Solved Anyone figured out the disappearing restore points problem

[JeffL]

Go back and check after a while and see if it's gone up. At the n.nn Gigabyte resolution, it doesn't change as fast as at the Megabyte resolution.

I just got off the phone with Microsoft tech support. The guy thought it might be growing due to some activity by my Norton A/V. He said that they don't recommend adding any 3rd party A/V to Windows 8, because the Windows Defender that's build in does the job. He said they've been experiencing problems when 3rd part A/Vs are installed. I don't know if that was BS or not, but I uninstalled Norton, and turned on Windows Defender. I guess it's better if the A/V and the OS come from the same company. The right and doesn't always know what the left hand is doing, but at least the right and left hands will be on the same body now I created a restore point before and after uninstalling Norton, so now I have 5. My Current Usage is not 4.15 GB. We'll see what happens.

 

[znod]

Interesting. On your theory, FWIW, see System Restore. I have not been able to find the actual folder in which "restore points" are stored in Win8. Any thoughts?

 

[JeffL]

Interesting. On your theory, FWIW, see System Restore. I have not been able to find the actual folder in which "restore points" are stored in Win8. Any thoughts?

I can't find it either. I think I read that it's in a hidden folder called System Volume Information, but I can't find it.

BTW, uninstalling Norton didn't seen to help the Current Usage growth. It's at 4.99 GB now.

 

[SIW2]

They aren't folders. They are volumes.

You can have look at and copy out the contents with ShadowExplorer.com - About

 

[znod]

Interesting. On your theory, FWIW, see System Restore. I have not been able to find the actual folder in which "restore points" are stored in Win8. Any thoughts?

I can't find it either. I think I read that it's in a hidden folder called System Volume Information, but I can't find it.

BTW, uninstalling Norton didn't seen to help the Current Usage growth. It's at 4.99 GB now.

I couldn't find system volume information either.

 

[znod]

They aren't folders. They are volumes.

You can have look at and copy out the contents with ShadowExplorer.com - About

Thanks, and for the link. Do you think the usage values given in configure (system restore) are reliable? You say "copy out." Not sure what you mean. Copy and paste?

 

[SIW2]

Use shadow explorer program.

It shows the copies and what is in them. rt click a file/folder and export ( same as copy )

 

[znod]

Got it thanks.

 

[JeffL]

znod - Were you able to download shadow explorer? I can't get the web site. I times out on me.

 

[SIW2]

View attachment ShadowExplorer-0.9-portable.zip

 

[JeffL]

View attachment 19957

Thanks! Can you tell me what I'm looking at? I looks like everything that is on my C drive plus some additional files. Does the Current Usage that I see on the System Protection window include all of that? It looks like more than I have allocated space for.

 

[SIW2]

Yes, everything should be in there.

There is a drop down which may show several different dates/times.

It is very useful to be able to get stuff out of there.

That is what is in your shadow storage.

Changed blocks are backed up to a differences area. The unchanged blocks and the blocks in the differences area make up a shadow copy at a given point in time. In other words, it isn't backing the same thing repeatedly, just the differences.

Shadow explorer is showing you those points in time.

 

[JeffL]

Interesting. Thanks for that, but do you know if it occupies the space that is allocated for system restore with the slider?

 

[znod]

znod - Were you able to download shadow explorer? I can't get the web site. I times out on me.

I haven't tried to download from the site, but I'm going to take what's offered (kindly) above.

 

[lumbco]

I just deleted my restore points, and created a new one. The usage is now 19.92 MB. Now I'm wondering if I mis-read the usage when I said it was over 7 GB (though that would explain my missing restore points problem). This is one of those moments that I wish I could go back in time 5 minutes.

Based on the constant growth of the Current Usage figure in the configure window, I'm certain that I was right the first time, it was over 7 GB, not MB. I was shut down over night, which stopped it for a while, but it's picked up this morning, and is showing 2.89 GB. I posted yesterday that it was around 19 MB after creating my 2nd restore point, and over 200 MB a while later.

