set to the default (0)

This value specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that
System Restore waits before it creates the automatic
computer check points for session time (the amount of
time that the computer has been on). The default value is
zero (0), which means that this feature is turned off.

You can change yours to (500000) by double clicking on
"RPSessionInterval" then selecting Decimal and entering
500000
I don't think this will fix your particular problem, but
give it a go.
I'm thinking it's a program running in the background.

Please send me a copy of the Startup Programs from System
Information so I can take a look?
Open System Information - Expand Software Environment and
select Startup Programs.

Hi Bert:

After the 'clean boot' exercise, the system automatically
created a Restore Point and during the day I made
manually two other points, total 3 . At 1630h
yesterday (from the event viewer) the system reported
insufficient space and SR was shutdown at 1730h Event
Viewer reported SR was restarted and a new Restore Point
was made. At the time of this 'activity' I was not at
the machine.
I assume this problem must be related to an entry in the
Registry, do you agree? If it is a Registry problem
running 'repair' won't fix it and the only fix will be a
fresh install, are you of the same opinion?
Haven't looked at your new site yet but will and apply
all that is relevant.
Thanks for your kind assistance

The purpose of the clean boot was to find if something
in the boot process is causing SR to fail. You don't
mention if anything was found, and if nothing was
removed I doubt the problem will be fixed. While
troubleshooting you can use the
XPSystemRestorePointFrequency.vbs script to speed things
up. In the mean time I have created a site for using and
troubleshooting System Restore. In this case it may be a
good review and make sure we didn't miss anything, so
far. http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/index.html

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

I followed your suggestions re clean boot and after
restoring the settings the system made a restore point,
having deleted the earlier Restore Point during the
clean boot process.
Incidentally when the machine is 'clean booted' I was
not able to access 'Help and Support' so could not
check status of SR points but I guess that is to be expected.
However, after restoring the system to 'normal
operation' and checking the System Restore Point
status i.e. the calendar, all previous Restore Points
were gone and a new 'Point' made. I have subsequently manually
created
another 'Restore Point' and now have two. The two
'Points' have survived over night but the system has
yet to automatically create another Restore Point. That
will be the test as it is when the system automatically
creates another point that all previous points are
deleted. I will keep you posted.

in message
Hi Bert

Thanks for looking at the srdiag.cab for me. Pity
nothing seems amiss. With respect to the deletion of
Restore Points, this
seems to occur when the System tries to automatically
create another Restore Point, it is not associated
with rebooting or indeed the over night shut down as
I have now determined. For example three restore points were
deleted yesterday at 1830h, again the System reports
insufficient space, and a new Restore Point made 30
min. later. Yes, I found out I cannot monitor a
single partition other than the partition on
whichWindows is installed. :-(. I'll give the 'clean
boot' suggestion a try and see what happens. Regards


Hi Edward,

I have taken a look at the srdiag Cab and nothing
jumps out. A partition other than the Windows
partition can not be monitored by itself.

Are the restore points removed on every reboot, or
just once a day? As the next step I would suggest
performing a Clean Boot using the following article.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353
On each reboot check to see if all the restore points
are removed. --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Not sure what you mean by SR doing what it is
designed to do. I have over 10GB free space on C:
partition so SR should not suspend operation. It
seems as if SR is misreading the available space.
Anyway, have done what you suggested and only one
restore point was showing after running "Print the
list of available System Restore Points.vbs".
I then turned off System Restore, thus deleting all
Restore Points, rebooted, then turned on SR for C:,
rebooted. A single SR was automatically made and
the free space on the partition (C shows as 11.50GB
and space available for SR 1799MB. I then created
manually two other Restore Points, each Restore
Point decreased the free space on the drive by
0.04GB (40MB). After each Restore Point I ran "Print
the list of available System Restore Points.vbs and
the output showed each Restore Point created for a
total of three SRs. After three restore points the
free space was 11.42GB. With respect to my previous
post, what I mean by
shut down, I actually turn the machine off.

I greatly appreciate your assistance in trying to
solve this problem.
I have not 'snipped' the earlier posts as I think a
full record of the steps taken may assist others
with a similar problem.
I re-examined 'Event Viewer' for yesterday and it
again records that SR was shut down due to
insufficient space on
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.
Do you know how I check what this refers to? I
assume it must be the C: partition as this is the
only partition being monitored. I ran this through
'Find' in Regedit but there is no record of this
designator in the Registry. "Bert Kinney"
Hi Edward,

SR is doing exactly what it was designed to do when
free disk space reaches 50mb's. At 50mb's SR SR
Suspends, and purges all restore points. So there
should be none. Now what we need to do is track
down what's using up all the free space causing
this to happen. Use the frequency script to set
the auto restore
point time back to 24 hours. We know auto restore
is working. Download the "Print the list of
available System Restore Points.vbs" script from
the following page and run it. It should show only
the restore points made today.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mvp_bert/html/srscripts.html

Check and make note of how much free disk space is
available in the C:\ partition.
Create another restore point and recheck the free
disk space. How much did is use.

