System Restore Limit

Hi guys,

Do you know what's the recommended size limit for system restore?

Currently, I have 4gb of system restore with a maximum size of 10gb.

Will 2gb be suitable?

 

You can usually allocate between 2% and 12% of the total storage capacity of your physical C-drive. How much you allocate should really depend on how much you can afford considering 'the bite' it will take out of your free-space.

Greater % = more Restore Points
Lesser % = fewer Restore Points

If you place little value on Restore Points that are older than a month or more, I certainly wouldn't allocate max space.

On the other hand, quite a few members around here (myself included) would encourage you to replace SR with a far more capable Instant Restore program, such as FD-ISR, RestoreIT, Rollback Rx, etc.

 

KikiBibi,
Windows System Restore is only useful, if you still can boot into Windows.
What if you can't boot into Windows anymore to save your computer, for instance a frozen BSOD.
Immediate System Recovery softwares, like FDISR allow you to recover your system BEFORE Windows starts.

An Image Backup software can save you too, but that depends on how OLD your image is. Your updatings of today are gone anyway and if you don't backup everyday you will lose even more updatings, than just today.

Never depend on MS Applications, they are all MEDIOCRE and INSUFFICIENT.

 

Hello,
I agree, System Restore is not really useful. If you must, use something like 1% of your hard disk space or less.
Mrk

 

...and even if you are able to bootup into Windows, the extent of recovery that SR provides is limited. SR only protects your system files. It can not be relied upon to properly restore your programs, data or user settings to the way they were when the Restore Point was created.

Any of the 'instant restore' programs I referred to (and some others as well) are capable of better protection than Windows SR. In choosing one over the other, one important consideration might be whether or not you need to protect a partitioned hard drive. Some of the 'instant restore' programs can protect any and all partitions while others can only protect the C-partition.

 

I use system restore to go back in time to correct a program that malfunctions due to accidently deleted file or a bad update etc. If I can't boot into windows I have Acronis TI 10. But for some reason System Restore on my computer is not reliable. On the progress bar, the colored stripe ether jets to the end or goes to a quarter of the wayout and stops dead. Rarely has it worked the way it is supposed to.

 

Thanks for the replies!

Now I'm trying out one instant restore program - Driveclone.
So far so good.

 

As far as I can tell, DriveClone is NOT an instant restore program. It appears to be a Disk Imaging/Cloning program.

 

Which also can be accomplished by Acronis True Image, I dont know about Ghost.

 

Sorry I meant DriveClone Pro by Farstone. It is the new RestoreIT + Disk Imaging/Cloning.

 

DriveClone 8 has the functionality of Restore-It added to the disk imaging.
So, it is two in one: snapshots and disk images.

 

http://www.farstone.com/software/driveclone-pro.htm
It is the same price as Acronis TI http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/
I wonder how it performs.

 

Hi there wil... I think you mean DriveClone 3, but in any case if it is what you say it is, then it could be a good synergistic combo!

Regards... pv

 

Oh man, you know how to get a blush on my face, don't you?

I have been beta testing Restore-It 8 and DriveClone 3.
It happens that Farstone added disk imaging/cloning functionality to Restore-It and snapshot functionality to Driveclone.
Sounds like identical products, right?
Restore-It 8 has been withdrawn before release.

 

....you must have been thinking of Rollback Rx / EAZ-fix v8.

Actually, I almost bought RestoreIT 7 in early 2006 as I really liked it as an 'instant restore' program. However, it soon became evident that RestoreIT wouldn't co-exist with Acronis TI, so I then trialed Rollback Rx and the rest is history.

So what do you think of DriveClone 3?

 

With incremental disk images and snapshots put together I think that Farstone offers a great competitor for Acronis TrueImage.

Farstone abandoned the security zone in a hidden partition, and has the zone in regular files. More flexible!

If only Farstone would implement independent snapshots, then it would also be a great competitor for eazFix/Rollback RX.

I continue thinking that somehow it should be possible to take snapshots that enable you to easily switch between conflicting configurations while the snapshot data retains.
Kind of Rollback RX snapshots saved in the security zone: defrag and imaging issues wouldn't exist at all.

 

That is right, Peter.
Even more when I can relax and test these applications in a virtual system.