2 Questions: Does a System Restore / (Rollback) delete all data...?

[Talahasee]

2 Questions:

1 Does a System Restore / (Rollback) delete all data
accumulated since the restore point?

I have a LOT of data (some 20 CDs) that I am restoring--
little by little-- to my hard drive, then backing up onto my
external HDD, then burning onto CDs once again.

I recently backed up some half-dozen CDs in my My Docs
folder to my external hdd,
forgot to turn it off,

and did a restore to 24 hours earlier, to resolve a problem.

When I had restored, I noticed that I had not solved my
problem, but the directory I'd created and filled on my
external disk was empty. (as I said, I'd forgotten to turn
off my external hdd)

???

The Restore utility claims that it doesn't affect data, but
ONLY the OS.

That's not true, apparently, and I'm wondering if anyone
else has run into this situation.

The obvious "cure" is remember to turn off the external hdd
before doing a restore or format.

However... What's with the Restore utility erasing data?


2 The problem for which I did the System Restore was that
something is opening the Windows\Common folder (which is
empty) when I start up my computer.

I get the computer rebooted, and one of the last things it
does before it stops "starting up" is to open the empty
Windows\Common folder, leaving my desktop essentially blank.

I found a blank line in my Start\Startup folder when this
happened previously, deleted it, and fixed this "ghost
folder-opening" issue.

This time, there was no blank line in my startup sequence.

???

I resolved the problem (apparently) by uninstalling my
recently installed Acronis partitioning software (a wild
guess).

However, I am wondering if there is a simpler solution to
not having Windows open a folder I don't want open when I
restart the computer.

Ideas?

Suggestions?

TIA

Tallahassee

 

[Theguy]

1/ system restore restores an old copy of the registry (aka all system
SETTINGS not files) and user profiles, so just backup favorites and my
documents and u won't need to worry to much about data loss

2/ try using start > run > msconfig to troubleshoot your startup
problems (notice the startup tab?)

 

[Bert Kinney]

2 Questions:

1 Does a System Restore / (Rollback) delete all data
accumulated since the restore point?

System Restore monitors a core set of system and application files,
archiving the states of these files before system changes are made.
System Restore also saves a snapshot of the registry (note: some
current registry values will persist) and some dynamic system files.

System Restore does not monitor or restore user data or documents, so it
will not cause users to lose their files, e-mail, browsing history, or
favorites. The My Documents folder is not monitored by SR, so this is a
safe place to store any type of file or folder.

List of Files and Folders System Restore Monitors:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/filesfolders.html

I have a LOT of data (some 20 CDs) that I am restoring--
little by little-- to my hard drive, then backing up onto my
external HDD, then burning onto CDs once again.

I recently backed up some half-dozen CDs in my My Docs
folder to my external hdd, forgot to turn it off, and did a restore to
24 hours earlier, to resolve a problem.

By default SR monitors all drives/partitions it sees, including external
drives.

For more on external drives and SR take a look here.
Tips Fixes and FAQ
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/tips.html#ExternalDrive

When I had restored, I noticed that I had not solved my
problem, but the directory I'd created and filled on my
external disk was empty. (as I said, I'd forgotten to turn
off my external hdd) ???

To restore these files, open SR and choose "Undo my last restoration".

The Restore utility claims that it doesn't affect data, but ONLY the
OS.

What type of file were on the external drive that got removed?

That's not true, apparently, and I'm wondering if anyone
else has run into this situation.

The obvious "cure" is remember to turn off the external hdd
before doing a restore or format.

A better choice would be to stop the external drive from being monitored
by SR.

However... What's with the Restore utility erasing data?

2 The problem for which I did the System Restore was that
something is opening the Windows\Common folder (which is
empty) when I start up my computer.

I get the computer rebooted, and one of the last things it
does before it stops "starting up" is to open the empty
Windows\Common folder, leaving my desktop essentially blank.

I found a blank line in my Start\Startup folder when this
happened previously, deleted it, and fixed this "ghost
folder-opening" issue.

This time, there was no blank line in my startup sequence

You may want to post this in a separate thread.

 

[Plato]

1 Does a System Restore / (Rollback) delete all data
accumulated since the restore point?

http://www.bootdisk.com/xptop20.htm#15

 

[coal_brona]

Greetings,

You should always take into consideration the fact that erased data can
still be restored using data recovery tools. I suppose Active @Undelete
ad Uneraser (DOS) to be the most powerful ones. Thay really never
failed me so that might help yuo too as well.

http://www.active-undelete.com/

http://www.uneraser.com/

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Greetings,

You should always take into consideration the fact that erased data
can still be restored using data recovery tools. I suppose Active
@Undelete ad Uneraser (DOS) to be the most powerful ones. Thay really
never failed me so that might help yuo too as well.

http://www.active-undelete.com/

http://www.uneraser.com/

Please quote enough of the message you're responding to to put your reply
into context (as I did above). Many newsgroup participants (me, for example)
don't save already-read messages and a message without a quote is likely to
be completely unintelligible to people. I, for example, have no idea what
question you are replying to.

But to address the point you make above, note that erased data can
*sometimes* be recovered, not always. Here's my standard reply on this
subject:

"Deleting" a file doesn't actually delete it; it just marks the space as
available to be used. There are third-party programs that can sometimes
recover deleted files. The problem is that the space used by the file is
likely to become overwritten very quickly, and this makes the file
unrecoverable.

So your chances of successfully recovering this file are decent if you try
recovering it immediately after deleting it, and rapidly go downhill from
there. If you've been using the computer since then (for example to write
this question and read this answer), your chances are probably very poor by
now.

But if the file is important enough, it's worth a try anyway. Stop using the
computer in question immediately, if you haven't done so already. Download
an undelete program (here's one:
http://www3.telus.net/mikebike/RESTORATION.html but there are several others
to choose from; do a Google search) on a friend's computer and bring it to
yours on a floppy to try.

If this fails, your only other recourse is to take the drive to a
professional file recovery company. This kind of service is very expensive
and may or may not work in your case.