System Restore - Comments Page 2

I too, recently tried to use System Restore, and was very surprised that I couldn't go back to an earlier time frame. Had a very false sense of security. Don't understand why it couldn't complete a restore. My system is XP Home Edition SP2. In fact would like to know what would be the causes for this to happen? I thought I was the only one who encountered this problem. Thanks for any suggestions and recomendations.

I have Windows 98 and I installed Norton Go-Back 3.0. It seems to have worked fairly well on the few times that I have tried it. However, I had to review My Documents and recover each of the updates that I had made (after the resore point) to any of my documents or else I would have lost them. How does Go-Back compare with System Restore?

EDITOR'S NOTE: As I understand it, Go-Back is a backup/restore system. It will restore EVERYTHING, which means that any documents, downloads, music, photos, emails, created after the restore point will be lost. System Restore won't touch My Documents or other personal files.

I made a drastic mistake by trying to restore from MS program. I had windows 98 Second edition on a NEC machine. When I tried to restore I entered the first boot option reinstall windows 98. What I ended up with was basic windows 98 without the bundled extras and lost all my stored files added programs. What a bummer!

EDITOR'S NOTE: Don't confuse reloading your system from a "Restore CD" with the Windows System Restore feature. What you did was to format (wipe the hard disk clean) and re-install from scratch.

Have used GoBack since its inception as a stand alone program by the original GoBack Company. This program and later iterations (up to Norton's GoBack 3) have saved my bacon time and time again. To get to the most recent restore point on any given day (usually w/n a couple of minutes of each other: open GoBack/File Recovery/Disk Drive Recovery/Advanced Disk Drive Restore (recover your disk drive from a complete list of previous date and time). Select the restore point you want and tell it to restore. You should then be back to the point before a problem occurred w/o having to search and restore specific documents. Beautiful part of the program is that you don't have to worry about actually setting a restore point. Everything is automatic.

I had never known System Restore to succeed With Windows ME, and it only worked a couple of times on a Dell computer with Windows XP Home. However, I have had my new computer less than a week, and it has worked well all three times I used it (I was changing settings, downloading freeware, etc.) It SEEMS to me that having a lot of programs on your computer can interfere with System Restore. Now, I set a Restore Point every time I download a new utility, and it seems to work well.

I am running Windows XP Pro. I had the unfortunate problem of machine unable to boot to desktop. Partial boot and then the dreaded blue screen with stop error. Could not get past this point. Solution - boot up in 'Safe' mode via F8. Did a System Restore from 3 days back. Wallah - machine boots to desktop. Doesn't appear to be anything lost and machine now booting normally. Have updated my back up - just in case.

System Restore never worked for me when I used Win Me. I had to reformat my hard disk every time I had a serious problem. Now I have installed WinXP PRO SP2 and it is remarkably, for a Microsoft product, stable and reliable. However, I do daily antivirus and antispyware scans plus weekl ydefragment my hard disk. So far this routine has ensured smooth and fast boot up of Win XP, without the need for a sytem restore.

Like a few other commentors, I have Winows XP (Home on a laptop and Pro on a desktop). Recently, both systems had [diffent] problems and I keep getting the message "System Restore could not restore yout system to the previous point. No changes were made." on both no matter how far back I went in time. There must be some kind of rules concerning how and when System Restore works but I couldn't find them. Bob, can you dig a bit deeper into when System Restore does and doesn't work?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'll see what I can find out!

Vince -see above, has hit the nail on the head whenever you do a fresh install set a restore point (after removing all the previous ones). Quite simply, my computer has never had a successful restore if I haven't done this. I run XP with SP2.

I have XP Pro on my computer and I use system restore quite often. Sometimes, just to delete something i've downloaded. I know this is not a good idea but it always works with no problems. I've also used it twice to escape the blue screen via F8 when I really mess up. Just a couple clicks and I'm out of trouble. It always works. I just use an auto restore point as there seem to be plenty of them. As you say, just save everything you want in MY DOCUMENTS.