System Restore question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Lois G.
  • Start date Start date
L

Lois G.

Let's preface this by saying I have not set any restore points.

Now I'd like to set System Restore back to May 1st. I start System Restore
Wizard (because I've never done this before and it seemed like an easy way
to go about it), but the earliest restore point is June 23rd (or
threabouts).

My question: Is there any way to go back before that?

Thanks all,
Lois
 
Simple answer is No. Although you haven't physically created system restore
point yourself Windows XP has - on avaergae one every 24 hours or so. Now
consider that these restore points take up a considerable amount of room on
your drive.
By default system restore allocated 12% of disk space for system restore
points. Once this allocation has been met system restore starts deleting
previous restore points to give itself more room. This is what has happened
in your case. Everything earlier than 23rd June has been deleted to make way
for newer system restore points.
Personally i much prefer imaging the hard drive with third party software
such as Norton Ghost. What i normally do is image the drive after i have
installed windows xp and added allt he software i normally use. This i keep
as the 'main' backup. Then periodically, as i add or remove software i
create a second 'running' backup. This second backup can be deleted and
replaced by a third, fourth etc as and when necessary. I then always have
the option to go back a week or so or, if things get really bad, i can
simply restore the original image i created when i first installed the
operating system. The imaged copies are stored on a second hard drive and,
for added protection, a DVD.
 
Hi Lois,

No. And even if you could you wouldn't want to. Most if not all system
setting made after the restore date would be lost. Any applications
installed after the restore date may not function.

All About System Restore in WinXP
http://bertk.mvps.org/

Your better off asking for assistance in fixing the problem at hand.
 
Applications installed after the restore date would almost certainly not
function, as the registry entries would not exist anymore.
 
Lois G. wrote:-
Let's preface this by saying I have not set any restore
points.
Now I'd like to set System Restore back to May 1st. I
start System Restore Wizard (because I've never done this
before and it seemed like an easy way to go about it),
but the earliest restore point is June 23rd (or
threabouts).
My question: Is there any way to go back before that?

Thanks all,
Lois-

[/i][/QUOTE]

I'd have to go ahead and agree that using a disk image is your best bet.
It's easy to do, and works a heck of a lot better than system restore.
You could probably find a old copy of ghost or something online if yo
looked hard enough. Another Option which can be helpful is a progra
called deepFreeze. It allows you to freeze certain drives, and henc
system settings. What I do is create a partition for saving files/game
etc, and then I freeze the partition which has windows on it. If I scre
something up, I just reboot and it's back to normal. VERY helpful.

-Mat
 
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