Disappearing System Restore Points

  • Thread starter Thread starter SC Tom
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SC Tom

XP Home SP3 IE8

Recently (I can't say for certain- I just noticed it ~3-4 days ago), my old
SR points have been deleted on a daily basis. For example, this morning I
had two points, one from yesterday and one from early this morning. Then
this evening, I looked again out of curiosity and the one from yesterday and
this morning are gone and a new one was created about 9PM. I have plenty of
HDD space (247GB free), have the default amount allocated to it (12%), and
have run Zone Alarm AV/AS, MalwareBytes, and SuperAntiSpyware (none of them
found anything). Right now, my SR folder has 5.52GB used, quite a bit less
than the limit, so I don't think that's the problem. I'm kinda stumped here.
I just recently installed IE8 (end of last week), and I didn't have any
problems before that, but I also haven't heard of IE8 causing that kind of
problem.

Any help on this will be deeply appreciated.
TIA,
 
Are you running disk cleanup with the option of removing all but the latest
restore point set?
You may have to use the process of elimination. IE Shut down one or two
programs (virus programs)
at a time till they no longer get erased.
 
Also, check the restore points immediately after booting up. You may have a
program being loaded that turns off restore
points and then back on.
 
The one from yesterday and one that I created this morning are still there
as of now, and I just turned my PC back on after being out for a while.
Also, nothing shows in the event logs, so I don't think it's an error
condition, if you know what I mean.
In response to your other post, I hate to think of going all day with no
firewall or anti-malware program running. If it was at a particular time, I
might try it for a short period, but not for very long. Maybe I'll pull my
network cable for a day, shut down Zone Alarm, and see what happens. I've
checked my Run key and Startup folder for anything new, but it's the same
stuff I've had for quite some time.
I don't believe it has anything to do with IE8, but I guess it's possible
that it could be an update of some sort. I was at my girl friend's and
looked at her PC, and hers is doing the same thing as mine. We both have XP
Home SP3 w/Zone Alarm, but she still has IE7 while I have IE8, so I guess I
can eliminate that as a possible cause.
--
SC Tom


Unknown said:
Also, check the restore points immediately after booting up. You may have
a program being loaded that turns off restore
points and then back on.
 
I have no problems with SR but, I do not use Zone Alarm. Perhaps Zone Alarm
is the problem?
Why aren't you using MSE?
SC Tom said:
The one from yesterday and one that I created this morning are still there
as of now, and I just turned my PC back on after being out for a while.
Also, nothing shows in the event logs, so I don't think it's an error
condition, if you know what I mean.
In response to your other post, I hate to think of going all day with no
firewall or anti-malware program running. If it was at a particular time,
I might try it for a short period, but not for very long. Maybe I'll pull
my network cable for a day, shut down Zone Alarm, and see what happens.
I've checked my Run key and Startup folder for anything new, but it's the
same stuff I've had for quite some time.
I don't believe it has anything to do with IE8, but I guess it's possible
that it could be an update of some sort. I was at my girl friend's and
looked at her PC, and hers is doing the same thing as mine. We both have
XP Home SP3 w/Zone Alarm, but she still has IE7 while I have IE8, so I
guess I can eliminate that as a possible cause.
 
Unknown said:
I have no problems with SR but, I do not use Zone Alarm. Perhaps Zone Alarm
is the problem?
Why aren't you using MSE?


Because MSE and Zone Alarms do different things on your computer. you
are a complete and utter idiot to compare Zone Alarm with MSE!

Have you heard of Windows Firewall? Perhaps you should research into
this wonderful product! Ask your mum about it.

hth



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Copyright LD5SZRA 2010.
 
I've never tried MSE on my PC, but installed it on my step-daughter's
notebook and was somewhat impressed. My subscription runs out on ZA shortly,
and I think sometime before that I'll install and try MSE and see how it
works for me.
 
SC said:
XP Home SP3 IE8

Recently (I can't say for certain- I just noticed it ~3-4 days ago),
my old SR points have been deleted on a daily basis. For example,
this morning I had two points, one from yesterday and one from early
this morning. Then this evening, I looked again out of curiosity and
the one from yesterday and this morning are gone and a new one was
created about 9PM. I have plenty of HDD space (247GB free), have the
default amount allocated to it (12%), and have run Zone Alarm AV/AS,

<snip>

Other people who have run ZA have reported the same phenomenon. See:

http://forums.zonealarm.com/showthread.php?t=73863
 
Thanks to you and Daave for your replies. The ZA forums were going to be my
next step. I currently have 9.1.507 disabled, and downloaded and installed
MSE. If I like it, I'll keep it. If not, I'll either reinstall 9.1.008 or
wait until ZA comes out with a fix. Now I know why my HDD free space
fluctuates so much, too :-)
--
SC Tom

Jean Rosenfeld said:
Some people are experiencing loss of restore points with latest version of
one or other ZA software packages:

http://forums.zonealarm.com/showthread.php?t=73895

and other posts in the ZA forums.

Personally, I do not have the problem with ZA Pro 9.1.507 on XP pro SP3.
 
Several months ago, someone else posted here that his HDD space also
fluctuated wildly. ZA was the reason.

If you choose to uninstall it, I believe you need to use their special
removal tool.

From my experience, any program or suite that has an assocaited special
removal tool (McAfee, Norton, ZA are the biggies) is generally to be
avoided. :-)
 
Daave said:
Several months ago, someone else posted here that his HDD space also
fluctuated wildly. ZA was the reason.

If you choose to uninstall it, I believe you need to use their special
removal tool.

From my experience, any program or suite that has an assocaited special
removal tool (McAfee, Norton, ZA are the biggies) is generally to be
avoided. :-)


That may be true, but I've used ZA for years now with various releases of
Windows and this is the first real problem I've had with it. Actually, I've
had fewer problems with it than I have had with Windows itself LOL! Doesn't
mean I'm going to dump Windows, though :-)
 
Go back to your dorm room.
LD5SZRA said:
Because MSE and Zone Alarms do different things on your computer. you are
a complete and utter idiot to compare Zone Alarm with MSE!

Have you heard of Windows Firewall? Perhaps you should research into this
wonderful product! Ask your mum about it.

hth



--
THE INFORMATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY
KIND. LD5SZRA DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESSED OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IN NO EVENT SHALL LD5SZRA
OR ITS ASSOCIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
INCLUDING DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, LOSS OF
BUSINESS PROFITS OR SPECIAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF LD5SZRA OR ITS
ASSOCIATES HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR
LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL
DAMAGES SO THE FOREGOING LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY.

Copyright LD5SZRA 2010.
 
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