XP Pro System Restore problems

From reading previous posts on subject, XP Pro users don't seem to be experiencing many problems. But in our case, with 2 XP Pro systems on 24 hrs/day, we are experiencing the following:
1. System Restore points are being entered sporadically ... and not often
2. no System Restore points are evident more than a few days ago even though we have had consistent Windows XP updates plus the addition of new software.

The RPGlobalInterval = 86,400 secs (24 hrs), and the RPLifeInterval = 7,776,000 secs (90 days). The System Restore Service is running.

Have been running Retrospect Backup utility on both machines for about 2 weeks. Could that be wiping out previous Restore points? Doesn't seem logical but I was trying to review any commonality between the 2 XP systems that could account for this.

I am suddenly having a problem with an application, and wanted to restore to before the latest Windows updates

Any help would be appreciated.

Chuck

 

My gut feeling is that an SR may or may not help with an MS update issue. Some of the updates cannot be installed, or SR is told to accept the new files or old files are overwritten...no one can really say which ones for sure will be affected, and which ones won't. Of course, this has only been my experience, YMMV.

I wonder why your XP Pro isn't making daily Restore Points. We resolved the SR ??s XP Home, but no one reported a problem with Pro versions.

When it is convenient, may I suggest deleting your SR points by turning the function off,and then back on again, reboot, and create a new SR, then check over the next few days to see it that gets SR working as expected? Like PeteC advised, be certain you are allocationg enough space for SR. If your hard drive is partitioned, disable SR on every drive but the one with XP on it. Since it only affects Windows system files, you don't need it elsewhere.

What is the name of the App, and what is it doing? Would it be helpful to uninstall, reboot, reinstall the application, or do a repair? Sometimes untangling the updates is more work than gain, so I disable auto updating and am very selective about what I will accept. Perhaps in the future, you will prefer to run yours manually.
Let's get your new software sorted out, then address the SR problems. By then, hopefully the MS updates will not be an issue.
Johanna

 

"lack of room" is as far as I know not a problem with creating RP's, since the oldest RP's are deleted to make room for the new one. SR's default size is 12% of the drive - not the partition - and I don't think the poster changed the default size, so making the size larger is IMO not goint to "fix" this.

Lack of room becomes a problem in restore operations; if a series of restores are done looking for a point prior to a problem, SR first creates a "picture" of the current state prior to restoring. This creates a lot of entries and if not enough room, responds with a "cannot restore" message. In that case, moving the slider to the right in the My Computer > properties > SR tab > settings, solves the problem.

As far as MS updates creating RP's: from what I've read and my own experience, RP's are created if the update is critical and does not create an ADD/REMOVE entry. One that comes to mind is DirectX updates. Cannot be removed and is critical in the sense that it is a security update (DirectX 9 0b).

Some 3rd party software installs may also create RP's, but I think the software vendor may trigger that, not MS. Otherwise I can't detect a pattern there.

Johanna - as far as I can tell, this problem is not about Home or Pro. I wouldn't consider this a problem for myself, I like to make RP's on my own anyway.

Regards - Charles

 

Johanna

I was not aware that the questions had been resolved concerning SR in XP Home.

I am still unable to get mine to set restore points by itself. I have tried everything that has been suggested to me. I had a thread on the subject recently but did not fix the problem.

Please advise or you may go to my thread HERE

Daniel

 

Thanks to all of you, Pete, Johanna, and Charles for the helpful input.

Pete, the suggestion to view the System Event Log was right on! Still perplexing in the following sense: the srservice events were consistently suspended due to "lack of space on the system drive ", and then resumed "... due to space freed on the system drive." Now my system drive has a total of 13 GB and 2.87 GB free ... certainly over 200 MB free!

But then I followed a link on the Url you sent to another article:
"299904 System Restore Suspended on System Drive Although Enough Space" and found...

"This behavior can occur when the following conditions are true:
A drive that is not a system drive that has System Restore enabled on it has reached less than 50 MB of free disk space.… This will cause System Restore to suspend across the system"

And I do have a drive being monitored by SR with less than 50 MB!
While that seemed to explain why the Monitoring was suspended, it didn't explain why it was resumed ??? ... that drive has had <50 MB for a long time ... it has not been a sporadic situation. Nevertheless, I have removed that drive from System Restore, and will do so for all other non-system drives. Expect to see it resuming, tomorrow.

Johanna, you're probably right, about doing the Windows updates manually, but I am not sure I would be able to tell which ones to install and which ones not to install.

The app that has given me problems is Photoshop CS. In particular, printing from Photoshop to an Epson 2200 printer. Everything has been fine since I got the Epson 2200 some months ago. It prints beautifully. Then, *all of a sudden*, I could not get prints to appear with any fidelity wrt how they looked on the monitor. I use a hardware device to calibrate the monitor. Because this happened so suddenly, I assumed it might have been caused by a Windows update. That is why I was trying to backtrack on the updates.

