PC utilities forum: Poll: How useful do you find Windows System Restore?

I keep system restore off permanently because worms will install themselves to that location, and since restore protects changes to that data, you can not fully remove the problem you have detected, unless system restore is disabled. I just clone my PC from time to time on a portable hard drive and that works MUCH better. Sure It cost 80 bucks for the hard ware, but I have absolute peace of mind. I know my data is safe, I know I wont be reinfected if I use restore, and of course, system restore is a monster resource hog, and it rarely operates properly from what I have seen on computers I have been asked to rescue. Why waste valuable resources on your system with a back-up program that helps infections stay protected? Do it yourself, have a faster computer, and more space on your PC; means faster searches of your database and you have peace of mind in case your computer is destroyed, or stolen. Keep your back-up HDD in a safe, dry, low EM/micro radiation area... and all good. Hope this helps!

My experience is that my machine tends to lock up when creating System Restore points, and with Vista they are never available when I have a serious problem.
When the computer is working fine, I can see a few of them (much less with Vista than with Windows XP)but when the computer is compromised then I've had to go to a factory reset, since the restore points don't help.

I'm what I think is "computer savvy" but not very knowledgeable beyond just a little below the surface, really. I did a dumb thing by deleting one of two copies of my wireless printer, which screws up every time the power goes off in a storm, and the remaining one no longer worked. I tried going to a half dozen support sites and wasted more time trying to find the install disk when I thought about trying to go to a restore point that was before I did the dumb deletion. I had no idea what would happen, or what files would then be missing or anything, but I took it step by step and voila! There was my original printer icon back again and everything is working fine. I'm sure somebody more geeky than I could have fixed the original problem a better way, but this worked for me.

I've used (tried to) System Restore 5 times on customers' machines. Of course they hadn't bothered to do any kind of back up, but couldn't afford to lose ANYthing. (!!!)

Out of those 5 times, SR worked once. Otherwise, I get the same thing - wait for it to do its thing, re-start & then it tells me the restore wasn't completed for whatever reason.

So, to me, System Restore is pretty useless.

(For my own files, I back up religiously. I have the original files, copies on another hard drive, on CD & some things are also on a flash drive. Maybe overkill, but I've never lost anything. )

I only ever needed it once. Can't remember the exact circumstances, but I somehow got Vista Home Premium where it wouldn't start up when I tried to fix some kind of problem. I put in my restore DVD, and tried to restore the computer using a week old System Restore backup. It wouldn't work. Can't remember the exact error message, but in the end I had to just give up and re-install. Funny thing is, when I re-installed, it fixed the original problem, so guess it wasn't all bad.

I use VMWARE Workstation and its Snapshot feature to create clone PC's for software testing.

Works much better than Windows Restore ever did and thoroughly protects the main HDD from viral nastiness.

I've used System Restore a couple of times in the past but I use Norton Ghost to do a full backup on Sunday and an incremental backup on Wednesday, to an external HD.

I find Ghost is much better because in a worst case scenario it can restore EVERYTHING.

Created restore points - but have never needed to use them.

I'm still running XP.
If I ever come across the need to use system restore, the system is always unable to restore to the point and date that I choose.
When the worst comes to the worst I have do a factory reset.

If anyone was paying attention I was here earlier this year wondering if anyone could help or had advice on my restore.It was not setting points manually or otherwise well I never found out what the problem was but in a serendiptious moment I needed a antivirus and so I installed MS essentials which does an automatic restore before every scheduled scan. problem solved

Everytime I download a program or make changes to my computer, I make a restore point first, then if I don't like the download or changes, I can undo it with no problems. Saves me lots of time and aggravation. I would really hate to lose the restore option.

I find it very useful, it's saved me many times.
I have downloaded wrong updates etc.
Usually I do everything semi automatic and it means mistakes every now and then..

Maceman

Got flakey in Vista and Win7 doen't work for RESTORE. Had to use Recovery disk. Some posts maybe con fusing Restore (from a previous working session) with Recovery as in a clean installation.
To answer your question, personally I would support Restore if it worked in win7.

I've used system restore many times over the years, today being the most recent. There are a variety of reasons I use it, and sometimes, it doesn't work. But its worked often enough for me to continue to use it. It is faster than Acronis and doesn't take up the drive space, however, I do use Acronis for my main computer simply because it is so much more reliable.