Guest John Carlson Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system in. Suppose that, on July 15, I make a change to my computer -- installing some piece of software, perhaps -- that causes a serious problem. I recover by using System Restore to restore to a July 14 restore point, and all is well. Then on July 16, Windows creates an automatic restore point. Does that July 16 restore point include the change that I made on July 15 and then un-made by restoring to the 14th? In other words, if at some future time I were to restore to July 16, would I be picking up the same problem all over again? I would think (hope) that it does not, but I'm not really sure. System Restore claims that it is "completely reversible" which makes it sound like, somehow, that July 15 change has not really been removed, but is still there. Can anybody clarify this for me? (It's XP/SP2 if that makes a difference) -- John
Guest Malke Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore John Carlson wrote: > A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system > in. > > Suppose that, on July 15, I make a change to my computer -- installing some > piece of software, perhaps -- that causes a serious problem. I recover by > using System Restore to restore to a July 14 restore point, and all is well. > Then on July 16, Windows creates an automatic restore point. > > Does that July 16 restore point include the change that I made on July 15 > and then un-made by restoring to the 14th? In other words, if at some future > time I were to restore to July 16, would I be picking up the same problem all > over again? I would think (hope) that it does not, but I'm not really sure. > System Restore claims that it is "completely reversible" which makes it sound > like, somehow, that July 15 change has not really been removed, but is still > there. > > Can anybody clarify this for me? > > (It's XP/SP2 if that makes a difference) The best place to get your questions about System Restore answered is on MVP Bert Kinney's site here: http://bertk.mvps.org Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers http://www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User
Guest Plato Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore =?Utf-8?B?Sm9obiBDYXJsc29u?= wrote: > > A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system > in. System restore mainly restores the registry file to an earlier date. It does not save your importand data. In fact, you have a virus or trojan loading in a previous version of system restore, aka the registry, then it will reappear. -- http://www.bootdisk.com/
Guest Zilbandy Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:26:00 -0700, John Carlson <JohnCarlson@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >Suppose that, on July 15, I make a change to my computer -- installing some >piece of software, perhaps -- that causes a serious problem. I recover by >using System Restore to restore to a July 14 restore point, and all is well. >Then on July 16, Windows creates an automatic restore point. > >Does that July 16 restore point include the change that I made on July 15 >and then un-made by restoring to the 14th? If you restore the July 14 point, then that is the state of your system after the restore. If you create a new point on the 16th, then you are essentially making a backup of the July 14 point. The data for the restore made on the 15th should not matter, as you went back to a point before that time. It's my understanding that each restore point is dependent on all previous restore points. To me, this means if something gets messed up with one point, they are all useless. A restore point takes a picture of the system state at the time the restore point is made. System restore DOES NOT backup your entire computer. It monitors a variety of file extensions, besides just monitoring the registry. For a list of files monitored by system restore, check out this link: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378870.aspx Now, do I use System Restore? No, I don't! I used to, but I had too many times that I wanted to restore to a previous date, but the restore point was corrupt, and it wouldn't restore. Now, I use ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility for NT) to just backup the system registry. It creates complete and separate backups of all the registry hives; backups not dependent on the others. This may not be as thorough as System Restore, but it's more reliable, and in most cases, just recovering the registry will save you from problems created by adding and deleting programs or making system changes. I also make complete image backups to an external USB2 hard drive once a week using Acronis True Image, so the worst case scenario is I lose a weeks worth of changes should I have to restore from a backup image. I also make daily backups of my c:\data folder when all my user created data files are stored. These files are also backed up to my USB drive, as well as sent over my home network to my other computer. My system has served me well over the years, as I still have old DOS data files from the late 1980's on my system. ::knocking on wood:: -- Zilbandy
Guest Barry Watzman Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore No, the 7/16 restore point won't have the change. System restore saves the registry as it exists at the moment of the restore. On 7/16, the change that you made and then restored out of isn't in the registry, therefore it's not part of the 7/16 restore point. System restore also saves some (quite a few) other files, but, again, they are saved as they exist at the time that the restore point is created. And, again, on 7/16, the change that caused your problem isn't effectively present since you had used a 7/14 restore point to remove it. Now there MIGHT be a 7/15 restore point that would include those changes .... many things that you do create restore points automatically without your necessarily knowing it. But the 7/16 restore point won't have it. John Carlson wrote: > A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system > in. > > Suppose that, on July 15, I make a change to my computer -- installing some > piece of software, perhaps -- that causes a serious problem. I recover by > using System Restore to restore to a July 14 restore point, and all is well. > Then on July 16, Windows creates an automatic restore point. > > Does that July 16 restore point include the change that I made on July 15 > and then un-made by restoring to the 14th? In other words, if at some future > time I were to restore to July 16, would I be picking up the same problem all > over again? I would think (hope) that it does not, but I'm not really sure. > System Restore claims that it is "completely reversible" which makes it sound > like, somehow, that July 15 change has not really been removed, but is still > there. > > Can anybody clarify this for me? > > (It's XP/SP2 if that makes a difference) > > -- John >
