Solved Anyone figured out the disappearing restore points problem

[lumbco]

Update on my attempt to use Task Scheduler to create a restore point - a failure.

The run result reported "The system cannot find the file specified", so I have not set the schedule properly. I searched the net but cannot find any instructions on how to schedule restore points.

At the moment the four manual restore points that I had listed on the 12th April are still listed, so I have not lost any more.

Also, more than 7 days have elapsed since the last manual restore point and still no system restore points have been added.

 

[JeffL]

Update on my attempt to use Task Scheduler to create a restore point - a failure.

The run result reported "The system cannot find the file specified", so I have not set the schedule properly. I searched the net but cannot find any instructions on how to schedule restore points.

At the moment the four manual restore points that I had listed on the 12th April are still listed, so I have not lost any more.

Also, more than 7 days have elapsed since the last manual restore point and still no system restore points have been added.

The best I can do is give you the setting for mine, the way it was originally set up. I haven't made any changes to it. The task runs every day, but I haven't had 7 days go by yet. It would have been 7 days today, or tomorrow, but I got a Java update on the 17th that added a restore point.

Meanwhile, I'm down to 3 shadow copies (restore points), and very close to hitting my allocated amount (18 GB). I suspect it will get down to 2 restore points, then hopefully the usage growth will stabilize.

OK, Here are my task scheduler settings, hope it helps:

Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> SystemRestore

General Tab:
Name: SR
Location: \Microsoft\Windows\SystemRestore
Author: Microsoft Corporation
Description: This task creates regular system protection points

Run wheter user is logged on or not
Configure for Windows 8

Triggers Tab: none

Actions Tab:
Start a program: %windir%\system32\srtasks.exe ExecuteScheduledSPPCreation

Conditions Tab:
Idle: Start the task only if the computer is idle for 10 minutes
Wait for idle for 1 hours
Stop if the computer ceases to be idle
Power: Start the task only if the computer is on AC power

Settings Tab:
Allow task to be run on demand
Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed
Stop the task if it runs longer thatn 3 days
If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop

 

[lumbco]

Update on my attempt to use Task Scheduler to create a restore point - a failure.

The run result reported "The system cannot find the file specified", so I have not set the schedule properly. I searched the net but cannot find any instructions on how to schedule restore points.

At the moment the four manual restore points that I had listed on the 12th April are still listed, so I have not lost any more.

Also, more than 7 days have elapsed since the last manual restore point and still no system restore points have been added.

The best I can do is give you the setting for mine, the way it was originally set up. I haven't made any changes to it. The task runs every day, but I haven't had 7 days go by yet. It would have been 7 days today, or tomorrow, but I got a Java update on the 17th that added a restore point.

Meanwhile, I'm down to 3 shadow copies (restore points), and very close to hitting my allocated amount (18 GB). I suspect it will get down to 2 restore points, then hopefully the usage growth will stabilize.

OK, Here are my task scheduler settings, hope it helps:

Task Scheduler Library -> Microsoft -> Windows -> SystemRestore

General Tab:
Name: SR
Location: \Microsoft\Windows\SystemRestore
Author: Microsoft Corporation
Description: This task creates regular system protection points

Run wheter user is logged on or not
Configure for Windows 8

Triggers Tab: none

Actions Tab:
Start a program: %windir%\system32\srtasks.exe ExecuteScheduledSPPCreation

Conditions Tab:
Idle: Start the task only if the computer is idle for 10 minutes
Wait for idle for 1 hours
Stop if the computer ceases to be idle
Power: Start the task only if the computer is on AC power

Settings Tab:
Allow task to be run on demand
Run task as soon as possible after a scheduled start is missed
Stop the task if it runs longer thatn 3 days
If the running task does not end when requested, force it to stop

Thanks for your settings, I have now duplicated them on my PC.

I will now wait a few days when hopefully it will generate a system restore point.

As of this morning the 22nd I still have my four manual restore points, the latest being the 12th April.

Current usage is reported as 2.69 GB. Disc storage usage is set to 10% which equals 11.18 GB. This seems wasteful but I do not know what the setting should be.

 

[JeffL]

Current usage is reported as 2.69 GB. Disc storage usage is set to 10% which equals 11.18 GB. This seems wasteful but I do not know what the setting should be.

Your figures are so much smaller than mine. If 10% = 11.18 GB, I'm guessing you only have a 120 GB drive.
Do you have hibernation turned on? That is taking up space equal to 75% of my 8 GB memory, also pagefile.sys is over 1 GB. I think that is why my shadow copy is so large (10.14 GB and growing).

Can you go to a command prompt and type dir c:\ /ah
What is the size of your hiberfil.sys (if you have one), pagfile.sys, and swapfile.sys?
I'm starting to think that my usage size would go down considerably if I turned of hibernation. I'm not using it, and the hiberfile.sys file has not be accessed since I before I bought this computer.

 

[Clint]

Can you go to a command prompt and type dir c:\ /ah
What is the size of your hiberfil.sys (if you have one), pagfile.sys, and swapfile.sys?
I'm starting to think that my usage size would go down considerably if I turned of hibernation. I'm not using it, and the hiberfile.sys file has not be accessed since I before I bought this computer.

