Solved System Restore (not about "backups")

jimbo45 · Aug 21, 2021

Bree said:
No. A Restore point is a snapshot of the Registry, system files and installed programs only, other files such as user documents are not affected by restoring a restore point. A checkpoint is more like restoring a system image, all files are restored to their state at the time of the checkpoint, user files created since the checkpoint will be lost.

Hi there

Thanks for the explanation.

Now final "Supplementary question" -- How does one actually then take a Checkpoint in a REAL Windows 11 machine - and would it be more reliable than SRP's. Checkpoints are easily done in HYPER-V or on KVM systems running VM's but I don't think there's any way on standard systems.

Windows servers must also have some sort of checkpointing / replay logs surely !!! since with 100's or 1000's of users full system restores would be a nightmare !!!!!and probably take days to recover properly -- like some old Banking mainframe systems still running IBM's DB2 / IMS type DB's.

SQL server DBMS has checkpointing as do some other DB systems but I don't think the OS itself has.

I know this is OT to the original topic but it seems interesting enough to pose the question here.

Cheers
jimbo

JAM83 · Aug 21, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Well, mine took less than a minute to start rebooting. But it still failed - I had 0 interaction with it from the time I pressed restore to when I logged back in - all under 2 minutes total. But I got this:

View attachment 5837

I had to initiate System Restore by rebooting to the Advanced Troubleshooting.

Stigg · Aug 22, 2021

Dru2 said:
First, please this is not about "backups" and has nothing to do with backing up. This is about using a feature for which is was designed.

So, I use "System Restore" to create manual restore points when I want to test drivers or apps. I'll create a manual restore point for the app or driver in question before installation. If something goes wrong or I decide I don't want the app or driver, I simply tell System Restore to restore the system back to before the the app or driver install. Been doing this for years without issue. And the process is relatively fast.

That said, there appears to be an issue under Windows 11 where the restore process takes forever to complete. In fact, it took so long that I thought the system crashed. It ran for at least 15 before I rebooted, thinking the system crashed. Rebooting back into Windows, I was told the system never finished the restore operation. The thing is, the operation should take no longer than 5 minutes, if that. Anyway, I tried again, and this time after about 10 minutes the operation completed.

So, for those who use the System Restore feature, are you noticing inordinate long restore times under Windows 11?

Thanks :)

OK.
I eventually got around to testing it.
I created a manual restore point, then about 2 hours later, I restored it.
It took about 15 minutes to successfully restore.

I have never known System Restore to be very fast, but it does appear to be slower than in Windows 10.
Where I noticed it sitting for longer than I would have thought is when it says:

System Restore is restoring the registry...

johnlgalt · Aug 23, 2021

Finally getting back on topic since everyone and their mother wants to make this about backups....

I was able to restore with very little time, only I wasn't able to restore after all. It would not load the previous version of the drivers after I tested it.

Dru had it take a long time but eventually work. Seems Stigg is having the same issue.

Can we now start collating the data points?

I performed this on my cleanly installed Windows 11 system. How about you, @Dru2 and @Stigg?

Dru2 · Aug 23, 2021

johnlgalt said:
Finally getting back on topic since everyone and their mother wants to make this about backups....

I was able to restore with very little time, only I wasn't able to restore after all. It would not load the previous version of the drivers after I tested it.

Dru had it take a long time but eventually work. Seems Stigg is having the same issue.

Can we now start collating the data points?

I performed this on my cleanly installed Windows 11 system. How about you, @Dru2 and @Stigg?

First (for clarity), the way "I" use System Restore is to manually create and name a restore point for an item I wish to install/test; ex: AMD drivers. Once the restore point is created, I'll install the drivers and see how the system responds.

If the system crashes or does something severe, I'll restore to system back to before the update by choosing the "AMD drivers" restore point, and letting to system revert back before the AMD driver install. All this is done the same day. That's me.

That said, given the procedures above, the driver will revert back to the prior driver before the update. This is how the system works (per my experience) as well as how Microsoft says it should work....

Use System restore to make restore points when you install a new app, driver, or Windows update, and when you create a restore point manually. Restoring won’t affect your personal files, but it will remove apps, drivers, and updates installed after the restore point was made. To go back to a restore point:

source: Microsoft - Use System Restore

Granted the article is for Windows 10, and not 11, but 11 should (did for me) work the same. So, if your drivers did not revert back to the old ones, there is an issue and the system did not restore. Additionally, if it did not restore you should have gotten a message saying System Restore was unable to restore the system. That's how it works for me if System Restore fails to restore.

All that said, I've only seen the slow time once on Windows 11, cause that's the only time I ran System Restore.

Thanks, and hope this clarifies.

Stigg · Aug 23, 2021

johnlgalt said:
How about you, @Dru2 and @Stigg?

Mine is just a Windows 10 upgrade.

RolandJS · Aug 23, 2021

"Finally getting back on topic since everyone and their mother wants to make this about backups...."
The only backups my mom knows about are loo backups.

johnlgalt · Aug 24, 2021

Dru2 said:
First (for clarity), the way "I" use System Restore is to manually create and name a restore point for an item I wish to install/test; ex: AMD drivers. Once the restore point is created, I'll install the drivers and see how the system responds.

If the system crashes or does something severe, I'll restore to system back to before the update by choosing the "AMD drivers" restore point, and letting to system revert back before the AMD driver install. All this is done the same day. That's me.

That said, given the procedures above, the driver will revert back to the prior driver before the update. This is how the system works (per my experience) as well as how Microsoft says it should work....

source: Microsoft - Use System Restore

Granted the article is for Windows 10, and not 11, but 11 should (did for me) work the same. So, if your drivers did not revert back to the old ones, there is an issue and the system did not restore. Additionally, if it did not restore you should have gotten a message saying System Restore was unable to restore the system. That's how it works for me if System Restore fails to restore.

All that said, I've only seen the slow time once on Windows 11, cause that's the only time I ran System Restore.

Thanks, and hope this clarifies.

Yup - and that is exactly what I tested on my end. I installed newer drivers, then tried to restore to a SRP that had older drivers. It failed, but I have my own suspicions as to why it broke when I attempted it (and thus why I may also not have seen a massive delay in the attempt as well).

Solved System Restore (not about "backups")

jimbo45

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JAM83

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Stigg

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johnlgalt

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Dru2

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Stigg

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RolandJS

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johnlgalt

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