Window S 7 – Restore Points Disappear On Restarting The Computer

[Mobi]

I have W7 OS. My problem is that all restore points that have been created by the system (i.e. after Windows updates), or manually ( by me), disappear when I re-start the PC. Restore points created when I do a full W7 back-up, are NOT deleted , but all others are.

I have researched this subject extensively on both in Windows forums and on knowledge based help screens and generally on the net and have established the following.

• Restore points created as explained above should not disappear on re-starting. Only the oldest ones may be removed from time to time due to lack of space. There is no lack of space on my system. Disc C has 80 GB of free space and D has 300 GB.

• I have reinstalled W 7 (genuine) and there is no illegal software on my PC. The Pc is now very clean and free of 3rd party software.

• Many of the W 7 forums mention that DUAL BOOT problems can be the cause of restore points being deleted. These dual booting problems usually relate to users originally having Vista and then installing W 7, or having XP and then installing windows 7 on the same PC.

As mentioned above, I have reinstalled a clean copy of w7 on my PC but I am still experiencing the deletion of all restore points. (Except for those created after a full back-up)

Now a brief history of my dual boot:

I was originally running XP on this PC and then installed W7 RC on my PC, sometime in 2009. For a period of time I was running both systems, using a dual boot facility. When I purchased genuine W 7, I accidentally installed it over Windows XP, which meant that I had Windows RC and W7 as my two boot options. I then went into disc management and tried to delete the partition containing RC. As far as I can recall, I used some external software to try and delete the partition containing RC but was not successful. I could not delete the partition, but I reformatted it and then reduced it in size down to 9mb, as it would not delete completely. Then I created a new partition D. So my pc now has the following partitions:

• C : 99.9 GB containing W7 OS, recently installed. HEALTHY (SYSTEM, BOOT, PAGE FILE, ACTIVE, CRASH DUMP, PRIMARY PARTITION)

• D: 200 GB. Free space .HEALTHY (LOGICAL DRIVE)

• NEW: 9 mb HEALTHY (LOGICAL DRIVE) This originally contained W 7RC, but is now re-formatted and contains nothing.

Upon starting the PC, a screen appears showing two booting options. They are both entitled ‘Windows 7’ but after a few seconds the PC will default to the upper of the two options, which is the correct one. (The lower option used to boot to Windows 7 RC which is no longer there.)

From my research I can only surmise that the failure of the restore point facility to function properly is due to this dual boot option. However, despite thorough research I have failed to come up with a method which will successfully remove the dual boot option and make the PC revert to a single boot screen.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[garyh]

Have you tried ticking the box to show more restore points?

[Mobi]

Yes, of course I have. Whenever I restart the PC and open the 'restore' window I get the message that there are NO restore points. I don't even have the option of ticking a box. I only get that option if there have been several restore points created prior to me re-starting the pc.

I have been aware of this problems for months, and it has probably been there ever since I installed W7 but thought that a reformat of my disk and a clean install of W7 would solve the problems.

But it hasn't.

[garyh]

Sorry I was just trying to help, as you said "Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated"

[opalhort]

My son has the same problem. I kept on pushing him to create restore points whenever he installs a new game or something but after re-start all restore points were gone.

At that time I did a search and found that this is normal WIN7 behavior but there seem to some third party free software available which does the job of crating and keeping the restore points on WIN7.

[Supernova]

Now a brief history of my dual boot:

I was originally running XP on this PC and then installed W7 RC on my PC, sometime in 2009. For a period of time I was running both systems, using a dual boot facility. When I purchased genuine W 7, I accidentally installed it over Windows XP, which meant that I had Windows RC and W7 as my two boot options. I then went into disc management and tried to delete the partition containing RC. As far as I can recall, I used some external software to try and delete the partition containing RC but was not successful. I could not delete the partition, but I reformatted it and then reduced it in size down to 9mb, as it would not delete completely. Then I created a new partition D. So my pc now has the following partitions:

• C : 99.9 GB containing W7 OS, recently installed. HEALTHY (SYSTEM, BOOT, PAGE FILE, ACTIVE, CRASH DUMP, PRIMARY PARTITION)

• D: 200 GB. Free space .HEALTHY (LOGICAL DRIVE)

• NEW: 9 mb HEALTHY (LOGICAL DRIVE) This originally contained W 7RC, but is now re-formatted and contains nothing.

