(If you're looking for help with the Windows XP version of System Restore, you really need to go to MVP Bert Kinney's site)

To reset System Restore:-
System Properties| Performance | File System | Troubleshooting

and check "Disable System Restore", Apply and IMMEDIATELY reboot.
This will flush you restore folder and erase all checkpoints, then

System Properties| Performance | File System | Troubleshooting

and UNcheck "Disable System Restore", Apply and again IMMEDIATELY reboot.
This should now automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart.
Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder

This should not normally be necessary - it's for those cases where a normal reset (as above) doesn't work properly.

Boot to DOS, using your Startup Disk (if you don't have one and can't make one from Start | Add/Remove Programs, then download a diskmaker from www.bootdisk.com, and create the floppy by running the file)

At the A:\> prompt, type the following commands (followed by [return])

ATTRIB -S -R -H C:\_RESTORE

REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

When the A:\> prompt returns, remove the floppy, and reboot the PC. The Control Files will be rebuilt, and a Restore point should be created.

Then delete the C:\OLDREST folder, and reboot again.

Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder

If you don't have a floppy drive, then use a CD boot disk - your OEM Recovery disk may do this job, but RTFM!. If you have neither a working floppy, nor a working CD, then all is not lost - email me for a quick fix!

You don't need to do this - System restore will get rid of them itself given time.

If you're worried that you may accidentally restore to a time during which you were infected, then follow the instruction to reset System Restore above

To disable System Restore (NOT generally a good idea!) - go to

System Properties| Performance | File System | Troubleshooting

and check "Disable System Restore", Apply and IMMEDIATELY reboot.

NOTE: - even with System Restore disabled, the C:\_Restore folder will increase in size from its initial 2MB or so - due to System File Protection and WININIT.EXE using the archive for storage.

First you have to be able to answer the following Question:-

• Why is System Restore Disabled?

To adjust the space allocated to the restore folder,

System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk,

and adjust the restore slider to your preferred setting.

Most people find that a setting of 200-300MB is sufficient to hold 10-15 days worth of restore points, unless you are doing a lot of installs/uninstalls, or installing large applications (such as Office).

Create a Restore point (call it 'test1')

Open Notepad, and type in "Test File" - save it to your Desktop as "TESTFILE.EXE" (complete with the quote marks!) - you should be able to see it on your desktop now.

Create another Restore point (call it 'test2')

Delete the file 'TESTFILE.EXE' from the Desktop

Reboot

Now use System Restore to go back to that latest restore point ('test2')

Does the file reappear on the desktop after the reboot?

Now Undo the Restore - the file should be gone again.

This is a complex subject - so it will (eventually) have its own page - (under construction)

To do this, you first need to set up Windows Explorer (My Computer) to be able to see Hidden and System files and folders. Open Windows Explorer, and click on the Tools item in the menu bar. Click on Folder Options - the Folder Option UI will appear. Click on the View tab, and look at the items around 6th to 10th on the list. Under the 'Hidden files and folders' heading, check the 'Show hidden files and folders' radio button. Just below that UNtick the 'Hide protected operating system files' checkbox. Click on OK to return to Windows Explorer.

Now navigate to the C: drive, and open that so that you can see the contents. The first folder in the C: drive is usually _RESTORE - right click on that folder icon, and select Properties. You can see there, the amount of space that SR is currently using, and the number of files it's got. The number of folders *should* be 5 - if it's anything else, then you have a problem!

WHY..

System Restore in ME was designed in the days when Hard Drives were only about 10-20GB. By default it is allocated 12% of the space on the C: partition/drive, with a minimum allocation of 200MB (although this can be tweaked in the registry to a lower setting). This is controlled by a slider bar with 10 'notches' - so that for a 40GB C: drive, each notch would be 460MB.

With modern Hard Drives of 80-160GB, and 500GB around the corner, that 12% could amount to over 60GB, if you're daft enough to allow it!!!

On a stable system (one with not many programs being installed/uninstalled), a System Restore point is created every 10 hours of computer up-time, or every 24 hours real-time, so you could in theory get 2 automatic restore points every day.

Each restore point will always contain a backup of your registry, together with the system.ini and win.ini files, and any files which have been archived by System Restore from installs and uninstalls.

An average automatic restore point can be expected to be about 5-10MB - but they can be as large as 800MB or even more, for a large install such as, say, Office 2002 Developer edition!

Generally, it's not a good idea to attempt to restore back more than a week or two, so I would recommend that you reduce the allocation to System restore to the minimum (200MB) or one 'notch' above. This would still allow for 10 days of standard automatic restore points., and you can always increase the allocation prior to a large install/uninstall, and decrease it afterwards, once you're happy with the results.

This is usually caused by corruption of the control files. There is a mounting body of evidence that a lot of this type of problem is caused by the use of Norton/Symantec's LiveUpdate utility in automatic mode. The only cure for this is a manual clearance of the archive - look here

 

There are a number of possible reasons for this -

• You changed the System Configuration by adding or removing drives or partitions (this automatically resets System Restore)

• You (or someone else) deleted the C:\_Restore folder before windows started (or in DOS)

• You may have malware on your system that can tamper with the System Restore control files or the store

• You told it to!

• Others - most of which involve programs preventing creation of Restore points, rather than actually resetting System Restore (look in the C:\_Restore\TEMP folder - if there's a large number of files there, then this is more than likely your problem. Also, the date/time of the files/folders in C:\_Restore will not be the same as the last time )

First thing you need to do is check the time/date of the C:\_Restore folder - and reboot. Does the date/time change? If so, then you have installed something that is resetting SR every time you reboot (email me, please, if you find this is the case!!). If not, then the chances are that it was a one-off event.

You then need to check that it's working properly - look here
 

The most common reason for this is that there is a program running in the background which never gives the system the breathing-space it needs before it starts creating  a Restore point. SR needs the system to be 'idle' for at least two minutes before it can start the process of automatic point-creation.

First off - check whether you can create a Manual Restore point. If not, then the whole SR System should be reset - look here for instructions. If you can create a Manual Restore Point, then there's something going on.....

Open MSINFO32 (using Start | Run) and look in Software Environment/Running Tasks - what's running?

Do you have an active screensaver set with an activation time less than 2 minutes?

Are you running a Firewall with logging switched on?

Are you running a distributed computing project? (BOINC - SETI, etc..)

Run through MSCONFIG's Startup list and see what you can disable on the next boot - remember that it could take up to 10 hours (or more) before a Restore point is created!

• You have GoBack installed

  It's not recommended to run both SR and GoBack - personally, I had too many issues using GoBack (high CPU usage, and high disk space usage), and decided that I'd get rid of that rather than SR.

  
  
• You have manually disabled it

This is the easy one! - System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and UNcheck "Disable System Restore", Apply and again IMMEDIATELY reboot.
This should now automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart.
Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder

• You have unchecked *Statemgr in the Startup axis

Use MSCONFIG to make sure that *Statemgr is run at boot time - if it's not checked, then check it, click Apply, OK, reboot; and then reset System Restore, and check that SR is now working properly

• There is not enough free disk space

The only thing you can do here is free up space on the C: drive/partition. System restore needs at least 400MB of headroom before it will switch on, and 300 MB to keep running

• The control files are corrupted

Reset System Restore to rebuild the control files. If the corruption is major, it may be necessary to clear the archive before SR will work again. Then check that SR is working properly