System Restore

[allan]

Following is a copy of a post of mine from another site. I assure you that I frequently delete restore points from my SVI folders selectively and manually and have never had a problem.



The System Volume Information Foldlers contain your System Restore points. You can delete any or all of these manually if you like and XP will automatically renumber them and keep track. These folders are hidden system folders on each drive. In order to gain access, follow the directions below depending on your version of XP and File System:


Windows XP Professional or Windows XP Home Edition Using the FAT32 File System

Click Start , and then click My Computer

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box

Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Click OK

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it


Windows XP Professional Using the NTFS File System on a Domain

Click Start , and then click My Computer

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box

Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Click OK

Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Sharing and Security

Click the Security tab

Click Add , and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Choose the account location if appropriate (either local or from the domain). Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK , and then click OK

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it


Windows XP Professional using the NTFS File System on a Workgroup

Click Start , and then click My Computer

On the Tools menu, click Folder Options

On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders

Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check box. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change

Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box

Click OK

Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder, and then click Sharing and Security

Click the Security tab

Click Add , and then type the name of the user to whom you want to give access to the folder. Typically, this is the account with which you are logged on. Click OK , and then click OK

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it


Windows XP Home Edition Using the NTFS File System

In Windows XP Home Edition with the NTFS file system, you must use the Cacls tool, which is a command-line tool to display or modify file or folder access control lists (ACLs)

Click Start , click Run , type cmd , and then click OK

Make sure that you are in the root folder of the partition for which you want to gain access to the System Volume Information folder. For example, to gain access the the C:\System Volume Information folder, make sure that you are in the root folder of drive C (at a "C:\" prompt). To get to the root of any partition, make sure you are in that partition and then type "cd\" (without the quotation marks).

Type the following line, and then press ENTER:

cacls " driveletter :\System Volume Information" /E /G username :F

Make sure to type the quotation marks as indicated. This command adds the specified user to the folder with Full Control permissions

Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder to open it

If you need to remove the permissions after troubleshooting, type the following line at a command prompt:

cacls " driveletter :\System Volume Information" /E /R username

This command removes all permissions for the specified user.

 

[WiredBrain]

I give up. I just deleted all my restore points except the most recent point ... Maybe MS should enable its users to delete certain restore points in the future.

 

[segamil]

You can however delete all except the last system restore point very simply by going to Drive C - properties / disk cleanup / click on More Options tab - clean up system restore.

This will eliminate all but the newest restore point.
I find that to be a great way to free up a lot of hard drive space.

 

[yoyo]

Wouldn't it be great to keep for instance a restorepoint created directly after installing? Since discspace for systemrestore is limited, you can specify it somewhere, this one gets inevidently deleted if you can not get rid of later restorepoints.
Allan did you try systemrestore after you selectively deleted???


btw. I am using XP Home with NTFS and never had to use any commandlinetool to get full access to any folder.

 

[2z]

Originally posted by yoyo
Wouldn't it be great to keep for instance a restorepoint created directly after installing?

Alternative to restore
use PowerQuest Drive Image 2002 or equivalent
back up to CD at various stages
Taking no HDD space at all

 

[yoyo]

 

[damnyank]

Can I make System Restore permanently store a restore point so it is always available to restore to?

Answer: No, you cannot make System Restore store a restore point permanently to always restore back to. System Restores current architecture is unable to support this as it is a change base tracking tool and not an imaging or backup tool. Each restore point only stores changes to the system since the creation of the previous restore point to minimize space usage and improve performance and so all the restore points are associated to each other. Thus, restoring the machine from the current state to a previous state requires the availability of all restore points created in between to undo changes tracked inside them. For e.g. when a user wants to restore the machine from point D to a point A, System Restore will work through the changes made to the system and recorded in the change logs for each point C, then B and then A as these restore points collectively hold all the changes to the system since point A and so are needed to undo all the changes made to the system. It will then create a roadmap for recovery using these restore points and restore the system.

If a restore point was made a permanent restore point, space usage for storing the complete chain of restore points since the creation of the permanent restore point would in due course become very large and not be practical. System Restore also has an automatic restore point space-management feature that purges the oldest restore points to make room for new ones, so that a rolling safety net is always kept under the user, enabling the user to recover from recent undesirable changes. By Default any restore point older than 90 days will be purged automatically by System Restore.

Now folks, with the above in mind - you can and I have successfully, without any negative effects removed "old restore points (one at a time) - as long as they are successive in numbers. ie removed RS1, RS2, RS3 - but left RS4, RS5, RS6 up to the most recent number - follow?

I agree with Two ZigZagColt45, that an image(saved to cd) is probably the safest way to go - but I know System Restore has saved my butt in the past and my opinion is - I will continue to keep mine enabled and the rest of ya - do what ya like!

And that's my 2 cents!

 

[2z]

damnyank
Nice Post
Think that just about covers everything

 

[damnyank]

Thank you, Thank you very much!

 

[2z]

Your Welcome
;-)

 

[Perris Calderon]

Originally posted by damnyank
Thank you, Thank you very much!

now that is a great fujitzing post...damnyank, great job

could you site the referance?...I've never heard this about the system restore, and would like to read more on it

bottom line;... it doesn't make sense to delete specific restore points, as you won't be able to save the ones you want in the effort...in other words, even when done properly, it's a loosing cause.

as far as other supposed information on this thread, specifically this quote;

Originally posted by allan
I assure you that I frequently delete restore points from my SVI folders selectively and manually and have never had a problem.

dissregard this post for exactly what it's worth

 

[damnyank]

Okay - what I do about every 10 days or so is go back and delete those older than "that" - thus I got the "sequence" to let me have a saftey factor.

Plus I keep the old HDD space "semi-available" for more important things - bottom line for me is still Backup and/or Image -whichever is your thing is the thing to do!

 

[damnyank]

Opps, dealer go here

Sorry for forgetting to insert it before!

 

[Perris Calderon]

great white paper, great source...thanx dy

 

[damnyank]

Naw - I won't say "Thank You, Thank You Very Much" - again!

 

[WiredBrain]

Finally, questions are answered ... BTW, any good image software ?

 

[damnyank]

I would suggest Drive Image 2002 - others may have a different opinion - but you have to figure out what suits you and what you are comfortable with - we all know there's the limitation - what ya can afford!

 

[yoyo]

Thanks from me,too
Really a great source to have. For example thought of switching taskscheduler off recently - not aware system restore depends on it - now I won't.