Could Use a Repair Strategy for Windows 10 System Restore. It’s Broken.

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I don’t know when it happened, but it would have been within the last few months. Windows System Restore breaking on previous versions (before 10) was common enough that I stopped depending on Windows to know how to recover itself. I instead began depending on disc imaging if I wanted to roll back the OS.

Nonetheless, if anyone knows a way to reinstall only the System Restore subsystems I’d be interested in reading about it. Thank you

 

 

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Fred, Mele20

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Have you tried clicking on “System Protection”?

As an aside, your question prompted me to check my system.

My diary shows:

Restore point created on 10 Dec 21

v21H1 installed on 11 Dec 21

03 Jan 22 – just checked and found System Protection switched OFF and all restore points removed.

Insert swear words here…

Thanks for the warning!

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Mele20

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Mr. Austin wrote:

Nonetheless, if anyone knows a way to reinstall only the System Restore subsystems I’d be interested in reading about it. Thank you

There is nothing to reinstall as there is no way to uninstall System Restore.
You can either disable or enable and allocate appropriate disk space.

Windows Updates (maybe kb4023057) deletes user System Restore files and Windows OS create it own every 7-10 days.

I manually create a System Restore file every Sunday.

I manual creating System Restore fails (not due to lack of free space) you can check with Windows Dism, Sfc or repair.

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usualy when there is something wrong, it’s easier to restore a complete image of the Operating System.
Very seldom setting back the SystemRestore file solves the complete problem, imho.

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Alex5723 wrote:

I manually create a System Restore file every Sunday.

Why don’t you use Task Scheduler to create new System Restore points automatically? I have Task Scheduler on Windows 10 Pro run a task to create a new restore point on Monday and Friday of each week at 1:45AM. Currently, I have restore points going back to Nov 26. I limit the amount of space the restore points can use but I have never seen restore points fill up the space I allocate. I don’t really understand how Windows decides to drop off the oldest points at whatever time it chooses when there is plenty of space for more to be saved.

I have desktops, not laptops, and my computers run 24/7/365 as that is best for their health in Hawaii on the ocean with no air conditioning and windows open all the time. With a laptop that is shut down frequently maybe using Task Scheduler for this is not as good of an idea.

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Alex5723 wrote:

usualy when there is something wrong, it’s easier to restore a complete image of the Operating System.

Maybe these days but I have used System Restore immediately after installing some app that I could quickly tell was awful and then didn’t want to uninstall. Sometimes, Restore Points are a godsend and if turned on then the system automatically makes a Restore Point immediately before installation of a new app or update of something like nVidia graphics. In these situations, you don’t need image restore. Besides, I have NEVER, since my first computer 98SE in 1999, had image restore from any of the companies that make that software work correctly if needed. I no longer rely on images because they are, in my experience, too unreliable.

I don’t understand though why System Restore is now a “legacy” program. It wasn’t when I got this computer (December 2017) and I set it up. I’ve used it several times in these past four years. I have also tried to use various imaging programs with no success and I don’t trust them.

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Mele20 wrote:

Why don’t you use Task Scheduler to create new System Restore points automatically?

I create a daily scheduled ShadowCopy (and a daily incremental image backup).
Never got to create a scheduled daily system restore.

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Mr. Austin, Mele20

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So, the day I created this post I created a Restore Point. Then I created another the following day. As of now, two days later, the machine explains that no restore points have been created. Just like in my original post. Microsoft is uninterested in the stock-steady reliability of its OS. Otherwise it would invest the time to make all its systems reliable, instead of making great gobs of cash on its telemetry subsystems for egregious surveillance capitalisms. I have nothing kind to intone about Microsoft.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

Then I created another the following day. As of now, two days later, the machine explains that no restore points have been created

What is the allocated space for System Restore ?
Do you run Windows or 3rd party cleaning tools ?

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Thank you, Alex5723:

As a test, this is the space to which I just set the allocation. If I’d have left it alone it would have defaulted to the max drive space available of 1.82 TB, when at this writing there’s 736 GB of data.

No Windows cleaning tools, or 3rd party cleaning tools are currently running on the system. The one exception I thought of is defragmentation, which I’d left alone for nearly two years. Screenshot below.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Per your screenshot, it appears you have images of your C drive stored on your C drive causing other shadow copies (restore points?) to be deleted faster then normal.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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mledman wrote:

Per your screenshot, it appears you have images of your C drive stored on your C drive causing other shadow copies (restore points?) to be deleted faster then normal.

Because my expectation of Windows is that System Restore should work easily, I’ve never run any Windows box, 7, 8 or 10, which didn’t automatically store its putative restore points on the default system drive.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Restore points are kept on the drive where they are enabled. That generally makes no difference because of the transitory nature of their usefulness. They are meant to aid in recovery from a bad install or bad patch. An image backup should be to another drive either internal or external. Usually, people prefer external for the ease of using multiple backup drives.

--Joe

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Mr. Austin

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joep517 wrote:

Restore points are kept on the drive where they are enabled.

Joe is correct regarding restore points.  The yellow warning seems to indicate system image backups are also stored on the C drive.