As of this morning, I still have the 3 restore points I put in yesterday. I had a Windows update, but no update related restore points. On that topic, I read a post from someone who had contacted M/S, and was told that they only create a pre-update restore point for critical updates.

znod - those calculations definitively don't make sense.

lumbco - After reading many posts about users that have a scheduled task to run the automatic restore points daily, but don't see any results, I came up with a theory. In Windows 7, and I presume Windows 8, an automatic restore point is created only if a restore point has not been created in the past 7 days. The task scheduler can be set to run the program that creates a restore point every hour, but one of the first things it's coded to do, is check to see when the last restore point was created. If it was within 7 days, a new restore point is not created, but the program has done it's job, and ends successfully. The successful execution message you see, doesn't mean a restore point was created, it just means the program ran. That's my theory anyway.

I'd still be interested from any of you, if you see your Current Usage in the configure window growing each time you go into the configure window. Especially if it hasn't already reached the Max Usage setting, or you've started over by deleting your existing restore points (you might as well, if they are disappearing anyway).

I'm going to go back to the store today, and look at the figures a display computer.

................................
Thanks for your input JeffL.

I think that you may be right about 7 day intervals. The latest restore point I created is dated the 12th April, I will leave the Task Scheduler creating a daily restore point and check the results on the 20th April.

 

[lumbco]

Sorry, got that wrong.

I will not create any more restore points for the time being and will set the Task Scheduler to create one on the 20th April. If the seven day theory is right then that one should then be listed.

 

[JeffL]

Sorry, got that wrong.

I will not create any more restore points for the time being and will set the Task Scheduler to create one on the 20th April. If the seven day theory is right then that one should then be listed.

I don't believe you even have to set the Task Scheduler. I never touched mine, which I just looked at, and it says, "SR Ready 4/13/2013 7:58:16 AM The operation completed successfully. (0x0) Microsoft Corporation". That was less than an hour ago, and my last restore point is one that I manually created 2 days ago. So far, that's in line with my 7 days from last restore point theory.

Look forward to hearing your results.

I said, in the post that you quoted, that I was going to check the computers in the store to see if the Max Usage had grown to the Current Usage level, on the display computers, that would not be having more restore points added. I tried to check it out, but admin privileges were needed, and as expected, the topic was over the salesman's head.

Meanwhile, my Current Usage is still constantly growing while the computer is on, at the read of about 2 GB a day. It's now showing 7.78 GB, so it will be a while before it hits my current Max Usage of 18.44 GB. My second theory is that as the Current Usage gets closer to the Max Usage, my restore points will start disappearing until there is only the most recent one is left.

 

[znod]

@JeffL

Good luck on your theory. If it works out, I think there is room for you to work on a quantum theory of gravity.

 

[JeffL]

@JeffL

Good luck on your theory. If it works out, I think there is room for you to work on a quantum theory of gravity.

There is no gravity... the Earth sucks

I did once post a question on the Physics Forum about gravity and the Cheerios Effect. :huh:

 

[JeffL]

Here's an update. This morning my Used Shadow Copy Storage was above 16 GB and growing. (Maximum is 18.4 GB). I checked it a few minutes ago, and Used storage was down to 13.9 GB. I checked my restore points (shadow copies), and the oldest 3 were gone. Keep in mind that I have not added any new ones since I add the 7th restore point 3 days ago. I've been communicating with someone on another forum, and I don't have this completely verified yet, but I think what might be happening is that the first restore point as a full copy of the restore-able files. After that, when a restore point is created, the shadow copy is a differential copy, it only contains the changes that occurred. I think that once the differential copy is created, the system starts to slowly create a new full copy that incorporates those changes. As the full copy gets larger, more space is used so I see the Used space figure get larger. When it gets near the Maximum reserved space, it deletes the oldest restore points for more room.

Right now, the Used space is growing again. It's at 14.01 GB. I suspect that tomorrow, I might lose one or more restore points. I'm hoping that at some point, it will stop this growing activity, and I'll have an idea of how much more space I'll need to allocate in order to retain 3 to 5 restore points without them going missing.