XP System Restore question

When you shut off system restore, it tells you that all save points will be lost. Is there any way to save these?
Thanks

 

Backup the System Volume Information folder.

They are saveable, yep

 

Wow, thanks for the fast response. After restarting sys restore, I then need to just copy the files back to the System Volume information folder, correct? And is that the correct name of the folder they are in or do you know the path?
Thanks

 

Yes, after restarting System Restore, just replace the folder.

It is a hidden folder, btw.

To be precise, all you need is the _restore"random characters" folder inside System Volume Information.

The path would be
C:\System Volume Information\_restore

There will be random characters after the _restore name.

Next issue.

The OS locks that folder down.

Are you using Home or Pro

 

It's XP home. Yeah.... I know..... I didn't know better when I got it or I would have got pro.

 

Ok, give me a second, you need to change the permissions of the folder.

XP is on C:\ right?

 

Correction, OS is on the C: drive, backup of it is on the D:. Please ignore the other post.

 

Ok, thanks. OS is on a D: drive partition.

 

I'm assuming you are on NTFS.

Type this at a command prompt, and press Enter:

cacls "C:\System Volume Information" /E /G username:F

Should give a success message of sorts.

Then you can access the folder, and backup the _restore folder inside.

EDIT: LOL, the drive letter should be right now

C:\ is where the OS is right?

 

Holy COW it worked !!!!!!!!! Another satisfied customer. Thanks for your time Adrynalyn. The kittens are safe too.

 

No problem

 

OK! Great stuff. You guys work together like a matched team of ... well, like a team!

Now, there's an important thing to note here: Yes, you can back up and save RPs (Restore Points), ...BUT

You can't save an RP for a while somewhere and then put it back into the folder and go back to it ... UNLESS you have an unbroken string of the RPs you've made SINCE that RP was created. Here's the relevant idea:
(I wrote this earlier about deleting, but the same idea applies to saving an archived RP)

The point: Yes, you can save RPs elsewhere. But No, you can't put an old RP back into the folder and restore to it, UNLESS you have all of the other RPs that have been made since that RP was made.

Here's the Microsoft Technet page that has this info and a whole lot more about System Restore and Restore Points on it: MS Technet: All About System Restore

A final note of explanation for this inability, this one from MS: "System Restore's current architecture is unable to support this as it is a change base tracking tool and not an imaging or backup tool."

 

Great post Wisewiz, I'm SURE that would have bit me in the !#& down the road. I'll just have to remeber to save them all.
Thanks for the heads up,
Jerry

 

Oops, I just assumed you would save them all

hence the reasoning for backing up the _restore folder

 

I knew you assumed that, m'friend. I just wanted to make the assumption explicit, so that anyone who used the thread later would be warned about the uselessness of discontinuous strings of RPs.

(Nah. I didn't have to look that up.)