system restore

  • Thread starter Thread starter Kue2
  • Start date Start date
If you are dual-booting with Xp, this is going to happen. It has something
to do with "volsnap.sys." Colin can eplain it much better than I.

To work around this, do one of two things:

1. Enable BitLocker in Vista. (Courtesy of MICHAEL) This way, XP can't read
the disc and therefore can't delete the SR points.
2. Use a third-party boot manager such as BootMagic and hide the O/S's from
each other (my preferred way.

Or, I guess, 3. just live with it...

This has been discussed on the forum if you wish to do some more research.
Just search the forum for volsnap.sys and you will ind it.
 
It will if you are frequently booting into XP as well as Vista. There is an
incompatibility between the Volume Shadowcopy Services of the two systems
such that VSS in XP thinks the system restore points in Vista are corrupt.
It deletes them thinking to protect the user. It will not be fixed. The
problem is not with System Restore, but with the VSS driver used by System
Restore to take the snapshots SR uses to create the restore points.
Disabling the XP SR will make no difference.
 
Not only will this happen when "booting" into XP from Vista but I often
simply shortcut from one desktop to the other on a dual boot by typing
C:\Documents and Settings\Kue2's XP Profile" in run or in a combo address
bar run box in the taskbar (rt. click taskbar>toolbars>address>unlocked
taskbar>drag seam to left. It does this even if you access the XP desktop
via a shortcut. It's one of many things they can't or won't fix.

After looking at the VSS pitch and hype from SR PM Eduardo Laureano "oh gee
golly it's way cooler" in typical Redmonese cheerleader mode like the
Product Guide (deeper, more systemic ect.), I find System Restore no
better--but worse in Vista than in XP. So are many others. The big hype
was it's more powerful and it can be run via Win RE outside of Windows, in
no boot situations and in XP it can be run from 3 different flavors of safe
mode, from anecdotal reports, it isn't working much and many people are
finding that SR in Vista is *failing to make points at the default times it
is supposed to* putting the dual boot failure aside.

Microsoft Vista team writers also have have yet to post any substantive
information on System Restore or Win RE on Technet or MSDN or any other MSFT
site 6 weeks after Beta 2 public release. The public and Beta testers are
equally in the dark on both.

CH
 
Chad;

I admire your diligence and your ability to gather and produce pertinent,
additional information. I have certainly increased my understanding of many
facets of Vista simply by clicking on some of the links you have provided.

Try one little step: enable Bitlocker in Vista, manually set a restore point
and then switch between O/S's with your various methods. Then see if the
points stay.

I am dual-booting on a system where I have used a boot manager to hide each
O/S partition from the other and am not having any of these restore point
issues.
 
That's something I sure need to try. Thanks much Mark for reminding me of
the apparent ability of Bitlocker to confer protection on Vista VSS restore
points. I had forgotten about that and now I remember it was pointed out in
a thread a couple weeks ago.

CH
 
I've lost my System Restore points three times- *only*
when I didn't have BitLocker on.

-Michael
 
Mark, What Boot Manager are you using and what version? I have Version 7 of
Partition Magic, which works ok in XP, but it seems to want to put Boot Magic
 
I've successfully used Vcom's System Commander 8.1 boot utility with a dual
boot
XP-Vista system.
 
What issues might I have when turning on bit-locker without a computer that
supports it natively? Is there anything I need to be sure to do? After
reading the help files on it, it sounds as if it could lock my computer. Do
you need to input a password everytime you start up? I have the usb thumb
drive it mentions, but would like some info on how it works. I would like to
find a way to keep XP from deleting my Vista system restore points, however,
and it didn't help to hide the Vista drive in XP or turn off system restore
 
BitLocker will only encrypt Vista's partition.

If you don't want to use the key on the usb or input
a thoroughly long password when you boot up- you
can turn off BitLocker without decrypting. After you
turn Bitlocker on and it encrypts Vista, you can go into
Bitlocker's settings- decrypt or turn off Bitlocker. I just
turn it off without decrypting.
This is what I have done to protect my System Restore
points. It works.


-Michael
 
I'm sorry I'm so dumb on this, but if you turn off BitLocker, aren't you then
allowing the system restore to be deleted? What do you mean you can turn it
off without decrypting or you can decrypt and then turn off? Doesn't it have
to be on to do it's job? Thanks again.
 
You aren't being dumb, I would have never known
until I actually went through the steps. I probably
could have somehow phrased it better.

After you turn Bitlocker on and it encrypts
Vista, you will then have two options afterwards:
Turn off Bitlocker (no authentication required).
Deactivate Bitlocker and decrypt the volume.

By "turning off" BitLocker, you stop the authentication
process (usb key or password) when booting up. But
Vista stays encrypted. As long as Vista is encrypted-
the restore points aren't deleted.


-Michael
 
I have another question (and am encrypting as I write). Once you have turned
bitloacker off, will future restore points also be protected; in other words,
will it continue to encrypt new files or are only those files on the drive
when bitlocker was on encrypted? Have you had any problems with WinXP
related to the bitlocker? I'm assuming I won't since those partitions aren't
encrypted.
 
"Turning off Bitlocker" without choosing the decrypt option only
turns off the authentication process- encryption is still on and
all new files are encrypted also. Your restore points will not
be deleted so long as Vista stays encrypted- regardless if
Bitlocker's authentication is turned off.

Haven't encountered any problems with encryption on. You
don't notice (I haven't) anything being different. Of course,
you won't be able to see Vista from XP. It will show a drive
letter and if you click on that drive letter it will tell you that it
is an unformatted volume. Leave it alone. ;-)

I apologize, I should have told you this earlier- make sure you
print/write out the password or save it someplace other than Vista.
Some folks have reported that BitLocker is not reading the encrypt
key from some USB thumb drives. An MVP in the vista.security group
has said this will be improved by RC1. I have not experienced that
problem. If BitLocker can not read your USB drive and you don't
have your password- you are screwed. Pardon my language.
Recently, I have turned off the authentication at boot-up.

It's funny, I stopped using System Restore in XP a long time ago.
Found it to be unreliable and that it slowed down a computer. But
I wanted to really test it out this time and give it a chance. I've used
it twice and all went well. It is my understanding that SR in Vista is
much improved over XP. Of course, since I dual boot, the only way to
test SR is to protect my restore points. I just happened to stumble onto
the fact that BitLocker kept those restore points from being deleted.
There were some at Microsoft who said it wouldn't matter if BitLocker
was on and the drive was encrypted, the restore points would still be
deleted. Well, I knew what I saw. After, many tests- BitLocker does
protect the restore points- can't delete what you can't see. Which
makes perfect sense. I don't know why some said it shouldn't be
that way. I even asked specifically before I used Bitlocker if encryption
would protect those restore points, I was told no. Trust me, it works.

Let me/us know how it turns out.

Take care,

Michael
 
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