Dual Booting Windows XP and the loss of restore points.

When dual booting Windows XP with another operating system there are conditions where restore points will be deleted. This can happen when when changes are made to a partition that Windows XP is set to monitor. What happens when Windows XP is running, in real time, a log is being created or updated that tracks the consistency between the files and folders System Restore is monitoring, and the files and folders that are actually backed up and saved to the System Volume Information folder.

Here are a few scenarios that can cause restore point deletion in Windows XP.

Scenario 1:

In this case Windows XP is installed twice in a dual boot environment and both have access to a partition used to share applications which both Windows XP’s are set to monitor.

Boot into XP1.

• Add or Update an application that is located in the App1 (application) partition. All along System Restore has been monitoring these changes and updating it's log. This is all good.
• Now that you are done, shut down XP1.

Boot to XP2.

• In the process System Restore checks for consistency between monitored files and the last log created by System Restore. Well sure enough an inconsistency is found within the App1 partition. In turn this causes the restore point chain to become broken and all existing restore points to become corrupt. System Restore deals with this by deleting all existing restore points in XP2.

Boot back into XP1.

• Inconsistency's found, all restore points deleted in XP1.

To avoid this, do not let either operating system monitor a partition where changes can be made while the operating system is shutdown. The best advise is not not monitor any partition other than the one it is installed on.

Scenario 2:

In this case Windows XP is installed twice in a dual boot environment and both are set to monitor each others partition.

Boot into XP1.

• For whatever reason a monitored file or folder gets changed.
• Shut down XP1

Boot into XP2.

• Because XP2 is monitoring the OS1 partition an inconsistency if found, and all restore points are deleted within XP2.

To avoid this, don't let XP1 monitor the XP2 partition, and visa versa. Remember the best advise.

Scenario 3:

In this case Windows XP and Windows 2000 are installed in a dual boot environment and Window XP is set to monitor the partition Windows 2000 is installed on.

Boot into W2K.

• Copy some downloaded applications or other monitored file(s) to the XP partition so they will be there next time you boot into XP.
• Shutdown W2K.

Boot into XP.

• Inconsistency's found... Unless of course System Restore was disabled in XP.

Restore point loss could be caused by something as simple as a antivirus or disk management application moving or removing monitored files on a partition that can be monitored by operating system that utilizes System Restore and is shut down.

So the key here is to avoid making any changes to a partition that System Restore is monitoring it.

The workarounds:

• This workaround will require some advanced computer skills and 3rd party software!

The goal here is to remove or hide one partition from the other in a dual boot or multi-boot environment. This is where the 3rd party software comes into play. BooIit NG (or BING) from Terabyte Unlimited is a partition and multi-boot manager with a powerful and simple-to-use set of tools for partitioning, imaging, and multi-booting your computer.

• BootIt NG tutorial videos
• Support for BootIt NG
• Terabyte Support Newsgroups
• An Introduction to BootIt NG
• Purchase BootIt NG
• Use a Virtual PC application such as Microsoft Virtual PC.

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Dual booting in Windows Vista

Copyright © 2005 - 2008 Bert Kinney