I have been losing my restore points too.
I'm a little confused. I have a 286,435,456 Swapfile.sys and 6,864,330,752 Hiberfile.sys on my C drive. And a 1,275,068,416 Pagefile.sys on my D drive. I have hibernate turned off. They were both accessed on 04/19/2013. I set my Pagefile to my D drive and none on C drive. I thought Swapfile and Pagefile were the same. Please educate me.

 

[JeffL]

Clint, your numbers are only slightly larger than mine. How much space to you have allocated for restore points? Does your system keep more than one restore point? I think this is going to turn out to be a matter of allocating a lot more space to retain more than one restore point.

Regarding swapfile and pagefile; I read about that this morning:

One of the main reasons for the swapfile.sys is to suspend and resume Metro apps. So why not just use the paging file instead to do that? It’s used because certain types of paging operations can be done more efficiently using this special type of pagefile.

Here’s a more clear explanation. Windows 8 supports both paging and swapping. Paging will hold items that haven’t been accessed in a long time whereas swapping holds items that were recently taken out of memory. The items in pagingfile may not be accessed again for a long time whereas the items in swapfile might be accessed much sooner.

The above is from HDG Explains - Swapfile.sys, Hiberfil.sys and Pagefile.sys in Windows 8 - Help Desk Geek

 

[JeffL]

Clint - One more thing. You said that your hiberfil.sys files was 6 BG+. You also said that you have hibernate turned off. I read at hiberfil.sys in Windows 8 and why you should never delete it by disabling hibernation | Next of Windows That if you see hiberfil.sys listed when you run the dir c:\ /ah command, the hibernation is turned on.

 

[Clint]

JeffL, Thanks for taking the time to educate me. This is great information.

"How much space to you have allocated for restore points? Does your system keep more than one restore point?”

I have 46.58 GB 5% of 1TB allocated for restore points. Right now I have 3 restore points, using 2.07 GB. At times I have lost all restore points.

“

The above is from HDG Explains - Swapfile.sys, Hiberfil.sys and Pagefile.sys in Windows 8 -Help Desk Geek”

This is some great info. I didn’t know it worked that way.

"Clint - One more thing. You said that your hiberfil.sys files was 6 BG+. You also said that you have hibernate turned off. I read at hiberfil.sys in Windows 8 and why you should never delete it by disabling hibernation | Next of Windows That if you see hiberfil.sys listed when you run the dir c:\ /ah command, the hibernation is turned on.”

I thought that I had hibernate turned off until I read your link. I thought sleep and hibernate were the same thing. From the article Fast Startup is hibernate. I had Fast Startup checked. I don’t know how much faster it would start up without it, but I’m going to try. I don’t see that much difference between Win7 and Win8 startup now.

 

[David Bailey]

I would like to help.
I need information about the issue.

I've read the entire thread.

I surmise you want to use Task Scheduler to automatically create a restore point every day ?
Is that correct ?

You want to know how much space is needed for 1 restore point ?
If so, delete All restore points & create 1 manually.
Check it to see how big it is.
Multiply it by 2 or 3 or 4, etc. to see how much space to allocate for more restore points.
Add a little more to be sure.
If 1 takes 2 GBs, add 3 GBs to allocated space. ETC......

This link may help.
I checked it out & think it is helpful:

How to Automatically Run & Create a Restore Point From the Task Scheduler | eHow.com

You need a Trigger.
See picture:



The more information I have about the issue,the better I can assist.
Hopefully I will be able to help.

 

[lumbco]

Your figures are so much smaller than mine. If 10% = 11.18 GB, I'm guessing you only have a 120 GB drive.
Do you have hibernation turned on? That is taking up space equal to 75% of my 8 GB memory, also pagefile.sys is over 1 GB. I think that is why my shadow copy is so large (10.14 GB and growing).

Can you go to a command prompt and type dir c:\ /ah
What is the size of your hiberfil.sys (if you have one), pagfile.sys, and swapfile.sys?
I'm starting to think that my usage size would go down considerably if I turned of hibernation. I'm not using it, and the hiberfile.sys file has not be accessed since I before I bought this computer.

Sorry for the delay in replying, I have been away. I see that there are other posts which I will have to read later.

In the meantime and to answer your post:

I have a 120GB solid state drive plus a 1.5TB disc drive, don't know if hibernate is switched on.
I use the sleep mode but I don't think that is the same as hibernate?

Hiberfil = 6.827GB
pagfile = 1.275GB
Swapfile = 268MB

 

[Clint]

Clint - One more thing. You said that your hiberfil.sys files was 6 BG+. You also said that you have hibernate turned off. I read at hiberfil.sys in Windows 8 and why you should never delete it by disabling hibernation | Next of Windows That if you see hiberfil.sys listed when you run the dir c:\ /ah command, the hibernation is turned on.

