My brother stumbled on this disturbing item which caused a number of others to chime in that this apparently is not an unusual problem.
I did a clean install of Win7 about 3 1/2 weeks ago and have had no problems. 2 days ago I discovered that no system restore points were available. After spending many hours researching the issue, I’ve taken the following steps but none have helped:
1. Completely uninstalled AVG and installed Microsoft Security Essentials.
2. Tried turning off System Restore, rebooting, turning it back on.
3. Checked the SR schedule in Task Scheduler, all seems fine. It creates restore points just fine, it just won’t keep them on reboot.
4. Scanned computer thoroughly with three different anti-malware programs, no problems found.
5. Did a sfc /scannnow, no problems reported.
One guy contacted Microsoft with this rather bizarre answer and (not unexpected) request for money to research their problem:
Microsoft thought this might have something to do with my domain it but would not troubleshoot it for me without paying the fee, which I cannot afford.
Posted using a Mac
uMMM,
HAHAHAHAHAHA..
sorry.
DOS was awesome.. I remember it just worked.
If you installed Vista and XP in a dual-boot configuration, XP would delete all of the Vista restore points every time it booted.
This was the reason that MS recommended that you not set up Vista in dual boot.
I’m sure that this is related. Somehow.
Obviously your problems began when you chose Micro$oft, but you aggravate the problem by using M$ to fix M$. Try ccleaner to scan your registry, or XP Antipsy (yes they both work on 7) to reactivate it.
I’m taking it for granted that your hard drive is large enough and you have System Restore configured to use the appropriate amount of it.
Finally I encourage you to use Ubuntu and open source where ever possible.
Anyone who uses M$ automatically loses any credibility they might have.
Back to the actual problem (not the bigoted lintard and mactard ones), just suck it down.
Compared to XP and Vista to a lesser extent, 7 is so more stable you shouldn’t need to use system restore, it always did weird stuff anyhow.
Just don’t use any stupid system utilities (like XP AntiSpy) registry cleaners etc, you know, the ones that DO NOTHING, and you’ll never need system restore anyhow.
And as with **ANY OS**, make sure you have backups of documents/files you can’t afford to lose on an external drive/NAS, and use DropBox – its free and works brilliantly.
I’ve got win 7/64 on one hard drive and win XP on a different hard drive. Shy of dual booting as I need to set boot order in the bios to select OS.
As I’ve upgraded over the years from Win 95, its always fun to see what works/doesn’t work/how it works from one OS to the next.
So far–yes Win7 is the most stable OS I have seen in the Win family. BUT–drag and drop doesn’t work for Super video converter which is irritating. Few other similar type glitches like I don’t think it multi-tasks as smoothly as win XP/32 does. When transcoding with Super, trying to edit a video file sometimes gets so jerky I just wait until the transcoding is over. Never an issue in win XP.
Also interesting how many of the “features” I have disabled to regain “my control” over the system rather than default functions that gunk things up. I was going to go back to Win XP before I learned to disable the library function so that my drives would “open up” in less than 60 secs. Irritating again.
Pro’s and Con’s in everything we do.
[deleted for violation of blog guidelines]
#5 Zybch
Did you even read the post? Do you know what System Restore is? System Restore isn’t for file backup, it’s to restore windows configurations in general, and if you’ve never used it, you probably have little or no experience with windows. I’m sure Dropbox is a fine product, but it certainly wouldn’t help here.
#3, XP deleting the restore points is still true. The “fix” is to make the 7 drive invisible to XP. This is, IMO, a stupid problem that should never have happened.
My primary Win 7 production machine has a big pile of restore points, but a test machine that dual boots has just one. Any points I created are deleted when I boot XP.
Bobbo…check your list of RPs in 7…if XP can see them on an attached drive they might be gone.
#8 Yes, and sometimes IT SCREWS UP. Especially if you choose a restore point more than about 2 weeks past you are modifying a LOT of stuff in the registry (god I hate that thing) and moving all kinds of files and settings about.
