Alternative to MS System Restore?

Is there an alternative to MS System Restore?

Over the years, I have tried MS System Restore many times and can only recall it actually working twice. I have tried turning it off and then back on again and that will sometimes work once and then it is back to the same old thing saying that the program did not restore your system to an earlier date.

This is a dismal record and it seems like Microsoft should either make this feature work or remove it from the program.

Since that is unlikely, I was wondering if there is any commercial program (free or paid) that would perform what Microsoft says their program will do?

 

You've gotta figure that question has been asked many times before.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=222061

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=226756

More. Many discussed and favored here among W's members.

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/index.shtml#system

http://www.howtohaven.com/system/how-to-back-up-hard-disk.shtml


S

 

Another program you might like to consider is FirstDefense PC Rescue: It will create an exact copy of your OS, and you will be able to switch from one to the other either from the program GUI or from a pre-boot hot key. If you get infected, made a mistake of configuration, tested a program you want to get rid of completely, all you have to do is to boot to 'the other snapshot', and you are done.

I use it in combination with Shadow Defender which gives me the extra protection of virtualization.

 

How about SpywareBlaster's System Snapshot?

 

I did a search for System Restore before posting and nothing came up. Must have done it wrong.

I will try the alternatives mentioned after reading all those postings that I missed.

Thanks for helping

 

Key words > system restore > titles only + search in forums > software & services. You're gonna find there are more than enough capable programs worthy of attention, and just as many experienced users willing to provide guidance. You wanna focus beyond the unreliable.

S

 

Any imaging software should work, I use macrium reflect as my system restore. But my c: drive is small 20gb (6gb in use) takes 5 minutes to backup and about 10 minutes to restore. If you have a 300gb c: drive, then imaging won't work for you.

When you restore back to the same hard drive/partition, imaging always works.

Another program I use is returnil, I use it to test programs (that don't require reboot). It's more of a "on demand type system restore" , just before I do anything dangerous, I enable "returnil" this "saves" my current state of my computer. If anything gets screwed up all I have to do is reboot.

I also have my windows "system restore" disabled for years, never trusted it and it's worthless. I don't miss it. A weekly image backup of my c: drive has proven very reliable for me even though it's would probably be consider overkill for most people.

 

Image restore works faster than MS system restore .I have dumped MS system restore.

 

Its a shame that MS never bother to include a real restore function like SP,Acronis,Paragon and the like,the inbuild one IMO suck,sometimes it work sometimes not.

If your disk get toasted,he..he you know what i mean,get yourself a good imaging program,disable system restore to free up some space,many malware cleaning is done without purging the restore points so chances to get reinfected are serious.

 

First thing u should do after a fresh install of a Windows is to turn off System Restore.

 

I am going to leave System Restore turned off now. That way I will not be tempted to rely on something that most likely will fail when I need it most.

I already image my program and data drives regularly with Drive Image XML and it has never failed me. System Restore always offered the hope that I could quickly restore minor failures but it seldom fulfilled that promise.

Now, I am going to investigate all alternatives but may have to just rely on my backup images.

Thanks for all your thoughts and suggestions.