Windows XP: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore?
- 5/22/09 11:16 AM
Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 5/22/09 11:16 AM
Do you find Windows System Restore utility to be useful?
- Very useful, it's saved me many times. (Why so many times?)
- Somewhat useful. (How so?)
- Not useful. (Tell us why.)
- I use other system restore utilities (Tell us what you use.)
- I'd use it more if it worked properly. (What’s wrong with it?)
- I have no idea, I've never used it. (You’ve been lucky then.)
- What is this System restore utility you speak of? (Are you just kidding?)
- I don’t do Windows.
Just to start this off.
by MarkFlax - 5/22/09 12:26 PM
In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Windows XP, and I have used the System Restore utility often. It really has saved me many times.
Why so many times? Difficult to say. In the early days of XP I would try a range out of software, but would always set a custom Restore Point before installing. If the software failed in any way, or if it didn't meet my expectations, reverting back to that Restore Point with System Restore returned my system to its previous state.
In addition, the occasional Windows Update at that time would cause problems, and System Restore saved me there. I have to say though that in recent times Windows Updates have not caused me so many problems, (except the one where ZoneAlarm reacted badly and broke my internet connection, but that's another story).
With a system in good working order, System Restore is one of the most useful utilities XP has.
Mark
Mixed experoence
by rbsjrx - 5/22/09 5:29 PM In reply to: Just to start this off. by MarkFlax
For minor stuff, it works OK. For major system issues, it's pretty much worthless, in my experience. However, it does give me something to do before reinstalling the OS. Note this is for WinXP. My beloved notebook recently died and I replaced it with an HP laptop which came with Vista, so no experience yet with using it under Vista yet. However, Windows is Windows, so I expect I'll gain some Vista experience with it eventually...
None of my Linux machines, of course, have ever needed anything like it. The new laptop, BTW, now dual boots Vista and Mepis Linux.
system restore
by maggiedev - 5/25/09 4:50 AM In reply to: Mixed experoence by rbsjrxi have been using vista for over a year now and i love it. i have had a problem with 2-3 updates really messing up my laptop. i used system restore and immediately the laptop started functioning correctly again. i know there are problems with vista and a lot of people don't like it. i have 3 computers with xp and 2 with vista. the best of both worlds.. i hope the new windows operating system that is coming out soon is as i have been told it would be.. i have been told it was a marriage between the two systems that make it their child with the best of both.. we will see.
XP System restore.
by gem70ini - 5/23/09 2:00 AM In reply to: Just to start this off. by MarkFlax
Hi I am in complete agreement with Mark.I also have used system restore quite frequently, as I am one of those people who cannot what seems a good download not pass the opportunity to download it. Only to find out that once more I have made a blunder and fouled my comp up so many times.All the restores I have attempted it as never failed once to restore. Only thing I can think of is that the people whom have problems with it,and say it is rubbish have tried to restore something and it hasn't been reset properly,Or they have not picked the right day to restore from.By the way my comp is a Toshiba Satellite which I have had for 5 yrs now.Works perfectly.
Nope.
by mwooge - 5/22/09 5:59 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The only time I tried it, it failed to fix the problem. So I turned it off. I have yet to have a situation where I might have needed it, thoug how would I know?
Windows restore.. hmmmm
by chuq00 - 5/22/09 6:20 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I do not use Windows system restore, every time that I have tried to use it, it never worked. So I use Nero's Back it up, that comes with Nero Burning ROM it is very nice, makes a complete system back up, allows you to schedule back ups, make incremental back ups, and does a wonderful job of restoring everything with all files & registry entries intact.
I never depend on Windows... for anything.. if you want a reliable system find a flavor of linux and go with that!
Best effort OS
by sauna6 - 5/23/09 7:24 AM In reply to: Windows restore.. hmmmm by chuq00WXP is a 'best effort' OS, so sometimes it fails, often on itself. Best effort systems must have a 'lifeboat' to get them out of trouble. In countries where road signs do not exist, I use a simple satellite navigator in order to backtrack my route if I get lost at night. System Restore is a similar first-aid, and a little quicker to use than the otherwise very good Nero Back-it-up.