Upon starting the PC, a screen appears showing two booting options. They are both entitled ‘Windows 7’ but after a few seconds the PC will default to the upper of the two options, which is the correct one. (The lower option used to boot to Windows 7 RC which is no longer there.)

The Windows boot loader shouldn't be displaying multiple OSes to begin with. Since you're no longer running dualboot, why not start over? During the installation process, make sure you delete all system partitions (where the host operating system resides).

The only partition you'd wanna keep is the one used for data storage -- that is, if one exists.

Drive options (advanced)

You can create, delete, and format partitions here.

Image Credit: BlackViper

Edited December 22, 2010 by Supernova

[Mobi]

Sorry I was just trying to help, as you said "Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated"

No sweat. thanks for the suggestion - I do appreciate it, I'm just sometimes a grumpy old man feeling somewhat frustrated that i cannot solve this problem...

[Mobi]

Ok, I've made some progress.

I think we can now rule out the dual boot as causing the problem.

Following advice using the Windows help and support screens, I went into 'disk management', hit the boot tab and there was a list a list of 2 boot options, windows 7 on C and also on D. I deleted the D option (as per windows instructions) and the dual boot has finally gone. Now when I start the PC it is a single boot, straight to W7.

I also reformatted D again, using the long method as apparently the 'quick' reformat doesn't remove everything.

I then set a manual restore point as well as having a system restore following the reformatting of D. I re-checked and both restore points were listed. I then re-started the PC and both restore points have been zapped.

Back to square one....

Any new ideas anyone????

[Mobi]

My son has the same problem. I kept on pushing him to create restore points whenever he installs a new game or something but after re-start all restore points were gone.

At that time I did a search and found that this is normal WIN7 behavior but there seem to some third party free software available which does the job of crating and keeping the restore points on WIN7.

thanks you may be right, but it isn't right - if you know what I mean. I have looked at the forums and many people have this problem and I can't find any clear solution from the W7 geeks.

If it is a bug, why haven't they fixed it? Most people, like me, wouldn't even realise their restore points were disappearing unless they had reason to check - like I did when I accidentally overwrote a very important file and then it was too late to solve the problem. My file was lost forever because of an apparent Windows bug that nobody can satisfactorily explain or fix. :realangry:

[steve187]

have you got restore points switched on?, and have you got enough space allocated to restore, see system properties, and then system protection.

If so delete all restore points and switch off system restore, and then reboot and switch restore back on again, then create a new restore point.

Good luck

Edited December 22, 2010 by steve187

[Crossy]

Sorry I can't be much help.

My restore points don't vanish, they get created whenever an update is loaded, sometimes when software is loaded (and when I ask), this is normal Win7 operation.

[Supernova]

I think we can now rule out the dual boot as causing the problem.

It was never a problem to begin with, since you "accidentally installed Win7 over your existing XP installation."

Dual booting XP and Vista/Win7?

Click here if your restore points are being deleted.

[Mobi]

Sorry I can't be much help.

My restore points don't vanish, they get created whenever an update is loaded, sometimes when software is loaded (and when I ask), this is normal Win7 operation.

yes, this is normal and is what is supposed to happen. It even happens on my PC. the only problem is that they vanish every time i re-start the PC.

[Mobi]

have you got restore points switched on?, and have you got enough space allocated to restore, see system properties, and then system protection.

If so delete all restore points and switch off system restore, and then reboot and switch restore back on again, then create a new restore point.

Good luck

Hope you didn't read my first reply and if so I apologise. I have now found out how to do as you suggested.

I deleted all restore points, (not that there were any anyway), switched off system restore, rebooted, switched sytem restore back on, created a new restore point, and rebooted again.

Same result - new restore point has vanished....

