Yeah for System Restore!

[linw]

I've never understood why some turn off system restore. It has fixed many quirky errors for me over the years.

But this latest one exceeded my expectations and went beyond quirky.

Vista Ultimate which had suddenly lost any IP capability. Heaps of errors in system log from three days ago with all network services bagged (dependencies couldn't be started). There were also ntfs errors - not a good sign.

A scheduled chkdsk wouldn't start. Imaging of drive was no go as was system restore. sfc /scannow found nothing to fix. Got chkdsk to run by booting in safe mode/minimal. Lots of errors found and fixed - not comforting!

Still had services not able to start but I could now image the drive and system restore now started up OK. Against all expectations, the restore fixed everything. I REALLY thought I was in for an OS reset to factory job.

So, don't let anyone convince you to turn restore off!

(HDTune found no bad blocks so HDD seems OK. The file and/or registry corruption was first logged on a restart after the comp had an 'unexpected shutdown').

[pctek]

I have it turned off.
If something happens, which it never has, I'd fix it.
Or if something major happened, run my Image Restore.

[Speedy Gonzales]

I've turned it off on these too. All it does, is fill up the hdd faster. It sounds like you were hit with some kind of malware

[wainuitech]

System restore has saved many PC's from needing a complete reinstall.

I've done some testing, theres NO real reason to turn it off. It doesn't slow anything down.

Sometimes when it all turns to sh1t, no fix will repair the problem.

Reinstalling a PC complete can be a PITA sometimes - esp when data is not backed up and be honest how many people "really" have images of their systems Not that many, only the ones who know. The average user wouldn't even know how to do an image.

Theres been countless times I have run system restore on customers PC's to at least get the PC back to a working state.

So turning it off is stupid. What would you rather do - spend less than 5 minutes and have a working system, or spend days putting it all back. As for the amount of space it uses - If a persons HDD is that full they need a few more MB of space - get a bigger drive.


Edited: Just did a check, System restore is using a whopping 3% of my 250 GB drive, 8.1GB , with the Max available being 4% 9.3GB "whippy de do " and still have 191GB free space.

To see how much - open a Command Prompt and run as administrator, type in vssadmin list shadowstorage

[Lurking]

System restore has saved many PC's from needing a complete reinstall.

I've done some testing, theres NO real reason to turn it off. It doesn't slow anything down.

Sometimes when it all turns to sh1t, no fix will repair the problem.

Reinstalling a PC complete can be a PITA sometimes - esp when data is not backed up and be honest how many people "really" have images of their systems Not that many, only the ones who know. The average user wouldn't even know how to do an image.

Theres been countless times I have run system restore on customers PC's to at least get the PC back to a working state.

So turning it off is stupid. What would you rather do - spend less than 5 minutes and have a working system, or spend days putting it all back. As for the amount of space it uses - If a persons HDD is that full they need a few more MB of space - get a bigger drive.


Edited: Just did a check, System restore is using a whopping 3% of my 250 GB drive, 8.1GB , with the Max available being 9.3GB 4% "whippy de do " and still have 191GB free space.

To see how much - open a Command Prompt and run as administrator, type in vssadmin list shadowstorage

Wai, thanks for your confidence in MS, have used Restore many times on many pcs'.

The bold phrase is a bit low ! how many old b u g g e r s' like me are there on this site don't know how to "image" their systems.

Always willing to learn something new, lol, otherwise might as well kick the bucket as they say.

Lurking.

Ps. Speedy and TeamViewer have also been a help in the past.

lurks.

[wainuitech]

What you highlighted in bold -- From experience, the Average home user doesn't know how to do an image, and many even today with all the warnings still dont do backups.

Some people are willing to learn (which is good), some simply dont care. If a person wants to learn how, then all they need to do is ask, and they can be helped.

Often many people dont bother until something happens and important data is lost.

Heres a classic example - just last week took a PC back to a person, for over two years now I have been warning them to do backups of their data - even showed them at least 5 times how to do them over that time -- Did they listen ?? NO -- and why ? because every time they have had a problem I have managed to fix it and save every thing - well last week the HDD died after the PC was knocked off the desk while running.

They have now lost close to 3 years worth of data, countless family pictures and who knows what else.

When I rang a data recovery company in Auckland, and was quoted in round figures $1000 + they just about had kittens, and now are starting to do some backups.

[Lurking]

Thanks for that Wai.

Most times I just do a full copy of My Documents to a 640 gig hdd, like the eoy financial shenanigans and it's plethora of letter writings.

Willing to learn how to image here ! either to the 640 or 32 gig stick.

Must say though, anytime things get sticky, the help given by this site is very, very good to say the least.

Thanks in advance.

Lurking.

Ps. no videos on how to do an image, without telling me how to save same.

lurks.

[wainuitech]

Are you using Windows 7 or some other OS ?

[Lurking]

Sorry Wai, XP SP3, Gigabyte MB, 2 gig ram. 320 gig hdd.

Lurking.

[linw]

Not my machine, Pctek, so guess what? No image or any other backup (except for restore partition).

No malware, Speedy - just got unlucky with a forced turn off it seems.

Thanks, WT, for the reinforcement!! In my experience, backup is just too hard for pretty much all the typical users out there. Their data/photos is likely spread all over the place, including the desktop. And where is the mail stored???

And who actually does imaging? No one I come across, except that I did set up one new machine with a 1TB ext HDD and a scheduled image routine. Must check to see whether it is still going or whether the HDD is full or disconnected!