Ron Schenone

System Restore – Why you should Use It!

Posted by on Jan 18, 2007 | 23 Comments

I was reading a post over at the KRC forums, in which the poster was having trouble with a software program and after uninstalling the problematic software, other software didn’t work. And he had been previously advised by a member to turn off system restore. Unfortunately this advice, being correct to clean out spyware on the system, was not followed up to advise the user to turn system restore back on.

I don’t get it people. Why would anyone not take advantage of one of the great features in ME and XP, and turn system restore off? To save disk space so you can load more MP 3 files on your system? :-)

In the days of old when we had tiny, teeny, little hard disks this may have made sense. But today are hard disks are HUGE. So why disable this feature? Especially since you can control the amount of disk spaced being used if you chose not to opt for the default setting.

Reduce the size of System Restore:

  • Open Control Panel
  • Open – System icon – located towards the bottom of the list.
  • Click on the System Restore Tab.
  • Click on the Settings button and move the slider to a lower setting from the 12% default.

By doing this you will save disk space, but you should be aware there will be less Restore Points to choose from at a later date when needed.

Also, when installing new software, I recommend setting a NEW Restore Point just in case something goes awry.

[tags]system restore, disk, space, adjust, control panel, [/tags]

  • http://fractalbeanstalk.blogspot.com/ Tim Hodkinson

    My wife’s computer has Xp (mine’s 98se) and she kept getting a visual basic runtime error whenever she wanted to run IE that would prevent the browser from running. I stumbled on System Restore and went back to the last restore point and everything worked fine. Later on I found the problem was with a 3rd party plugin that was soon updated to correct the problem. I also installed FireFox and it didn’t have seem to be affected. System Restore is like going back in time and is great for people who can’t figure out what the problem is but just want their system back the way it was. I didn’t know it could be disabled. Thanks for the tip!

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Tim,
    Normally System Restore is only disabled to clean up a infected system, but after the cleaning, is turned back on.

    Thanks for the info on your wife’s system. :-)

  • Bill Jacobs

    I have saved a bunch of time and effort using System Restore. Saved me on numerous occaisons! By the way, there is a way to get to it from DOS if you can’t boot up. If you see this and want the info, let me know.

    Bill

  • Scott W. Allen

    I turn System Restore Off on every system I own or control. System Restore has one big flaw.

    It really slows systems down! Sometimes to a point where fatter applications won’t run acceptably at all.

    System restore is more pain than it’s worth.

  • Ron Hamilton

    To Bill Jacobs;

    I would be very interested in your note concerning booting to System Restore from DOS.

    How would i obtain the onfo?

    Many thanks.

    Ron Hamilton.

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  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Bill – yes please send the info and post it here in the comments section. It may just help someone.

    Hi Scott – thanks for sharing your opinion. It is appreciated.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone
  • http://lockergnome sheldon glickman

    Every time I’ve tried to use System Restore, it doesn’t work. Now I see that someone posted a note about Norton Antivirus causing the problem. Of course, nothing in Norton’s literature addresses this problem.
    Do you have any information?

  • rbd

    System Restore is one of the most misleading and deadly features of WINXP. System Restore CAN NOT restore a system to a previous point in time – the only thing that can do that is backup of the system partition. I can’t begin to count the number of times that I have gotten a telephone call – such as: “a tech support person told me to use System Restore and now my PC will not reboot”.

    Get a good backup program and an external disk drive and learn how to routinely do a REAL backup of your PC.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    rbd – thanks for your input as well. And I agree with you that a good backup program is best. But unfortunately few folks take the time to do complete backups. As a routine I use Acronis.
    System restore is still a viable tool for those folks who do not make full backups, who routinely install/uninstall programs or who like to tweak their systems.
    This is a great article from Fred Langa circa 2002:
    http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020711S0009
    I have tweaked my system restore to use minimal disk space.
    Regards, Ron

  • Steve Hobberstad

    Q: System Restore – Why you should Use It?
    A: Maybe you shouldn’t–because MALWARE likes to HIDE THERE!

