PC Fear Factor: The Ultimate PC Disaster Prevention Guide
The Official System Restore Page
The Book
Disaster Prevention
Other
Quick Links To Our
Most Popular Pages
Would you like to learn about how to
prevent most computer disasters? Then purchase PC Fear Factor: The Ultimate PC
Disaster Prevention Guide. This
comprehensive, uncompromising guide to PC disaster prevention and
recovery is written in clear, non-technical language that anyone can
understand. It provides detailed, step-by-step instruction on how to
prevent most computer disasters, and how to prepare for and recover quickly, easily, and
completely from unavoidable computer disasters.
Read what people are saying about PC Fear Factor! Read what book reviewers are saying about PC Fear Factor! |
||
| Read the Introduction | ||
What is System Restore?
The System Restore feature, found in Windows Millennium and Windows XP, is a limited disaster recovery tool that takes snapshots (called restore points) of critical system files whenever you make a significant change to your computer. If a change precipitates a disaster, you can use System Restore to restore your computer to the point just prior to the change. System Restore does this without damaging your data. For example, if you restore your system configuration to the way it was a week ago, you will not lose any of the data, email messages, address book changes, etc. that you have made in the past week.
System Restore also creates a restore point once a day, every day you use your computer, whether or not you make any changes to your computing environment.
Click here to view a list of file extensions monitored (backed up) by System Restore.
| Learn more about how to effectively use the System Restore feature in PC Fear Factor: The Ultimate PC Disaster Prevention Guide. |
Changing System Restore Settings
System Restore is enabled by default in Windows, so you don't have to do anything to activate this feature. On the contrary, you should not deactivate this feature or you will lose an important disaster recovery tool.
Restore points are stored in a special folder on your hard disk. Each restore point consumes about 50mb of space on your hard disk. Over time, this can rob you of space that you need for other purposes.
Be default, System Restore is set to allocate 12% or 200mb of your hard disk, whichever amount is greater. However, you can adjust this percentage downwards to manage your disk space more effectively. In Windows XP, perform the following steps:
- Select Start, My Computer.
- Click View System Information
- Click the System Restore tab.
- Click the Settings button.
- Adjust the Disk Space Usage slider control to the desired percentage.
To adjust the amount of hard disk space in Windows Millennium:
- Right click on My Computer and select properties.
- Select the Performance tab.
- Click File System.
- Adjust the System Restore Disk Space Use slider to the desired percentage.
(You wouldn't expect Microsoft to provide the same navigation path in two different versions of Windows, would you?)
Whenever your restore points consume more than 90% of the allocated space, Windows automatically purges the oldest restore points until only 50% of the allocated space is consumed. This seems like a rather arbitrary and ill-thought out purge methodology. In my opinion, it would make more sense to purge one restore point to make room for another as the disk space limit is broached.
System Restore Limitations
System Restore is a limited disaster recovery tool. It won't help you recover from a computer virus, and it won't solve problems unrelated to information stored on your hard disk. System Restore is also limited in the sense that restoring your system to a point well in the past can cause more problems than it solves, because it will undo any other changes you have made since that date. So System Restore is most effective when you are able to immediately detect that a change to your computing environment has precipitated a computer disaster.
Learning More About System Restore
There's a lot more to System Restore than meets the eye. For example, restoring your system can leave it more vulnerable to computer viruses and hackers. PC Fear Factor explains why this is so, and shows you how to correct the problem. PC Fear Factor also shows you:
- How to use System Restore properly in conjunction with uninstall programs. (If you do things in the wrong sequence, you can create a major headache for yourself.)
- How to purge a computer virus from the system restore folder. (If you restore from an infected restore point, you can give yourself a computer virus.)
- How to view the system restore folder to see how much hard disk space is currently consumed by restore points.. (Although the folder is visible by default in Windows Millennium, Windows XP does an exceptionally "good" job of hiding this folder from view.)
- Which activities trigger the automatic creation of restore points. (The good news is that Windows can help you if you accidentally restore your system to the wrong point.)
- How to manually create a restore point.
- How to use System Restore to avoid computer problems when you are putting a new computer into service.
|
Was
this page helpful to you? Would you like to learn about how to
prevent most computer disasters? Then purchase PC Fear Factor: The Ultimate PC
Disaster Prevention Guide. This
comprehensive, uncompromising guide to PC disaster prevention and
recovery is written in clear, non-technical language that anyone can
understand. It provides detailed, step-by-step instruction on how to
prevent most computer disasters, and how to prepare for and recover quickly, easily, and
completely from unavoidable computer disasters.
Read what readers are saying about PC Fear Factor! Read what book reviewers are saying about PC Fear Factor! |
||
| Read the Introduction | ||