Alternate to XP System Restore Points

Hi KJ,

No, this would not work. System Restore is not a backup program and
should not be depended on to do so.

By designed and under normal conditions System Restore will
automatically create a new restore point every 24 hours.

When the allotted disk space is reached, the oldest restore point will
be purged on a first in first out (FIFO) basis. Otherwise, restore
points over 90 days are purged automatically by default.

Each one of these restore points are chained (or linked) together with
previous restore points. When a restore point is chosen, all restore
point created prior to that restore point are also required to complete
the restoration.

While all of this is going on, in real time, a log is being created or
updated that tracks the consistency between the files System Restore is
monitoring, and the files that are actually backed up. If an
inconsistency is found between the log file and the files located in the
System Volume Information folder, restore point corruption can occur. In
turn this causes the chain to become broken and any prior restore points
to become useless, thus causing System Restore to fail at a restore. At
this point all restore points would have to be purged to correct the
corruption. So you can see, backing up and restoring restore points
would cause an inconsistency in the restore log thus causing corruption
and the loss of all restore points.

Note: Any changes made within the System Volume Information folder
(where System Restore stores restore information) will almost certainly
cause the same corruption.

Your best bet is to search for a backup application to suit your needs.

--
Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org


KJ wrote:
Anyone know of a program that will allow me to make various system
restore points, and keep them until I choose to delete them? If I want
to restore, I want to be able to choose from which among them I wish
to restore to, and which to delete.

I tried this today with XP's built-in restore system. I made 2 or 3
system restore points throughout the morning, but later when I went to
see if they were there, XP had erased them all to keep the last one it
made by default when I had to reboot after installing the trial
software I was trying. Now it so happens I'm going to keep that
software and I don't want to restore, but I want to know in the
future I can restore if I need to. (I have tens of GBs of space, and
restore settings are set to allow a gig of restore space, so it did
not erase the previous points b/c of space.)

I heard FirstDefense, RestoreIt are pretty good. (GoBack makes
incremental stacks for restore points, which I don't want. I want
snapshots.) Anyone know of any others? I'd like something I can
download to try. I think the above need to be purchased outright.

Thanks and Happy New Year,
KJ