Do you use System Restore?

[fieseler]

Just want to know who uses it. It's been my practice to disable it since early XP days because it hogged to much HDD space and system performance.

Also, if it is enabled on your system(s), how much disk space do you permit it to use? I've got it set up to save 15gb worth of 30 restore points, which i may never need, so just trying to get an idea of optimum settings.

 

[niemiro]

I have it on, and it can use however much space it needs, but then again I have 1664GB of space. However, I have always been sceptical, and never really even bother with it. You can see more about it here: http://www.vistax64.com/vip/284559-i-love-system-restore.html

 

[Lorien]

Hi fieseler,

I use it and have it set at the default of 15% of the hard drive - I too have no problems with space. I would rather have it there if needed. I've seen MANY cases where a System Restore would have solved the problem simply and quickly - but as it wasn't enabled or there wasn't enough space allocated to go back far enough to get in front of the problem, we had to to many other things to try to resolve the problem. In some cases, that even ultimately meant a re-installation of the operating system. I've also seen MANY cases where it solved the problem quickly and easily when nothing else would have done the trick.

I have actually used it myself a couple of times (not very often at all) and it has always resolved the problem I was trying to fix (since I knew the cause and when it occurred). I would never consider being without it and would buy a new hard drive before I deactivated System Restore or crippled it by setting too little allocated space.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

 

[richc46]

System Restore should not be disabled. It has helped me 2 times with Windows 7. I have helped many, here at the Forum with System Restore. It is not worth the small space that you can save if you disable.
I set my default to once a week and always make one myself before making changes, even though a point should be made by default.
You can adjust the space used by SR
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/76227-system-restore-disk-space.html

 

[fieseler]

Good to hear some success stories. I've always been really skeptical of it. Keen to hear any more situations where its resolved major issues. also any instances where its failed.

I've actually just used it to solve a problem with a creative driver. Thought i'd try updating to the latest verison, but it refused to install properly. Tried uninstalling and rolling back but gave me "You have a newer driver installed, setup will now exit" even though id uninstalled.

Tried system restore and worked first time, my system was exactly as it was. I've now upped the shadow copy space to 17.5gb :D

So basically, just adverted rolling back to my backup. I'll see how it goes and add more space if required.

ps. Any driver developers reading this, don't block your end user from rolling back to earlier build versions! It's just.......rude!

 

[Imperfect1]

I am amazed when people say they're disabling System Restore. It has saved my bacon a number of times, when nothing else would've done the trick!

 

[MilesAhead]

System Restore uses a "diff" mechanism, so I'm not sure keeping very old versions does much good. otoh I use image backups but I don't want to do a backup image every time I try installing a driver or some program I'm not familiar with. SR can be a quick and dirty safety valve combined with image backups if the restore doesn't do the trick.

If the OS gives the option of drive percentage I usually go with 6%. On Vista I have to set the max from the command line. I have a batch to set the max GB used.

I don't see disabling it totally unless you are running some real-time system or have another reason to get every CPU cycle possible out of your PC. Esp. for non analyst users it can be a good way to avoid reinstalling Windows.

 

[MWRed]

I have it enabled on my laptop and netbook, but on my older desktops, I don't. They were built by me, and I have retail XP and retail Vista. I alos don't do anything on there that's "important" that I would want to save. I've never had a problem, but if I did, I always would want to reinstall from a format anyway.

With the laptop and netbook, it's a different animal, so I have it on with no intention of turning it off on them. These also have 160gig, and 250gig HDD's, so space isn't a problem, considering what I use them for.

My desktops are somewhat old, and only have 60gig HDD's, so saving a little space is helpful. I also don't plan on keeping them for anything more than just to have an extra PC around. I'll be on the laptop 90% of the time now anyway, so if the desktop dies, it's not a big deal.

That being said....in my opinion, with larger HDD's and externals at reasonable prices, I can't see any reason to have it turned off.