On the space issue - yes there is enough space, someone was kind enough to tell me how to check this ages ago.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Mobi

[Mobi]

please note that this is a common problem - not just me. If you Google you will see that many users have had a similar problem and there seems to be no useful solution. The only suggested cause has been multi boot issues, but I have eliminated that as the cause on my system.

[Supernova]

Check this blog entry from the Microsoft Product Quality Team.

[BB1950]

It's a well known problem with VSS when a Vista/Win 7 system disk is accessed from a non Vista/Win7 operating system.

I have the same problem when I use my backup software which is running on a Linux system.

The links above mention how you can do a workaround for a dual boot using Windows XP.

I found rather than using a dual boot it's better to use a Virtual Machine under Windows 7. Before I get the standard reply "You need Windows 7 Ultimate for XP mode" which is correct. You can run Microsoft's Virtual Machine on any version of Windows 7 (except the Starter version). You can then create an XP Virtual Machine using the setup disk for Windows XP. It will integrate into Windows 7 exactly the same as 'XP Mode'. I have done that myself and it does work.

You can download Microsoft's Virtual PC from most download sites, or Microsoft. If you download it from Microsoft you need to select the host machine as Ultimate or Enterprise in order to download it. Do not download XP Mode as it will only install on the Enterprise or Ultimate versions of Windows 7. There are hacks, but it just is not worth it.

Be sure not to confuse "Microsoft Virtual PC 2007' with 'Microsoft Virtual PC'. Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 does not integrate into Windows 7, the clients do not have access to USB ports, and the graphics capabilities on the clients are limited.

There are two other free Virtual Machine options that integrate well into Windows 7, VMPlayer and VirtualBox. There is a controversy over which is the better of the two. For integration features, I tend to favor VMPlayer over VirtualBox.

[Mobi]

Check this blog entry from the Microsoft Product Quality Team.

Thank you Supernova for the link.

It is sort of comforting to know that so many people from all over the world have experienced the same problem.

Upon reading your linked thread and other forums, it is seemingly caused by a number of totally unconnected issues.

I have now thoroughly checked all the obvious issues, i.e insufficient shadow storage space (now set at a whopping 30GB), problems with a dual boot (now removed) and a corrupt page file ( I disabled it and unlike some users, it failed to solve my problem).

There was one interesting post from a user who had installed two identical copies of W7 on 2 separate machines. On one p.c. he reformatted the drive and did a clean install. On the second machine he did an install on a PC which previously contained XP. and he did not reformat the disk prior to installation. (same as me). he found that the restore points on the first PC (the one with the reformatted disk) worked OK and didn't vanish on re-boot and on the second PC, the restore points vanished on re-boot. He also observed that many of the users who have reported this problem have been through the same process - i.e installed Windows 7 on a disk previously containing XP.without reformatting the disk.

The further advice from the Microsoft experts includes lines and lines of geeky instructions on how to diagnose where the problem is and even more complex instructions on how to fix it. Apart from it taking many more hours of my time to work through all these suggestions, I am sure i would get lost as my technical expertise in this area is sketchy to say the least. It is just beyond me. You would think that with such a wide spread problems that they would have issued users with a patch or whatever that would fix the problem.

As a final throw of the dice I am prepared to start again and reinstall Windows on a reformatted disk and see if that solves the probLEM

Reason for edit; I originally asked how to reformat my C Drive but I have now found the answer. I can do it as part on the w7 install by clicking "driver options".

Edited December 23, 2010 by Mobi

[Supernova]

The further advice from the Microsoft experts includes lines and lines of geeky instructions on how to diagnose where the problem is and even more complex instructions on how to fix it. Apart from it taking many more hours of my time to work through all these suggestions, I am sure i would get lost as my technical expertise in this area is sketchy to say the least. It is just beyond me. You would think that with such a wide spread problems that they would have issued users with a patch or whatever that would fix the problem.

Well said. Unfortunately, there's no real "solution" to this issue (not yet at least). Checked all my usual sources and have come up empty handed.

My only problem is: How do I reformat Partition C before doing the new install? At present it contains my Windows OS and the disk management facility will not allow me to reformat it.

You can manage your partitions during the installation process. See the screenshots I posted.

