What happens if I restore two PITR snapshots but in the wrong date order?

kelper said:

If i try a restore dated 25 June and it does not fix a problem, can I go on to restore a snapshot from June 23, or will that leave things in an inconsistent state?

ChatGPT wrote a load of drivel but, basically, said no. Grok said yes, possibly.

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kelper said:

I did say PITR in the subject. Nothing to do with 'System Restore'.

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Point-in-time restore for Windows

documentation for point-in-time restore feature

learn.microsoft.com

"Your Accounts" option under Accounts gone

Hello everyone, I just noticed that the option "Your Accounts" (or was it called "Email Accounts"?) ... in order to access my email accounts ... has disappeared. It was usually in Settings > Accounts > ... As you can see in the screen shot I can still access it but only by typing it in the...

www.elevenforum.com

• June 25 → the system becomes exactly as it was on June 25
• June 23 afterward → the system becomes exactly as it was on June 23

glasskuter said:

Co-pilots answer ro YOUR question
You can safely restore PITR snapshots in any order. Restoring a newer snapshot and then an older one will not leave the system in an inconsistent state. PITR doesn’t “stack” or merge snapshots—each restore is a complete rollback to the exact state the system was in at that timestamp.

So if you restore:

• June 25 → the system becomes exactly as it was on June 25
• June 23 afterward → the system becomes exactly as it was on June 23

The second restore simply overwrites the first. Nothing from the June 25 restore remains unless it was already present on June 23.
There’s no corruption risk, no partial mixing of states, and no special procedure required. The only thing to keep in mind is that any changes you make after the first restore will be wiped out by the second, because PITR always replaces the entire dataset with the selected snapshot.

If the June 25 snapshot doesn’t resolve your issue, it’s perfectly safe to restore June 23 next.
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MY THOUGHTS for the masses who might read this
Since my own personal experience with system restore has ALWAYS been dubious at best, I have always cautioned anyone to NOT depend on it. Therefore I call one foolish and extend a double caution if one depends on Point-In-Time as their only means of protection.

Know that Point In Time does not deal with multiple volumes, only the volume where the OS is located. So if one has his user files on another volume and expects PIT to help him recover his personal files, he is SOL.

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kelper said:

I think you are wrong

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Point-in-time restore for Windows

documentation for point-in-time restore feature

learn.microsoft.com

Point-in-time restore for Windows

documentation for point-in-time restore feature

learn.microsoft.com

• Deletions: Restore points are automatically removed, starting with the oldest restore point under the following conditions:
  • Restore points become older than 72 hours.
  • The VSS storage exceeds its maximum configuration for restore points.
  • Free disk space reaches or drops below 20 GB.
  • The device reports low free space conditions that cause VSS to limit or evict restore points.
  • VSS can’t preserve prior data due to a limiting condition (for example, full disk, failure to allocate memory, inability to expand diff area in time, write errors). In this case, all restore points are removed.