    I’d agree with the sentiments expressed in Ron’s article if disk space was the only consideration but the System Restore archives are prime hiding places for malware.

    I disabled Windows’ System Restore immediately after having installed XP and haven’t looked back. See http://wp3.lockergnome.com/docs/virus.html (thanks for publishing it, Chris!) for a better way of restoring your system and keeping it safe from malware and real-time hackers. Not only is such a routine, COMPLETE system backup the one sure-fire way to protect yourself from the increasing number of threats out there but it’s also the only way (that I know of) to roll your system back to EXACTLY the state it was in as of a specific date and time; i.e., Windows’ System Restore won’t restore everything on your system to exactly the way it was as of the restore point.

    While system specifications (and my email address) have changed since I wrote the article the advisability of using this kind of isolated backup has not, and I wouldn’t consider building another system without one unless and until something MUCH BETTER comes along.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Steve,
    Thanks for your comments and link to your site.

    Just one clarification – PowerQuest and their product Drive Image are no longer available. Symantec [Norton] bought PowerQuest some years ago. They then took a extremely fine product and destroyed it. IMHO.

    And Steve’s point is valid about malware hiding in restore points. Most forums or sites will recommend turning off System Restore during a clean up procedure. Turning off System Restore will kill all prvious Restore Points.

    With this many comments, seems like I may be doing another post sharing this information with everyone.

    Once again, thanks to all of you who have posted comments. Your opinions are extremely valuable and worth sharing with the masses.

    All the best, Ron

  • Steve Hobberstad

    PS to rdb, Ron (et al.)–

    I started my comment yesterday afternoon and got sidetracked until just a few minutes ago, failing to notice that rdb had posted EXACTLY what I’d started to write in the interim.

    BTW (for anyone reading my external HD article): I now use both antivirus and anti-spyware software ALSO, and the partitions I alluded to on my system are…

    C: Operating System/Applications
    D: Small “scratch” partition for Work-In-Progress files
    E: Finished user files (except MP3)
    F: MP3s
    G: Hard-copied CD-ROM databases (phone books, maps)

    Using such a strategy you can back up ONLY the partition(s) you need to, for example: my G-partition (the largest) almost never needs to be backed up while the more dynamic smaller partitions like C: (at 40 GB) can be backed up in about ten minutes. Since these are images they are written much faster than sector-for-sector copies, and since they are considerably smaller than the source files you can save many generations of these images to a backup drive much smaller than your working drive. That way if your system DOES get infected with a crabgrass network of malware you can go back as many generations as it takes to be rid of it. Even if that means going back several MONTHS it’s still better than losing several YEARS worth of painstaking application installations, driver and software updates, system tweaks and software configurations, etc. Few people seem to appreciate the THOUSANDS of changes they make to a system over years of operation–and certainly not the Help Line techs who all-too-soon suggest “just” reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling all the software to fix some simple problem they don’t want to have to troubleshoot with you.

    Anyway, rdb is absolutely right: an external hard drive is the only way to go. I’d give up my printer, scanner, digital camera and wireless desktop before I’d give up my external HD backup system.

  • Steve Hobberstad

    Hi Ron,

    I figured I’d get my second post posted immediately after my first post but you beat me to it! You must have been watching this column like a cop waiting for a parking meter to expire! :)

    I couldn’t agree with you more about what Symantec’s done with Drive Image (scrapped it)–among other things. PowerQuest was an EXCELLENT company with a highly competent staff and I was very sorry to see them cash out and leave the industry.

    Rereading my article I realize how out-of-date it really is. Half the people reading it have probably never heard of a tape back-up system. Maybe Chris will let me rewrite it one of these days. Any ideas where I might post something like that?

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Steve,
    Once again, than you for the response and insight on your backup strategy.

    Several options are available to posting a update:

    Contact Chris direct: chris@lockergnome.com

    Or you can email your post to me and I would be happy to post a column for you, citing you as the source.

    Hope this helps.