Its simply not worth the hassle for the minimal benefits it gives, just don’t use any stupid dodgy utility programs, and backup backup backup.
No mention of what type of license you bought with Win7. If you get a “system builders” license, you essentially get NO support from MS without paying for it, so no surprises there. Second, if you’re running AD on a server license that you haven’t paid the full license for, again you’re gonna get nicked for support. I also suspect your licensing isn’t really paid for at all, meaning you’re lucky the license Nazis like the BSA aren’t on your butt.
Now, if you do buy FULL licenses and extended support for Enterprises, yeah, MS support is generally excellent.
I’ve never found restore points all that useful, myself. Better to just create an image backup of a clean build with all drivers and software, and then place “My Documents” on an alternate drive.
#10 Zybch
I’ve been working with windows forever. Not bragging just a fact. I’m no fan of M$, but if you’re going to work in my field there’s no getting around windows. System restore is one of the best ideas M$ has ever had (as opposed to bought or stolen). I’ve recovered hundreds of ‘kidnapped’ systems (mostly XP), and while system restore alone didn’t get the job done it sure made it much faster. The only time it gave me problems was on those occasions that the virus or trojan in question had corrupted the restore files.
zybch…system restore works perfectly well on systems being used to perform a task or get a job done. It won’t work so well on systems that are primarily used as technical playgrounds.
I tested this on my Windows 7 64 bit system and restore works as expected. All my restore points are still there after a reboot.
Tom
I had this problem. Some third-party software caused it, but I was never able to fix the problem or figure out what program caused it. I suspect the cause was a Google Chrome install and uninstall because that definitely did cause other problems; most notably breaking all links in Outlook email. And it was just after uninstalling Chrome that the problem was discovered. But I can not definitely say Chrome caused it.
This was *not* a dual-boot problem, I don’t dual boot. This was *not* a third-party disk defragger problem, those I use work fine without breaking system restore. This was *not* a disk space or system restore allocation problem, I have a 1TB HD with 20 GB for system restore.
I fixed it by a wipe-and-reload, this time without Chrome. The problem has not reappeared. Microsoft help = zero.
System restore is a backup mechanism and, unless needed, one may not notice it’s not working. I wanted to use it to back out the system changes that Chrome messed up – exactly the type of thing system restore is supposed to do. It failed.
Like all backup safety equipment, one should not rely on system restore; it is *backup*, not everyday operational software.
It this a Windows 7 bug? Probably not, but “Viruses” are not a Windows bug either. Even the vaunted Unix and Linux system can brought down by a bad configuration file. Windows is so much more fragile due to Microsoft’s policies of trying to support every program even written. (How many ‘shims’ are in Windows 7 – 10,000? 50,000? I forget.)
But it usually works, and that’s the main thing. (I just got a program I wrote over 20 years ago that is still in use by a client running under 64-Bit Windows 7. Written in dBase II/Clipper/DOS, an impressive demonstration of backward compatibility. oh – and it runs very fast! :-))
Always easy to blame the OS base solely on ignorance alone.
Dual boots can be dodgey, this being one issue. Also this can happen if you install over an older OS.
I’ve moved to relying on on/off site backups. Also, since I need different versions of Windows I use VMWare and clean images quite a bit.
@zybch:
Anyone who uses “M$” to refer to Microsoft automatically loses any credibility they might have.
How old are you that you are still referring to MS that way?
@zybch
My bad. I meant my last post to #4 — amodedoma.
I asked around. Microsoft’s KB entry is actually pretty good. Also, apparently some disk defrag utilities can wipe them out as well.
Overall, I’ve always found Windows System Restore Point thing to be a little finicky.
System restore is only an “Emergency Repair” tool called upon by the OS when there is a major malfunction and you need to backtrack a driver or software installation. It is NOT meant for backup of any type. After several successful reboots without a BSD or other OS malfunction, restore points are automatically deleted because the system is working properly, and a restore point actually becomes a negative item, possibly stepping on other items that have taken place after the restore point and screwing things up.
