Solved What's the good, the bad, and the ugly about System Restore?

Flashorn · Jan 29, 2024

Haydon said:
I misspoke in my post #9, here is the correction.

How does System Restore compare to Repair Install or In-Place Upgrade retaining apps, settings and files ?

You might even get a newer OS version that can handle that pesky new app ?

Well, I haven't done either yet but, from what I understand, a repair I think would be akin to
sfc /scannow and Dism to repair broken or corrupt files. In-Place would be to upgrade to a new
version without you losing your whole install. For me, an image would be the way to go since I
haven't used either of those options.
SR will only bring you back a day or two if you have installed something that isn't working for you.
It will not affect any of your installed files or folder other than delete the reg entries that you have
created with the program or tweak that you have just performed and it's not working.

allan · Jan 29, 2024

Fabler2 said:
I've not used Sys Restore for many years as it can harbour virus' if my memory serves me right.

ANY backup method can harbor a virus IF your system was infected at the time the restore point or image was created. Other than that no, system restore is perfectly safe. I simply prefer imaging.

hdmi · Jan 29, 2024

Haydon said:
email is part of your data

Your data is part of your email if you email your data to yourself. lol

pparks1 · Jan 29, 2024

i will use system restore if i run into a problem that isn't fixable via another means. it's not my first resort to fixing a problem, but i've had okay success with it when I have run it shortly after updating a piece of software or driver.

Haydon · Jan 29, 2024

I'm surprised by the email notions. If you have an email correspondence with your business partners, clients, suppliers, etc. aren't those part of your data?

pseymour · Jan 29, 2024

Haydon said:
I'm surprised by the email notions. If you have an email correspondence with your business partners, clients, suppliers, etc. aren't those part of your data?

Some people took it literally. I took it as more of a "you lost a week of productivity" thing.

Ghot · Jan 29, 2024

System Restore...

The Good = bad
The Bad = bad
The Ugly = bad

Haydon · Jan 29, 2024

The impetus for starting this thread is that I have been thinking of scheduling/scripting a weekly restore point.

My present thinking is to do it manually first before automating things, I shall not skip the learning curve.

I have enough to start the learning curve, so I will mark this thread 'Solved'

Thanks to all responders

Flashorn · Jan 29, 2024

Haydon said:
The impetus for starting this thread is that I have been thinking of scheduling/scripting a weekly restore point.

My present thinking is to do it manually first before automating things, I shall not skip the learning curve.

I have enough to start the learning curve, so I will mark this thread 'Solved' Thanks to all responders

Once you've decided that a SR is a necessity, open the app and click on the restore point that you
want to go back too. From the bottom right, click on the Scan for affected programs. It might take
a minute or two but, will show what will Not be back on your PC/notebook.

I also think that a restore point every 3 days would be beneficial instead of weekly.

Haydon · Jan 29, 2024

Flashorn said:
Once you've decided that a SR is a necessity, open the app and click on the restore point that you
want to go back too. From the bottom right, click on the Scan for affected programs. It might take
a minute or two but, will show what will Not be back on your PC/notebook.

I also think that a restore point every 3 days would be beneficial instead of weekly.

View attachment 85473

Hey, that's a good point! If there is only one affected app that's also new, then that's most likely the troublemaker that you want to get rid of! It is also a good indicator that that's the restore point you want to go back to, no need to go back to an earlier restore point.

On System Restore being a necessity or not, it is in any case another tool in the toolbox. The next question to ask in this regard is, how much resources to allocate for what returns.

So, I have been thinking of doing weekly restore points on the weekends and together with the restore points created by the system on Tuesday(s) or some other weekday, will require x GBs, then allocate y GBs/% to get 1 month worth of restore points.

At the same number of GBs/% doing restore points every 3 days would get you 2 weeks worth of restore points which may also be adequate.

We'll see

SIW2 · Jan 29, 2024

It can be useful in many cases. Better to do the restore from booted media.

The shadow copy can be used for things apart from system restore

try for yourself.

1. e.g. create an empty test.txt in your documents folder
2. create a restore point
3. delete test.txt
4. look inside the shadow copy for test.txt in your documents folder.

I have posted many times how to access shadow copies. One way is to use nir sofers tiny little portable shadowcopy view. It also runs in pe without any additional dependencies. ShadowCopyView - Shadow copy viewer for Windows 10/8/7/Vista

Another way is to make links yourself to get something like this which you could look through and copy stuff out :

Flashorn · Jan 30, 2024

Haydon said:
The next question to ask in this regard is, how much resources to allocate for what returns.

Well , I guess it all depends on how much space you have. Mine is a 2TB drive and at 1% as
you can see from the screen shot, it gives me 18+GB of allocated space for SR. I do believe
that, that should be enough for me. I updated yesterday (I know, late but Not) and windows
did create it's own so, when it gets to the limit , it will delete the early ones and retain the later
ones automatically. I just create new ones on a schedule which is about 3 or 4 days and even
every 2 days when I do tweaks or install a new program. In the end, I think it's up to you and
how you make use of these tools.

Flashorn · Jan 30, 2024

SIW2 said:
I have posted many times how to access shadow copies.

Yes, and I forgot about it. I did want to see what this is all about so, I will download this app and
take a closer look. Thanks for the reminder.

AK6DN · Jan 30, 2024

Haydon said:
A good thing about System Restore is that it does not touch your data.

If you do a System Restore to a week ago, your emails are still current

If you did an Image Restore, you lost 1 week worth of emails

Only if you locally store your emails (and data) in the same partition as your system C: partition.
I don't. All my user files go on my E: partition. Each backed up separately, of course.
So I can restore my system image back to its state a week earlier and my email and browsing history remain current.
I have never liked co-mingling system files and user files in the same filesystem.

hdmi · Jan 30, 2024

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Haydon · Feb 23, 2024

I tried giving System Restore ample disk space (27.53 GB) but it uses only 15.53 GB. For the 15.53 GB, I get 7 Restore Points with the oldest being 18 days old, see screenshots below.

However, from a parallel thread, I think it is only commendable to restore the newest or second newest Restore Point. Or to say it the other word around, don't restore the third or older Restore Point. That seems to be kind of a natural limitation of the tool.

Edwin said:
I always create a Restore Point when installing software or, changing various Settings..., never had it fail!

I would add to the above quote, create a Restore Point any time before you give an OK to a UAC.

Anyway, IMHO reason enough to adopt a good computing habit

Solved What's the good, the bad, and the ugly about System Restore?

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