Following your thought, however, maybe it *is* either Photoshop or the Epson print driver that need to be re-installed. Thanks for the suggestion. Will try that next.

Charles, have to leave for a meeting (wife just called) so will respond to your msg later.

Thanks again for all the help.

Chuck

 

Dan239
from a link in your thread:

In addition:
Windows Home XP automatically creates a Restore Point when any of the following occurs:

An unsigned device driver is installed
A new application is installed (if the installation program is compatible with System Restore
Windows Update is used to update your system
A Restore Point from earlier is restored
A backup using the Backup Utility is restored.

In other words, XP Home does not make timed interval Restore Points like XP Pro.


Chuck disable SR on all partitions and drives that do not have an XP OS on them. That will allow SR to work "normally" and solve this

HTH
Johanna
ps
deal with Epsom & Photoshop first!

 

Hi Johanna,

*In other words, XP Home does not make timed interval Restore Points like XP Pro.*

Beg to differ, Home does.

I can monitor 3 home systems on a daily basis - my own obviously, my neihbor's, and a friend's ( whose system dates from Oct of 03). They each create RP's on a more or less daily basis. "More or less" because I can't set my watch by it

At the office, I can monitor 2 pro systems, one of which I rescued from disuse. Hooked up a monitor - KB - mouse and much to my supprise, had been creating RP's on battery power with watch like precision So, at least on Pro, with this example, RP's don't depend on "up- time ". With Home, that may be different, don't know, would have to play with that.

Regards - Charles

 

*So, at least on Pro, with this example, RP's don't depend on "up- time ". With Home, that may be different, don't know, would have to play with that.*

Went to my XP Pro manual, and the quote of Johanna's is in there applying to Pro with the addition of creating RP's every 24 hours if the system is on. No mention made of Home acting differently. If the system is shut down, the SR Service creates a new RP when restarted, if the most recent RP was more than 24 hours ago.

This contradicts my experience with that unplugged Pro system that I found that I wrote about in my previous post. My home system does act the way the manual describes SR.

Chuck's point about SR shutting down if a drive has less than 200 MB of space is also mentioned.

Regards - Charles

 

For anyone still sceptical about auto RP's in XP home:

From the Help and Support applet of Home - System Restore overview:

System Restore is a component of Windows XP Home Edition that you can use to restore your computer to a previous state, if a problem occurs, without losing your personal data files (such as Microsoft Word documents, browsing history, drawings, favorites, or e-mail). System Restore monitors changes to the system and some application files, and it automatically creates easily identified restore points. These restore points allow you to revert the system to a previous time. They are created daily and at the time of significant system events (such as when an application or driver is installed). You can also create and name your own restore points at any time.

Regards - Charles

 

I have never been able to use system restore successfully.

Anytime I have ever had a crash, and as you know, I have had more than my share, tried to use system restore, I get back a message after all the processing and reboot that "No changes have been made to your system" and that system restore has failed to restore to the chosen restore point, and I should try another restore point. Using another restore point has not worked either.

For me at least, it is not worth tieing up 4500MB of a 40 gig drive.

Besides, forces you think of other ways to figure out what went wrong and then fix it.

Martin

 

Hello Martin,

The one time I ran into the problem of not being able to restore was when the SR was maxed out on SR points in the size allocated to the System Volume file - I allocate 5% of drive space to SR. Took care of the problem by getting rid of the oldest RP's by shrinking the space and then enlarging the space again so that restore had room to operate (see my 1st post in this thread).

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks Charles, but I think I'll pass on SR. I have Drive Image 7 that I rely on and it has never let me down as opposed to SR which has never worked for me.

I purchased it because you cannot depend on System Restore only anyhow.

Several times when machine refused to boot, it was Drive Image boot CD to the rescue, restored system from last image w/o a hitch. Takes about 5 minutes after DI7 loads from CD. (that takes more time than the restore, loads just like clean install with boot by Windows XP CD)

So my "C" and "D" (system and programs) drives get imaged every 3 days at 3:30AM on an automated schedule.

No, I do not work for Powerquest.

Martin

 

I am not sure if this has been mentioned but my S/R was not working automatically until I discovered my task scheduler service was disabled System Restore

I don't depend on S/R but use it as a safety net for quick revert if an installation goes wrong. I have started to use ERUNT which makes a complete backup of the registry seamlessly.

For main backups I use Acronis and occasionally Ghost to an external drive.

 

Hi miniB,

I think you got it! Thank you. Have been looking for a way to shut auto RP's off.

Disabled the TM sevice and viola, no System Checkpoints. Again, thank you.

Regards - Charles

 

Pleased this has helped you with stopping the auto-restore points Every little bit of information given within a post can be useful to different members in various ways It certainly has taught me that no matter how insignificant I feel my input would be it is best to post and share it as someone may benefit.