Making Sure that the System Restore Works

Posted on: June 7th, 2010

First of all, let me tell in nutshell what System Restore is (I’ll just abbreviate is as SR from now on).

It’s a function that all Windows versions have starting from Windows XP (XP, Vista, Windows 7), and what it does is it makes “snapshots” of the state of the operating system. In Vista, and Windows 7, SR also capable of making snapshots the state of software applications.

We found this an extremely useful feature in many cases. In Vista and Windows 7 it’s even capable of removing infections (see the article on how to do that).

And in many cases we found it impossible to restore a Windows installation to working condition without SR working. In these cases we had to resort to full reinstall of the whole system!

SR is normally turned on and it’s creating restore points (snapshots) on a regular basis. However, in a few cases it’s either not running, or not making the restore points. This issue is not really noticeable and does not cause any problems during normal operation. However when the need arises to go back you might find yourself out of luck.

So it’d be very wise to check upon the System Restore once in a while. To do that simply click on the Start button and then go All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore. Go and see if there are any recent restore points. With Windows XP you’ll be given 2 choices on the first screen, select the “Restore my computer to an earlier time” and then click next. You will only need to see whether there are recent restore points. You do not need to go through a system restore!! Just close the system restore window once you checked it out.
If you are getting an error and/or warning message, or there are no recent restore points then it needs correcting in order to prevent future unpleasant surprises.

Something you can do

First of all make sure that the System Restore is turned on the C: drive. To do that:

- Right Click on My Computer then Select Properties

- In the “System Properties” box click on the following:

XP: System Restore Tab — The “turn off System Restore” should NOT be checked.

Vista/Win 7: System Protection (on the left) — The protection status should be ON for the drive C:

If the settings are not right then correct them by turning on the System Restore (aka System Protection).

If you can’t turn it on, or the computer still refuses to make restore points then contact us. We can fix it quickly using a remote assistance session.

Did you find this information useful?
Please consider donating.

You can leave a comment for the above article. Comments will not show up automatically but will be reviewed and incorporated into the article if they contain useful information.

cforms contact form by delicious:days