    Regards, Ron

  • marion harrison

    I always used System Restore on my computer when I had a problem, I now have a new computer and System Restore will not work, the message comes that the computer was unable to be restored to a previous date, and no changes have been made.I can not figure out why it won’t work, is there a software that can be preventing the restore? Marion

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hi Marion,
    Some know viruses and spyware will prevent system restore from working. The first thing I would try is to turn off system restore – reboot – and enable system restore. See if it then functions.

    If you are still having problems a call to your computer manufacture could be in order.

    Or

    Drop by lockergnome and post your problem:

    http://help.lockergnome.com

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  • tim

    To the people ,
    On system restore you have to really look at your compentency with the computer. Nothing opposed to the full back up . Both points are thouroughly valid but you as the user must really look at what is in your computer to lose . If you’re just gamer and internet fun , system restore is an easy option for average user . Get into saving those movies and files and other stuff now it’s full back up time . Really look at what you do and learn to do a full back anyways even if you don’t plan to use it , you never no .

  • LEARNER

    Hi all, I would like to share a much better tool: ERUNT.

  • http://wp3.lockergnome.com/nexus/blade/ Ron Schenone

    Hello Learner,
    Thanks. I completely forgot about URUNT.

  • LEARNER

    Hi all, I would like to share a much better tool: ERUNT.
    (I continue here; Last post was to make sure my message could go through.)

    ____________
    Sidenote to Message Moderator: At the place where I can reply, 1 thing confused me: Is URL required? After trying, I found that URL was not required, but it was giving me doubt if my message would go through or not before of that “URL LINE” (Other lines have the word Required, to parallel the thoughts, please fix the web page so that the URL LINE would also have the word “Not Required” next to it.
    To make your job easier, I was hoping you would do this:
    Name (Required)

    E-mail (Required, but Kept Private!)

    URL (Not Required, Optional.)
    ____________
    Sidenote to Message Moderator
    ____________

    What is ERUNT?
    In friendly term: “SUPER SYSTEM RESTORE”

    What does it do?
    ERUNT keeps FULL REGISTRY.
    ERUNT keeps COMPLETE REGISTRY.
    ERUNT keeps ALL OF REGISTRY.

    What? I thought WINDOWS SYSTEM RESTORE keepsFULL REGISTRY?
    Sorry, WINDOWS SYSTEM RESTORE does NOT KEEP FULL REGISTRY.

    That’s interesting. And useful tool. Is it good?
    Yes: it is good.

    How?
    ERUNT IS FREE.
    ERUNT IS FAST: 20 SECONDS FOR FULL COMPLETE BACKUP OF REGISTRY.
    ERUNT CAN RUN INSIDE WINDOWS AT EVERY BOOT.
    ERUNT CAN DELETE OLD COPIES AT EVERY BOOT.
    ERUNT CAN RUN OUTSIDE WINDOWS: IN DOS !

    I mean, ERUNT IS SUPER SYSTEM RESTORE.

    Is it safe? Virus? Spyware?
    I was a doubtful person at first. Fully tested it three years ago. Fully recommend to all friends and family.

    Virus? No. (Depends on where you get it). Please scan everything with ANTI-VIRUS, ANTI-SPYWARE, ANTI-TROJAN, ANTI-ROOTKIT.

    Spyware? No. (Depends on where you get it). Please scan everything with ANTI-VIRUS, ANTI-SPYWARE, ANTI-TROJAN, ANTI-ROOTKIT.

    —
    Where to get it?
    Please do your own search for the term:
    ERUNT

    BUT, I also searched for you: here are CLEAN LEGAL links as of October 22, 2007.
    http://www.majorgeeks.com/download1267.html
    http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,30793-order,1-page,1-c,backup/description.html
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Registry-Tweak/Erunt-g.shtml

    —-
    The best thing is: ERUNT is FREE.

    My way of using ERUNT:
    Turn on System Restore, make a Restore Point, then, SETUP ERUNT.

    Whoever created ERUNT was caring with skills. Just want to remind you, software creators do a lot of charity works, just like many of us do charity works in life. Just want to remind you, sometimes, in life, FREE IS GOOD.

    Good luck, please research about ERUNT, and share to others……….

    Spread the love, and the skills….