Is there a way to store the original System Restore point so it is
permanently accessible?
In this excerpt from
Answercast #11, I look at how System Restore points work and look at a much
more effective way to manage a computer.
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Can you save a System Restore point?
No. I don’t know of any way to actually, individually, control system
restore points.
In fact, I personally find System Restore fundamentally unreliable. I
strongly suggest that people not rely on it for anything important. It falls
into the category of convenient when it works but potentially disastrous if
you’re relying on it to work.
I’ve simply had too many reports of System Restore not being able to
restore when it was necessary; or not being able to create restore points; or
restore points that just magically go missing without warning.
Backup instead of restore
I would strongly suggest, instead, that you use a backup program to do
exactly what you have just described.
What I would suggest you do is create a system image backup of your entire
machine. That then, is the initial image that you might want to call ‘your
initial restore point.’ You could restore to that backup image at any time and
know that everything in that image is going to be restored to your machine.
That’s not something that you can count on with system restore. Using a
backup program in general is my strong, strong recommendation for anybody
that’s considering relying on System Restore.
Find out more…
You can actually read more on that. I have an article “Why I don’t like
System Restore.” That goes into the problem into a little bit more
detail.
Like I said, it’s nice; it’s convenient… when it works. I’ve used it myself
as a convenient way to backup the registry instead of having to do a full
backup, but it is not something that I feel that anyone should feel safe
relying on.
Next – Why do I have to keep updating Firefox when I can’t see any difference?
I have never found using System Restore to be helpful in any way.
Once I was surprised when I tried it and it actually seemed to fix a problem I’d been having. But I soon realized that what had fixed the problem was REBOOTING my computer, which was part of the System Restore process!