When you say shut down at night, how is the system
being shut down? Is it by chance going into Suspend
or Hibernate? --
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/


Edward W. Thompson wrote:
Hi Bert:

Your comprehensive suggestions are much
appreciated. I have followed your suggestions and
the machine made multiple Restore Points (every
hour setting). The next day, today, after the machine shut
down
for the night there are no Restore Points, all have
been deleted overnight. This is typical of my
problem. I can make multiple restore poiints on
day one but after
an overnight shutdown all are gone. Event
Viewer/System shows the following at about 1700h
yesterday "The System Restore service has been
suspended because there is not enough disk space available
on the drive
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.
System Restore will automatically resume service
once at least 200 MB of free disk space is
available on the system drive".
At startup today in Event Viewer/System the
following shows
"The System Restore service has resumed monitoring
due to space freed on the system drive."

Only the partition on drive C is being monitoired
by SR and the free space on the drive is shown as
11.65GB. As only the C: partition is monitored by
SR I am assuming the reference
\\?\Volume{92c3ffeb-0d3d-11d9-9650-806d6172696f}\.

relates to the C: partition although the
designator \\?\ seems strange.
Any suggestions on how to solve this will be
in message
Hi Edward,

Yes run the RestorePointFrequency.vbs script.
Make sure the frequency is set to no more than 24
hours. If the Disk Cleanup utility is being
used, make sure clean up under System Restore is unchecked
on the More Options tab. Having this checked will remove
all restore points except the most recent one.
Perform this test: 1. Confirm that Task
Scheduler Service is running. a. Click Start,
click Run, and then type CMD then press
enter. b. Type Net Start at the command prompt and press
enter to
make sure that the Task
Scheduler service is up and running. 2. Disable
and re-enable system restore to delete all
the restore points on the system.
3. Turn off SR on all partitions/drives other
than the one Windows is installed on.
4. Reduce the "Disk space usage" to just under
1GB. 5. Open My Computer and right click on the
drive where Windows is installed and SR is monitoring,
then click properties. Confirm that the free disk
space is over 10gbs as noted earlier. In SR
reduce the "Disk space usage" to just under 1GB.
6. Turn off the screen saver, and adjust the
power management options so the system will not
go into standby or hibernate. 7. Use the
RestorePointFrequency.vbs script and set the
frequency to 1 hour. Leave the system unattended
for 1 hour, then check SR for an automatic RP.
Restore points are only created during idle time;
for example, when there is no mouse, keyboard, or
disk i/o activity. 8. Check the event viewer to
see if there are any
events denoting Restore points being purged.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney [MS-MVP DTS]
http://dts-l.org/

Edward W. Thompson wrote:
My thanks to you and Bert for your replies.
Unfortunately I have tried all the methods
suggested without result. I run KAV and NOD32
as AVPs and CWShredder, Spybot S&D, Ad Aware and
SpyBlaster so I think I have as much protection
as is available against 'nasties, as there is. I have also
run on line scanners on the machine
and as far as I can determine the the machine is
'clean'. As far as actual free space is
concerned the 10GB plus free is the space free on
partition. I take your point re the need to
create restore points for partitions containing
data and program files. I haven't have yet tried
XPSystem RestorePointFrequency.vbs but will do
so. This problem, while it seems rare is not
unique. I have seen two other references to the same
problem but no solution so far. As I create
daily copies of the Registry using ERUNT the
problem for me is an annoyance rather than
'critical'. Once more thanks to you and Bert
for your kind advice. "Gerry Cornell" wrote
System Restore will create Restore Points for
each and every drive / partition unless told
otherwise. As Restore Points essentially only
contain information relating to the windows
system there is little point creating Restore
Points for drives / partitions only containing
programme files and or data
files. The way you have phrased your message
infers that your 10 gb plus free space is
spread across all drives / partitions. However,
only the free space on the partition containing your
Windows operating
system will be taken into account in
determining whether it is possible to create
restore points. How
large is the partition containing the windows
operating system and how large is the free
space on that partition. If I have deduced
the cause of your problem properly it may be possible to
resolve
your problem by moving
folders / files to another partition. Where are
your temporary internet files and your My
Documents located? Also where is your Outlook
Express store folder? How much drive space is
allocated to System Restore for your windows
partition -System Restore -Settings. --


Hope this helps.

Gerry

System Restore does not automatically create
Restore Points for me as the vent Log 'claims'
I have insufficient space. All partitions and
drives have 10GB plus free space. Have tried
reloading SR but have not yet been able to
solve the problem. Any suggestions? I can
create Restore Points manually, any number on
any day, but all but one are deleted after 24
hours presumeably by FIFO.

 

[stevebrigham]

Edward,

Did you ever get your System Restore problem resolved?
I'd like to know because I have the same, exact problem.

Steve Brigham
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Edward W. Thompson]

Edward,

Did you ever get your System Restore problem resolved?
I'd like to know because I have the same, exact problem.

Steve Brigham
(e-mail address removed)

If you are referring to my problem, i.e. SR will not create a Restore Point
due to insufficient space despite there being ample space (10GB) available,
I haven't solved this problem, in fact have given up. I have since
installed Norton GoBack that, with ERUNT, is far superior to SR.

 

[asim662]

Thanks to all, but I have not received an answer to my second question
-
In which situation specifically does System Restore refuse to put
Restore Point down?

As far as i know, system restore might not be able to put a restore
point when it runs out of disk space. Thanks accepted!!