ERUNT's OK, but...
by rbsjrx - 5/23/09 9:10 AM In reply to: Best effort OS by sauna6...when you install it you also get NTREGOPT. I tried NTREGOPT and it nearly killed my machine. I have 218 subdirectories under "<i>/Program Files</i>" and another dozen or so program packages installed in the root directory. At this moment, I have 94 processes running - and that's because I'm not doing much. IOW, mine is a <u>very</u> heavily loaded system and is a challenge to most registry tools. Some simply give up, but NTREGOPT totally locks the machine. The clock on the task bar stopped running, an the keyboard and power switch were totally unresponsive. When the displayed time was 10 minutes behind, I finally pulled the plug - literally. The only good thing I can say about NTREGOPT is that whatever it was doing while my machine was locked did no permanent damage. After a second reboot and a little repair work, everything was fine.
FWIW, the only registry utility I've found that really works well on my system is Advanced System Care Pro from IObit (the non-pro version is freeware).
Other options: ERUNT
by shadowjack55 - 5/22/09 6:40 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I find the utility ERUNT to be much more useful than system restore. Quietly in the background, ERUNT makes a daily backup of your registry and system state. It keeps one month of these backups (or you can adjust this). It works from within Windows or from a command prompt. And it only takes a couple minutes to do a restore.
I am constantly installing new programs and tweaking my computer. I usually wind up using ERUNT to restore my registry once a month. With 30 backups, you don't have to worry about one or even two backups getting corrupted.
Finally, ERUNT works with all versions of Windows starting with 95. Vista requires a slight work-around to avoid having UAC pop up and warn about it.
Not Impressed with Windows System Restore
by raleighpilot - 5/22/09 7:08 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I've been using GoBack for years - - Works perfectly every time.... I would never consider running a Windows machine without GoBack...
Windows System Restore simply useless OS baggage
by bunglee - 5/22/09 8:37 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
After many frustrating encounters, I finally decided that Windows System Restore is an OS useless appendage. I haven't had the occasion to use it ion maybe 5-6 years. I always disable it immediately upon any Windows XP installation because it eats up resources for no good reason. Out of perhaps twenty occasions to use it, Windows System Restore worked only once. Much better to use registry cleaners, HDD backups, etc. instead of placing faith in a quirky, hit-and-miss joke from Redmond.
Windows restore doesnt' work for me
by sunshinedeb24 - 5/22/09 8:42 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
You asked what I use instead.. I use nothing! I needed to use Windows restore a couple times ( or so I thought) but then it wouldn't work, so I just worked around the issue. ( I don't even remember the issue! lol)
Anyhow, I get the same response as the original person who asked this question.. my computer goes thru the motions, then tells me that no changes were made, that nothing has been altered, etc.
Very frustrating.
I just hope I don't need it someday!
Don't waste time on any system restore method other than ...
by hifly.liu - 5/22/09 9:28 PM In reply to: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The best system restore method is as below :
1. Put in your Windows Installation Disc
2. Change you boot up sequence to CD/DVD drive to first priority in BIOS.
3. Power on again and boot up with CD/DVD drive and start Windows installation.
4. Format the first HDD drive.(Don't create any partition in first HDD).
5. Complete the Windows Installation.
There you fix your any problem and just cost you about 1 hours.
If you tried any other method very often you still have the problem respawn at a very quick speed.
I rarely use system restore - it sometimes makes extra items
by DChrisL - 5/22/09 10:23 PM In reply to: Don't waste time on any system restore method other than ... by hifly.liuI'll see two items named the same, like 7 renamed files. The latest version of ccleaner has in tools a way to delete all but the last restore point; also, disk cleanup has the same function in XP. Also, a restore point can be created after I run the Ad-Aware Anniversary Edition so I can remove ALL restore points and when I reboot, I new set is installed. I have only a forty gig HDD but I have 83% free space according to piriform's defraggler I t says it is a 40.5 GB but it reads as only 38+% according to the latest defraggler. Darrell
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