At any point during this troubleshoot procedure you feel uncomfortable, help is a click away

AumHa System Restore Forum

For systems that have Norton 2006 - 2007 applications installed click HERE.

• If Real Player is installed on the system click HERE and update to the latest version.
• If Cenatek RAMDisk is installed, disable system restore from monitoring the RAMDisk partition. How to Disable Monitored Drives.
• Kaspersky Antivirus version 5 has been proven to delete restore points.
• A possible solution may be found HERE.
• If not, install another antivirus application. Click HERE for suggestions.
• IBM Rescue and Recovery with Rapid Restore - Microsoft System Restore "Restore Points" are not preserved or System Restore errors are logged in Event Viewer.
  System Restore's Restore Points are not saved in IBM Rapid Restore Ultra's backup. When restoring using Rapid Restore Ultra, System Restore will log an error message in the Windows Event Viewer and if you start System Restore, any prior System Restore Points are not available.
• For Systems shipped with a Recovery Partition, such as HP, Compaq and Dell, to name a few, DO NOT let system restore monitor these partitions. See Disable Monitored Drives.
• In most cases, it is not advisable to let System Restore monitor drives/partition other than the on Windows is installed on. All restore points will be purged if Any monitored drive/partition falls below 50mb’s of free space.
• How to use the Event Viewer to look for System Restore log’s?
• Keep your system free of Virus and Spyware/malware infection.
• Adjust the Disk Space Used (or data store) by System Restore. By default System Restore will use 12% disk space for most size drives. With new larger drives the data store can get quite large, which has been know to cause problems in System Restore. Setting the data store to just under 1GB should be adequate. Note: Reducing the data store size will purge the oldest restore points on a FIFO (first in first out) bases and leave as many recent restore points as the new size will allow. Restore points over 90 days are purged automatically by default.
• Adjusting the data store to under 500MB’s while installing or uninstalling large application packages could cause the entire data store to be purged, and the loss of all restore points.
• Keep an eye on the data store. Every month or so take a look at the calendar in System Restore and see how far back the oldest available restore point is. Much over two weeks may be more trouble than there worth. With this information adjust the data store size to fit your needs.
• Install the latest Service Pack (SP) for WindowsXP. SP1 (fixes the locked files issue) and SP2 include bug fixes for System Restore.
• From Windows Update
• Order WindowsXP Service Pack 2 on CD
• Download WindowsXP from Microsoft - 266MB’s
• Avoid improper shutdowns. Shutting the power off to a Windows system system while Windows is running can cause files to be deleted or corrupted, particularly if System Restore happens to be in the process of creating a restore point or updating the SR log.
• Use the Start Menu and choose Turn Off Computer then Turn Off.
• Avoid power failures and brownouts.
• Install a battery backup.
• At a minimum shut down the system in foul weather and unplug it from the power source and disconnect the modem from the wall.
• Removable drive issues.
• Do not manually modifying files located in the System Volume Information folder on any drive/partition. These folders are Super hidden for very good reason.
• In a dual or multi booting scenario (for advanced users) NEVER make changes to drives that are being monitored by another operating systems.
• Lastly, periodically test System Restore to confirm it is functioning correctly.

How do I Test System Restore?

Copyright © 2005 - 2008 Bert Kinney