Users should not be accessing ‘restore points’, they need a good system backup.
The only time that system restore should be used for anything is when you are given the option to use it during bootup because the system itself notices a problem.
Awake, good advice.
#15 bb said, “Windows is so much more fragile due to Microsoft’s policies of trying to support every program even written.”
Here! Here! The legacy files in Win 7 must be humongous.
My wish list for Win 8:
1) Stop supporting pre-XP software and equipment
2) Get rid of the registry
Animby, that would be great. I think the real anchor of Microsoft’s business is their corporate customers. They are desperately trying to move a legacy of corporations that move a glacial speeds and still have tons of applications built on old DLL’s talking to 20-40 year old legacy systems.
Needless to say, the smart stuff you suggest ain’t going to happen too quickly.
Have Windows 7 in both x64 and x32 flavors installed on 6 different machines and haven’t had any problem as described with System Restore. I don’t think its unreasonable for Microsoft to charge money for tech support for a problem that is obviously one unique to the users configuration. Bashing Microsoft for doing so is silly and unfair since Apple charges for what are basically service packs to OSX. Of course no one ever said this site had anything to do with fair or accurate reporting.
All the bases have pretty much been covered here except maybe one, that restore points were a major cause of computer virus re-infection and that by making them perishable under Windows 7, Microsoft have significantly improved the overall security of the system. As far as the comments from the “M$” haters go, grow up, your angry little OS cult is too weird and spooky to ever be popular. Stick to flaming help site comment pages and trolling Slashdot into bankruptcy.
#2: DOS just worked. LOL. I remember the days, fiddling with boot disks to get a program (well, mainly games) to work. Trying to load high different drivers until it would have enough base memory space to work. Oh, and every program had to have its own special drivers fro printers and so on, instead of one driver for the OS. That was not a dream. More of a multi-year nightmare. Overall, I have had a better experience on 32-bit Windows, especially starting with Windows 2000 (which I though was the best). Still, XP and so on have their minor disasters.
I just fear that iPhones, iPads, and Android are very successful, and that may be the future of computer OSes. Consumers seem pretty good at it, but it is not an OS I would want.
I think this is actually a pretty interesting thread.
M$ haters and Mac Fanboi haters: I get a lot of flack on this blog about using a Mac and Windows. People are stupid and it goes both ways. pedro even takes personal shots at my family because of it. When it comes down to it, I would rather be using any computer today than 10 years ago, even with the problems that crop up. I spent three days mainly using the current Ubuntu last week and it was a far better experience than a Windows 2000.
EricPhillips made some astute remarks. I think the tablet and smartphone computing move will lead to “simpler” OS’s for consumers. It’s an appealing model in some ways – you run into a problem with your device and you wipe, reimage, and re-add programs and data from backup. Right now it’s tethered to something like iTunes but eventually there will be other options.
I see a split coming. Enterprises want “serious computers” and consumers want “fun computers” and specialized gaming machines. At work you want Office, at home you don’t want to look at a spreadsheet. At home you want the web, social networking, vids and pics, music, and games.
iPhones, Androids, tablets, cloud, netbooks, consoles, and amazing hardware make for some really interesting times in the next few years. Personally I think it’s going to be a lot more interesting than the last 10 years.
#21 – how does having an “emergency repair” system restore point become a negative?
Uncle Dave: I have the same problem. I’m running Win7 (32-bit) with AVG anti-virus. I just checked for System Restore points – there weren’t any (although it is switched on for drive C:). So I created one. Then I rebooted. Gone.
Of course I do have an external backup which does continuous backups.
Easy fix. Cheapest, install Ubuntu Better option, but more money, buy a Mac. Windows was and continues to be plagued by issues. Its days in the consumer market are numbered, the simple App model on the ipad and upcoming Android devices will be how the average household will using computing. Windows is simply too complex and prone to failure and hijinks to continue to maintain its place as a consumer product. The ipad model is what most people want in home computing.