Where does system restore save its restore points?

[PCBoy]

Any ideas?

 

[Lonman]

In a hidden, system folder called 'System Volume Information.'

 

[PCBoy]

Do you know how I can save the restore points? Because I would like to set up a Restore Point on a system that has a new installation of Windows XP. Is it possible to save Restore Points my important restore points would not be deleted after two weeks?

 

[DarkSiege]

I dunno if this will work but you can try copying the file to another directory or change some registry keys.....

 

[PCBoy]

How? I couldn't access the folder...I need to know the Registry Keys for that folder....

 

[allan]

Restore points are deleted according to space, not time. The more space you allocate to the Restore Points (CONTROL PANEL - SYSTEM - SYSTEM RESTORE - Settings Button), the more that wll be saved. You can manually create restore points.

BUT - here's the best way to save the registry indefinitely. Go to START - RUN - REGEDIT. Then click on FILE, EXPORT. Select a destination directory to backup your registry, give it a name, put a check in the "All" box, and save the registry. This is a manual registry save and you can save as many as you want, as often as you want, for as long as you want.

If you ever need to restore a manually saved registry, follow the above directions but instead of File / Export you would click on File / Import and select the registry you wish to import (restore). It will replace the existing registry after a reboot.

 

[DarkSiege]

Lonman, can you tell us exactly where the files exist?

 

[Qumahlin]

The files are saved in the System Volume Information. They are saved as files with multiple letter and number names. I tested this by defragging using diskeeper. then creating some restore points immediately after. I then opened diskkeeper selecting analyze and seeing what files had just become fragmented. All the fragmented files had LONG names and were in the System Volume Information directory and they had high file sizes.

I don't know how you would go about replacing the files or creating backup's of them but they are all in that directory. the directory itself has no sub-directories

 

[DarkSiege]

Qumahlin, i can't find that folder in C:windows. Where is it?

 

[Qumahlin]

it should just be in c:\

make sure that in your folder options you have it set so that it shows hidden files and folders and set so you can see system files, then the directory will appear

 

[Qumahlin]

I lied!

I have found a way to copy the restore points and their directories!

right click on the directory...then click properties. then goto the security tab. Then click add. type in your username. and make sure that the first 6 checkboxes are enabled. Then you can freely open the directory, browse, and even copy files to and from

now whether or not you can use this method to "backup" restore points...I don't know...but it's a start

and by doing this I noticed I lied...in the system volume info directory there is one file labeled tracking and then a drectory for each restore point you have

 

[DarkSiege]

I found the folder....it has over 2 gig of those restore points! Does anyone know how to identify which folder is the one that i want to delete?

 

[Qumahlin]

um why do you want to delete any of them? if you wanna delete some old restore points goto my computer. open the properties of your drive. then click disk cleanup. then more options and there is an option to delete all but the most recent restore points

 

[Lonman]

Originally posted by DarkSiege
I found the folder....it has over 2 gig of those restore points! Does anyone know how to identify which folder is the one that i want to delete?

And why would you want to mess around in that folder? If you don't want that much space dedicated to system restore you can set a limit by going to Control Panel> System> 'system restore' tab> highlight the drive/partition you want to reset the limit for and go to the 'settings' button. I'm not sure, but you may lose all your restore points by tinkering with those settings so be sure to create a new one when you're done. As far as saving a 'historical' restore point... get some drive imaging software and image your drive and tuck it away... a much more secure solution in my opinion (vs experimenting in a system folder).

 

[DarkSiege]

True...

 

[PCBoy]

Security tab....ummmm I can't see any security tab. Which properties did you exactly look at?

 

[DarkSiege]

Who are you talking to PCBoy?

 

[Khayman]

theres no security tab in xp home

 

[scriptasylum]

There isn't any security tab in XP Pro if you are using FAT32 either, at least thats how it is on my system. Must be an NTFS thing.

 

[PCBoy]

Originally posted by Qumahlin
I lied!

I have found a way to copy the restore points and their directories!

right click on the directory...then click properties. then goto the security tab. Then click add. type in your username. and make sure that the first 6 checkboxes are enabled. Then you can freely open the directory, browse, and even copy files to and from

now whether or not you can use this method to "backup" restore points...I don't know...but it's a start

and by doing this I noticed I lied...in the system volume info directory there is one file labeled tracking and then a drectory for each restore point you have

i meant this...what is he talking about? I couldn't find the security tab...only general, sharing, and customize tabs...