Restore point

[Dick Mahar]

I would like to set up the creation of a restore point automatically on a
daily basis, but so far I haven't been able to figure out a procedure to do
so. I would appreciate any input. TIA........Dick M

 

[relic]

I would like to set up the creation of a restore point automatically on a
daily basis, but so far I haven't been able to figure out a procedure to
do so. I would appreciate any input. TIA........Dick M

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=how+frequent+are+restore+points+created

 

[VanguardLH]

I would like to set up the creation of a restore point automatically
on a daily basis, but so far I haven't been able to figure out a
procedure to do so.

Restore points are already scheduled (plus they can occur during
software installs [that uses MSI] or when done manually). A "system
checkpoint" is ran every 24 calendar hours. Just because a restore
point is scheduled every 24 hours doesn't mean there will be one created
every day. Something has to change on your computer to qualify the
expenditure of data bus bandwith, CPU overhead, and disk consumption to
create a restore point; otherwise, you end up generating a bunch of
duplicate and superfluous restore points.

So why would you want to throw away usable restore points just to have a
bunch of duplicate ones stored on the disk? As you generate more
restore points, eventually the old ones get discarded to make room for
the new ones. You would end up with a slew of duplicate restore points
that are worthless since only one of them has any value and meanwhile
you pushed out and delete all the older restore points. There are no
incremental restore points like you can do with backups where only
changes since the last full backup (i.e., incremental changes) get
recorded. Every restore point is a full backup (of what it does backup
which is not everything and why restore points should not be solely
relied upon to restore you host). You deliberately want to waste disk
space on duplicate restore points and get rid of your old and different
restore points that have value?

The scheduled interval configure for restore points is defined in the
registry. Run regedit.exe to edit the registry and go look at:

Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore

Data Item:
RPGlobalInterval

Default value:
86400 seconds (1 day)

Start learning just what is (and what is NOT) a restore point. See (all
found using Google and took less than a couple minutes):

"Understanding System Restore"
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...p_system_restore_hss_understand.mspx?mfr=true

WIKI: System Restore
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restore_point
See "Restore Points" section on when restore points are generated.

Command-line execute of System Restore program:
%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe
I don't know of command-line switches so you can create a scheduled
event in Task Scheduler. Yet I don't see why you would want to since
you would end up with duplicate and worthless restore points.

http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6048545.html
"10 things you should know about Windows XP's System Restore tool"
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-6048545.html
This mentions some VB calls you can make to create a restore point.
This is probably how some programs (that don't install via MSI) start a
restore point before they continue their installation. Now ask in a
Visual Basic newsgroup on how to wrap these instructions in a program,
and then call that program in an event in Task Scheduler.

Do NOT rely on restore points to fully recover your computer. That is
not for what it was designed. If you have left enable System Restore
then you should also be employing a separate backup strategy for your
host to provide full recovery.

 

[Mark F]

I would like to set up the creation of a restore point automatically
on a daily basis, but so far I haven't been able to figure out a
procedure to do so.

Restore points are already scheduled (plus they can occur during
software installs [that uses MSI] or when done manually). A "system
checkpoint" is ran every 24 calendar hours. Just because a restore
point is scheduled every 24 hours doesn't mean there will be one created
every day. Something has to change on your computer to qualify the
expenditure of data bus bandwith, CPU overhead, and disk consumption to
create a restore point; otherwise, you end up generating a bunch of
duplicate and superfluous restore points.

So why would you want to throw away usable restore points just to have a
bunch of duplicate ones stored on the disk? As you generate more
restore points, eventually the old ones get discarded to make room for
the new ones.

I thought only the changed files were stored, so the only extra stuff
is the minimal information needed to indicate that a new restore point
was made.

I find that long before the (not reserved) space that restore points
use is filled up, something happens that makes Windows (XP, at least)
decide to delete all of the restore points.

 

[VanguardLH]

I thought only the changed files were stored, so the only extra stuff
is the minimal information needed to indicate that a new restore point
was made.

I find that long before the (not reserved) space that restore points
use is filled up, something happens that makes Windows (XP, at least)
decide to delete all of the restore points.

There are differences between how System Restore works in Windows XP
versus Windows Vista/7; however, old restore points do get deleted. It
may be that restore points are delta backups usable only for rollback.
That is, you use the recorded changes to revert the state of a host.
You are walking backwards. That is not the same as starting with a full
backup and walking forward through a differential or through multiple
incrementals. With a restore from full backup through incrementals, you
ensure you end up with a coherent fileset. With rollback, the fileset
may no longer be coherent because the delta backup only recorded some of
the changes, not all of them. XP was worse for this because it was very
limited as to what files it would monitor for changes and where they
were. Vista/7 is more encompassing of files in other locations but does
NOT include all changed files. Even in Vista/7, you could rollback and
end up with an incoherent fileset. System Restore does NOT replace
doing image backups to get the host back EXACTLY to a prior state.

Under Windows XP, a maximum amount of allocated disk space (for
potential use but not immediately reserved) would limit how many restore
points could be saved. A registry value (RPLifeInterval) defined the
maximum age to keep a restore point (default = 90 days). Has this
changed in Vista/7?

I know only from what I've read of Microsoft's explanation of System
Restore on how it works, and that isn't as technically detailed as I
would like. Of course, there might be something over at MSDN that would
probably quickly go over my head to understand. System Restore can be a
godsend to repair a host but it can also lead to problems that aren't
found until later (so much so that typically the user won't associate
the problem with having done a restore point recover a long time ago).
I prefer image backups to ensure that I really do recover a partition
back to a specific state.

If System Restore were a delta backup (for rollback only or walking
backward to restore host state), what happens when you select to use a
restore point that isn't the latest one? The files have still changed
after that restore point (as evidenced by the later restore point) but
they won't be recorded in the prior restore point (because those files
changed later, not before the restore point was saved). I don't recall
there was interdependence on restore points that you must have the later
restore points after the one you select (so the rollback would track
through all the changes to then unchange them all). If some files were
tracked by restore point #1 and different files were tracked by restore
point #2 and you selected to restore back to restore point #1, what
about all the changed files that only restore point #2 knows about? I
know that old restore points get deleted (from expiration or lack of
disk space).

I don't know if System Restore has a weak point in that later restore
points must exist to select and use an earlier restore point. What
happens if a restore point is lost, deleted, or corrupted? Obviously
you can't use that restore point but does that also mean you cannot use
any of the earlier restore points, too? This weakness may be why
Microsoft doesn't expose restore point management to users. If they
deleted a restore point then none of the earlier ones would be usable.
I see in CCleaner that they let the user pick a specific restore point
to delete. Well, if that doesn't corrupt the restoration process (a big
*if*) then that makes it appear (this author believes) that restore
points are independent and that would mean they are full backups, not
incrementals; i.e., for them to be independent (not used together to
rollback across several restore points) would mean each has to record
everything (of what they do record). I've never use CCleaner to delete
a specific restore point and then test if I can use an earlier restore
point - and get a valid restore). If I deleted a later restore point
and there were only delta backups, a restore to an earlier restore point
wouldn't revert the changed files that were recorded in the now deleted
restore point. If the restore points are delta backups, it sure looks
like there would be a mess of files that got restored if any restore
points leading back to the selected one were missing. If the restore
points are full backups then they are independent and deleting a restore
point won't affect the ability to use another one.