Guest Bert Kinney Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore Hi John, John Carlson wrote: > A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system in. Here is a description of System Restore: http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html > Suppose that, on July 15, I make a change to my computer -- installing some > piece of software, perhaps -- that causes a serious problem. I recover by > using System Restore to restore to a July 14 restore point, and all is well. > Then on July 16, Windows creates an automatic restore point. > > Does that July 16 restore point include the change that I made on July 15 > and then un-made by restoring to the 14th? The automatic restore point created on July 16, will reflect the state of the system at the time it was created. > In other words, if at some future > time I were to restore to July 16, would I be picking up the same problem all > over again? No. The July 16th restore point would return the system to exactly the state it was at the time the restore point was created. I would think (hope) that it does not, but I'm not really sure. > System Restore claims that it is "completely reversible" which makes it sound > like, somehow, that July 15 change has not really been removed, but is still there. When a restore is performed (in normal mode, not Safe Mode) an UNDO restore point is created. For example, if a user accidentally chooses the wrong restore point, the user can use the UNDO or "Undo my last restoration" after opening System Restore. Or the user could choose another restore point at that time. Warning: When restoring a system from Safe Mode or from the Command Prompt an UNDO restore point will NOT be created! You would have the option of choosing another available restore point. Here's a scenario to consider. Say something very bad happened to the system on July 15th and you were able to restore to the 14th. Now that the system is running normally you are concerned about restoring to the bad state on the 15th. A manual restore point can be created to save this good state. To eliminate the chance of restoring to the bad state Disk Cleanup can be used to delete all existing restore point and leave the the most recent. How to using Disk Clean-up to remove restore points: http://bertk.mvps.org/html/diskclean.html > Can anybody clarify this for me? I hope I did. > (It's XP/SP2 if that makes a difference) Yes is does. There several fixes to System Restore in SP2. > -- John Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org Member: http://dts-l.org
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 24, 2007 Posted July 24, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore On Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:26:00 -0700, John Carlson <JohnCarlson@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system > in. > > Suppose that, on July 15, I make a change to my computer -- installing some > piece of software, perhaps -- that causes a serious problem. I recover by > using System Restore to restore to a July 14 restore point, and all is well. > Then on July 16, Windows creates an automatic restore point. > > Does that July 16 restore point include the change that I made on July 15 > and then un-made by restoring to the 14th? In other words, if at some future > time I were to restore to July 16, would I be picking up the same problem all > over again? I would think (hope) that it does not, but I'm not really sure. No, it does *not* reinstate the July 15 problem. It restores you to the July 16 state, which is a state with the problem *gone*. What happened before July 16--in other words, how you got to the July 16 state--is not relevant. Only if you restore to a July 14 restore point made after the software installation, or a July 15 restore point that was made before you did the restore, would you reinstate the problem. > System Restore claims that it is "completely reversible" which makes it sound > like, somehow, that July 15 change has not really been removed, but is still > there. > > Can anybody clarify this for me? > > (It's XP/SP2 if that makes a difference) > > -- John -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest John Carlson Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore "Bert Kinney" wrote: > > Can anybody clarify this for me? > > I hope I did. > Regards, > Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User > http://bertk.mvps.org > Member: http://dts-l.org > You did indeed. Thank you for a clear and cogent explanation. -- John
Guest Barry Watzman Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore System restore saves much more than just the registry ... it saves all of the system files referenced in the registry (drivers, some .DLLs and ..EXE files). Plato wrote: > =?Utf-8?B?Sm9obiBDYXJsc29u?= wrote: >> A question about how System Restore works, and what state it leaves my system >> in. > > System restore mainly restores the registry file to an earlier date. It > does not save your importand data. In fact, you have a virus or trojan > loading in a previous version of system restore, aka the registry, then > it will reappear. >
Guest Bert Kinney Posted July 25, 2007 Posted July 25, 2007 Re: Understanding System Restore You're welcome John. Regards, Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User http://bertk.mvps.org Member: http://dts-l.org John Carlson wrote: > > "Bert Kinney" wrote: >>> Can anybody clarify this for me? >> I hope I did. > >> Regards, >> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User >> http://bertk.mvps.org >> Member: http://dts-l.org >> > > You did indeed. Thank you for a clear and cogent explanation. > -- John
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