Prior to doing a system restore with a third party imaging program which was successful and saved the day, I noticed all the restore points were gone. They were there as I check each day
Why did they disappear as they never used to?
Thank you
Peter
Usually when you do a system restore or system image recovery, all restore points created after the date of the restore point or image will be removed.
A 3rd party program adds a level of unknown as to what it may remove though.
Hello Brink
I read that Macrium and MS both use Volume Shadow Copy Service.
Would you think it likely that is the cause or that Macrium has an issue?
It never happened to me before, that I can remember.
Thank you
Peter
I don't use Macrium, but I would expect at least any restore points created after the date of the image would be removed since they were not there when the image was created.
Macrium does not delete restore points when you make an image of C - I just tested that. It does though use VSS to freeze the image so that you can continue working on the system during the imaging time.
I am not too skilled so don't know the dynamics of this however, I had restore points when the image was created so I thought they would be there when I recovered to the date that had these points - surprise!
It is ok as I will still use it as it has never failed me in crisis in over ten years and about a dozen recoveries. I l also have WinPE 5. for 8.1 that Macrium walks you through in creating the disc. I am sure there are as good if not better out there; I had Acronis until 2010 when another license was required but it seems it was for skilled users. I miss the Try and Decide feature it had.Thank you all.
Peter
Now you may be talking about something else. Does Macrium image the restore points ?? The answer is No. But it does not touch the restore points on your running system.
Why would you want Macrium to image the restore points anyhow. At the time you restore the image, those restore points may be days or weeks old and do not really mean anything any more.
I guess there is some logic to it. The image kind of supersedes the restore points and imaging them would inflate the size of the image. But I see your point. They could be useful if the image is flawed.
I will try Aomei and see whether they do it differently.
I found that Macrium does not keep restore points as it is set up but that one can alter it to do so. I plan to keep it as it is so I can count on the image. I am not skilled enough to modify an essential program like this.
I do know the VSS is involved with both Macrium and system restore. I have my VSS set to "running" and automatic" and hope that is correct.
I think mine was set to manual also but I changed it after reading an article. I am a bit confused which to select as my imaging program depends upon it.
So to be sure yours is 'start' and 'manual', correct not 'automatic' and 'running'?
No. As shown in my System Specs it's plain old Windows 8. If you are going to put it Automatic you may as well start it. After next boot it will be Running anyway.
You could also create some CustomRefreshImages using the recimg utility and keep them on an external HDD. Move any one back to your primary HDD and set which one you want with recimg /setcurrent.
If you have a lot of restore points it could easily double the size of your image when you backup with macrium and include all restore points, You are probably already aware of this but you can also limit the total size of your restore point storage with config restore point.
Not really. An image is between 500MB and 1GB. Even if you have, let's say 10 images e.g. 7GBs, that is only a third or a quater of a typical system installation (assuming the user data is not on the C partition).
If the user data is on the C partition, it may only be a small fraction.
The custom recovery image is a fancy restore point too.
I have a friend across he pond who is a mod and his 8.1 is set for manual and stopped. He said Macrium would kick in when you run it. I wonder though about the restore points if stopped.
Should VSS for win 8.1 be set at manual and stopped?
That is what a mod told me but I worry about the restore points not being created. As for Macrium, he said the VSS would start once Macrium runs.
I am unsure.