[Supernova]

Reason for edit; I originally asked how to reformat my C Drive but I have now found the answer. I can do it as part on the w7 install by clicking "driver options".

Assuming this hard drive has no personal data on it, I suggest you delete every partition on there. Otherwise, select partition C and click Delete. Once you've done this, click "New" to create a new partition (RAW). Enter the size in gigabytes (20GB minimum). You don't need to format the partition, Windows Setup will do this automatically.

Edited December 23, 2010 by Supernova

[Mobi]

:partytime2:

At long last my bloody restore points are not getting zapped when I re- boot!! So far i have re-started 3 times and all the restore points created by windows updates and by me are still there after each re-boot.

I did a new install of W7, but when I got to "driver options" I re-formatted Drive C before continuing with the new install. Clearly if you have previously installed XP in the same drive and you don't reformat, this problem will occur, no matter how many times you reinstall W7.

In all the Windows forums I have looked at, I have not found any succinct information from the Microsoft geeks on this problem.They just write pages of instructions on how to trace the problem and suggest possible solutions. They even say that if all else fails you should re-install but are silent on the subject of re-formatting the disk.

It took a Frenchman who installed two French versions of W7 on two separate Pc's to resolve my problem. His own experience plus his observation of other users' problems led him to the solution.

I will never say a bad word about the French again.

Many thanks to Supernova and the others who have led me to a resolution of a problem that has been bugging me for months.

[Mighty Mouse]

If you have read many forums re this problem, you have probably already read this advice that I found on-line...

My problem with disappearing restore points (Windows 7) is resolved. I chatted with ms Windows 7 support and they did two things:

(1) Made sure 'System Restore' (SR) had all the authority it needed: system restore icon-> right click-> properties->click to security tab and put checks in all auth columns

(2) gave SR all the space it wanted: within the 'Search programs and Files' of the START menu type 'create restore point' -> click on link found for 'create restore point' -> Custom->stretch slider ALL the WAY to right (max). apply, Reboot. Go back to 'create restore point' and create one and reboot. See i restore point is there. Mine was hope yours is.

Note: this is clearly a Windows problem. You should NOT have to specify all you available free space to this component or chage it's Auth. Both will surely come back and haunt you. If this solves it for many others then someone should open a bug under MS Windows 7.

Hope this helps others!

If all else fails, why not install a brand new hard drive and start again from scratch.

[Supernova]

In all the Windows forums I have looked at, I have not found any succinct information from the Microsoft geeks on this problem.They just write pages of instructions on how to trace the problem and suggest possible solutions. They even say that if all else fails you should re-install but are silent on the subject of re-formatting the disk.

That's why I suggested a re-install. Reformatting (or repartitioning for that matter) is a given since installing over an existing installation would eventually lead to problems.

Anyhow, congratulations on getting things working again!

[Mobi]

In all the Windows forums I have looked at, I have not found any succinct information from the Microsoft geeks on this problem.They just write pages of instructions on how to trace the problem and suggest possible solutions. They even say that if all else fails you should re-install but are silent on the subject of re-formatting the disk.

That's why I suggested a re-install. Reformatting (or repartitioning for that matter) is a given since installing over an existing installation would eventually lead to problems.

Anyhow, congratulations on getting things working again!

Thanks.

Just bye the bye - if you look at Microsoft's step by step instructions on how to install Windows 7 onto a drive that contains XP, they DO NOT tell you to reformat the drive. Provided there is enough space on the drive you are specifically instructed to proceed with the install without reformatting. (This is in the instructions which are expressly tailored to those who currently have XP on their system drive.) They only tell you to go into the "driver options' if you receive a message that there is insufficient room on the drive.

IMHO, they should urgently review their instructions , given the havoc they seem to be causing worldwide......

[Mobi]

Post Script

I have been busy spending most of Christmas loading up all my software, and FF add-on's, plug-ins etc and halfway through today I thought I’d check again to see if my restore points werer still being saved on re-start.

Horror upon horror – they had all disappeared!!