Win 11 home - 24H2
Attitude is a choice...Choose wisely

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mledman wrote:

Because my expectation of Windows is that System Restore should work easily, I’ve never run any Windows box, 7, 8 or 10, which didn’t automatically store its putative restore points on the default system drive.

If System Restore doesn’t configure itself automatically, and doesn’t automatically and reliably run, then it’s useless for my purposes. It seems to be another Windows subsystem with abysmal performance.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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With Windows 10, the system restore state is not preserved when there is a feature update. It is disabled and you must re-enable.  I’m tempted to leave it off as I do not think automatic restore point creation is as reliable as it used to be.

 

 

--Joe

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Mr. Austin wrote:

If System Restore doesn’t configure itself automatically, and doesn’t automatically and reliably run, then it’s useless for my purposes

You should allocate no more than 10% for system restore files (just like in post #2410219 above). Allocate the space manually.
System image backups should be created on external HDD drive.
I have also a yellow warning as I create daily shadow copies on C drive (desktop).

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Mr. Austin

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joep517 wrote:

With Windows 10, the system restore state is not preserved when there is a feature update. It is disabled and you must re-enable.  I’m tempted to leave it off as I do not think automatic restore point creation is as reliable as it used to be.

 

 

Thank you. This thread discusses the idea that no matter the steps I did, or did not do, System Restore is failing. I’d already disabled and reenabled it before this thread was started. The first time I recall it malfunctioning was when O&O ShutUp10 told me system restore was turned off. I have no interest in ferreting out event logs, or conducting (probably) endless re-configurations to make system restore function the way it was advertised. If a solution is unavailable via the thoughts in this thread, I’ll just turn it off as a ridonculously-broken Microflabby Winders subsystem.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

The first time I recall it malfunctioning was when O&O ShutUp10 told me system restore was turned off.

So, you are using a 3rd party app that cripples Windows settings.
Restore ShutUp10 changes to default and remove.
Test System Restore.

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Mr. Austin

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Alex5723 wrote:

Mr. Austin wrote:

The first time I recall it malfunctioning was when O&O ShutUp10 told me system restore was turned off.

So, you are using a 3rd party app that cripples Windows settings.
Restore ShutUp10 changes to default and remove.
Test System Restore.

Yah. Thank you. I, too, thought of that idea. But I trust O&O’s software much more than Windows’ inherently sinister telemetries. There could also be other anti-telemetry apps I could install if I remove O&O ShutUp 10.

The legacy of Microsoft’s founder shows that he’d just as soon obliterate all of our rights (and lives) at his earliest possible convenience. So I’ll sleep on these ideas for a while.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Since I’m generally very busy I usually do not post, but when I noticed my Restore points were vanishing, I had to jump in. Occasionally I rely on a restore point especially when new software misbehaves. Sometimes the misbehaving is not noticed for a few days and occasionally it is a different program that gets broken! My “System Protection” is enabled. I created a new restore point this evening. It vanished within 30 minutes. So much for “System Protection“. I wish there was an easy way to tell (yell?) at Microsoft and tell them to fix their System Protection.

 

I use a 3rd party to backup my files. That program (for a fee) can supposedly back up the OS. I might have to give it a try. BTW… I use Windows 10 Pro. Maybe next week I’ll start using a different OS. Don’t want to, but if MS keeps taking away the good things, I just might.

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Have you tried increasing the space allocated for the Restore Points? Perhaps it is running out of space.

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That strategy was suggested (via this thread?) but it failed on my problem machine after testing it.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Mr. Austin wrote:

This thread discusses the idea that no matter the steps I did, or did not do, System Restore is failing. I’d already disabled and reenabled it before this thread was started. The first time I recall it malfunctioning was when O&O ShutUp10 told me system restore was turned off. I have no interest in ferreting out event logs, or conducting (probably) endless re-configurations to make system restore function the way it was advertised. If a solution is unavailable via the thoughts in this thread, I’ll just turn it off as a ridonculously-broken Microflabby Winders subsystem.

My suspicion is that System Restore is slowly falling by the wayside as Microsoft tries to steer users into backing up their data files on MS’s OneDrive servers. I get the sense that their attitude is, “Don’t you worry your little head over maintaining the OS on your computer, we are the experts and we’ll take care of all of this complicated stuff for you.”

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Very soon after I initiated this thread I, too, divined Microsoft’s dishonorable intentions, and its incessant fiddling which breaks things which worked fine. On the Windows 10 box about which this thread started, System Restore and File History failed around the same time *on an otherwise fairly functioning desktop*. Since I already had a license for it, I began using Acronis True Image instead of File History, and I’ve also been taking daily drive images for over a year with EaseUS To Backup Home. I have backups of my backups and multiple restore strategies in case one fails.

Human, who sports only naturally-occurring DNA ~ oneironaut ~ broadcaster

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Fred

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I have the same experience for some years now.
Images are the one thing to be shure of.

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Cybertooth wrote:

My suspicion is that System Restore is slowly falling by the wayside as Microsoft tries to steer users into backing up their data files on MS’s OneDrive servers.

My system restore function (Windows 10 21H2) doesn’t fail.

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System Restore operations are somewhat fragile. Make sure System Restore is turned on, has adequate space (configuration), and then test by creating a restore point.

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