I had a sinking feeling in my heart but I didn't panic. Either something I had downloaded had caused the problem (didn’t seem very likely) or maybe the system had grown, due to all the additional software programmes I had downloaded, and the shadow copy was no longer large enough to save the restores.

After I created a couple of restore points and before re-starting the PC I checked the shadow copy limit by using the command prompt:

Vssadmin list shadowstorage

I found that the allocated space was only around 5GB and all of it had been used by the restore points I had created. I tried to increase the allocated space but received a message in the command box that I could now set the limit to ‘UNBOUND’ by typing this word as the new ‘limit’:

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /On=C: /For=C: /Maxsize=unbound

The command was accepted and I now have no limit on the amount of shadow storage space.

I then restarted the Pc and the restore points were still there. I have done this a number of times since with more restore points being created by the system as I install new software, and all of them remain on restart.

I have not seen this 'Unbound' command quoted in any of the W7 forums and it was quite strange that I received advice on it in my command prompt window. Seems like it must have got into my system by way of a W7 update. As Mighty mouse quoted, there is no way I should have to do any of this to create room for restore points. I suppose setting the system to 'unbound' is the new 'fix'.

[steve187]

with 'unbound' restore space, will that not hog all the harddrive space?,would you need to delete all restore points on a regular basis?

could you not switch off system restore and use a software program to back-up?

system restore is unreliable, its like insurance - good until you need to use it.

[Mobi]

with 'unbound' restore space, will that not hog all the harddrive space?,would you need to delete all restore points on a regular basis?

could you not switch off system restore and use a software program to back-up?

system restore is unreliable, its like insurance - good until you need to use it.

Yes, I think you are correct about unbound restore space. I have done a bit more research in W7 help and support and have now set my shadow restore space to 20GB, which is 20% of my C disk space. If it goes over this limit, older restores are deleted.

Now it is working the way it should be I reckon it is reliable as any other system.

Of course I will continue to back up the entire system using a full Windows 7 system restore on an external hard disk on a weekly basis. The interim restores made on my C disk are only to save any work done during the week, or in the event of a crash or malfunction, I can restore to a previous point in time without resorting to a full restore of the entire system from my external backup.

For the benefit of anyone following this thread and wondering how to set their system restores, increaae the shadow storage space or how to delete restore points, here is some stuff I copied from W7 help:

How much disk space does System Restore require?

To store restore points, you need at least 300 megabytes (MB) of free space on each disk that is 500 MB or larger.

System Restore might use between three and five percent of the space on each disk. As the amount of space fills up with restore points, System Restore deletes older restore points to make room for new ones.

System Restore does not run on disks smaller than 1 gigabyte (GB).

You can manage the disk space that is used by System Restore by following these steps:

1. Click to open System.

2. In the left pane, click System protection. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. Under Protection Settings, click the disk, and then click Configure.

4. Under Disk Space Usage, move the slider to the right to increase the disk space that system protection can use or move the slider to the left to decrease the disk space.

The system protection settings dialog box, showing disk space usage

Warning

If you decrease the disk space to be smaller than the space that is currently being used by system protection, older restore points, including previous versions of files, will be deleted.

Delete a restore point

You cannot delete an individual restore point, but you can either delete all restore points or all but the most recent restore point. Deleting restore points temporarily frees up disk space. As new restore points are created, disk space will be used again. For information about how to adjust the disk space that is used by restore points, see How much disk space does System Restore require?

When you delete restore points, previous versions of files are also deleted. For more information about previous versions, see Previous versions of files: frequently asked questions.

To delete all restore points

1. Click to open System.

2. In the left pane, click System protection. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. Under Protection Settings, click Configure.

4. Under Disk Space Usage, click Delete.

5. Click Continue, and then click OK.

To delete all but the most recent restore point

1. Click to open Disk Cleanup.

2. If prompted, select the drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.

3. In the Disk Cleanup for (drive letter) dialog box, click Clean up system files. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

4. If prompted, select the drive that you want to clean up, and then click OK.

5. Click the More Options tab, under System Restore and Shadow Copies, click Clean up.

6. In the Disk Cleanup dialog box, click Delete.

7. Click Delete Files, and then click OK.