I unchecked fast startup as the article said and rebooted. It did not remove the hiberfil.sys file. I had to type powercfg /h off to get it to go away. I don't see any difference in performance. I did recover 6.864 GB of disk space. That's a lot compared to the first HD that I had. It was 40MB. You can type powercfg /h /size 50 to get it to use space equal to half your memory. The default is 75%.

 

[JeffL]

medab1 - At this point, I only have 1 restore point. The others (oldest) fell off of the last as the Usage space approached the Maximum space. It is suppose to do that in order to make room. When the older restore points went away, my Usage space fell to around 7 GB, but it is growing at about 2 GB a day (while the computer is on). Right now, it is 11.49 GB. I don't understand why it is getting bigger. I've been assuming that at some point it will stop growing, and that will be the size of one restore point. But why is it so big?

I do not want to automatically create a restore point everyday, but some of the others here might want to. I'm assuming that a new one will be automatically created 7 days after the previous one was created.

 

[David Bailey]

medab1 - At this point, I only have 1 restore point. The others (oldest) fell off of the last as the Usage space approached the Maximum space. It is suppose to do that in order to make room. When the older restore points went away, my Usage space fell to around 7 GB, but it is growing at about 2 GB a day (while the computer is on). Right now, it is 11.49 GB. I don't understand why it is getting bigger. I've been assuming that at some point it will stop growing, and that will be the size of one restore point. But why is it so big?

How much space is allocated ?
Greater than 11.49 GBs ?
Less than ?

See mine:



It would be odd if it grew bigger than the allocated space.
Could you post a screen shot of the above window as it is on your computer ?

 

[JeffL]

This is how it looked a few minutes ago:



BTW, If you really want to get into this, I've also been looking for help on a M/S tech forum, which probably has more info. (I actually got the two forums confused when you first replied).

This is the other forum: Volume Shadow Copy Expert Needed

 

[JeffL]

Here are some screen shots I've been taking during this ordeal:

6 restore points, 8.51 GB used



Same 6 restore points, 8.65 GB used


7th restore point add, 8.84 GB used


Same 7 restore points, 9.13 used


Oldest 3 dropped off, 12.03 used


Next olded dropped off, 14.5 used


Same 3, 16.97 used


Down to 1, 7.64 used


Right now - same 1 restore point, 11.5 used

 

[David Bailey]

This is how it looked a few minutes ago:

View attachment 20775

BTW, If you really want to get into this, I've also been looking for help on a M/S tech forum, which probably has more info. (I actually got the two forums confused when you first replied).

This is the other forum: Volume Shadow Copy Expert Needed

Thanks for the screen shot.
Apparently restore points are being created.
From the looks of it you have a 1 TB drive ???

Bear with me.
Did you use Task Scheduler to create restore points ?
Or it could be a default restore point setting.

Here are 2 pictures:

 

[JeffL]

Yes, I have a 1 TB drive.
I created the RPs that say manual. The one and only one I have now was created by a Java Update.
Task Scheduler runs the Restore Point task every day. It has not created a restore point yet, because I have not yet gone 7 days without one being created by me or a program installation. I expect one to be created within a couple of days if nothing else creates one first. It will probably spoil my test of seeing how big the usage grows. with only one restore point. My only issue at this time is why do the usage constantly grow instead of instantly reporting the usage size when the restore point is created, and why is it so big. I think it's growth is what is causing the deletion of previous restore points. You deleted, your restore points, created a new one, and reported that your usage was 7.64 GB. Some time has passed since then. Is is still 7.64 GB?

 

[XweAponX]

I had at least 6 restore points set up, made manually. When I tried to do a system restore, the only one that was left was one made by a Java update, all the rest of it was gone, and that restore point has continually refused to work. That is on my Media Center machine. On this Pro machine, I have all of the restore points going back to the very first one made, and my usage was set for 2 percent on this one, it was set for 3 percent on the WMC machine. Both of these machines dual boot to Windows 7, but this machine is an upgrade to Windows 8 from W7 Ultimate, the other was a clean install onto one of my Data drives. So that machine, the OS actually spans two drives, but on this one, it's all on one drive. That is to say, if I boot this machine and choose my D drive, it's Windows 7. But on my Media Center machine, booting from either drive boots to Windows 8 unless you choose Windows 7 in the OS Choice. I don't know how it got that way, but that's how it is. Now the question is, on the machine where the OS is spanning the drives, its acting like a JBOD Raid Array - So I am thinking that's why Restore is Failing. I haven't needed to try a restore on this one, but I think it will work.

 

[David Bailey]

Yes, I have a 1 TB drive.
I created the RPs that say manual. The one and only one I have now was created by a Java Update.
Task Scheduler runs the Restore Point task every day. It has not created a restore point yet, because I have not yet gone 7 days without one being created by me or a program installation. I expect one to be created within a couple of days if nothing else creates one first. It will probably spoil my test of seeing how big the usage grows. with only one restore point. My only issue at this time is why do the usage constantly grow instead of instantly reporting the usage size when the restore point is created, and why is it so big. I think it's growth is what is causing the deletion of previous restore points. You deleted, your restore points, created a new one, and reported that your usage was 7.64 GB. Some time has passed since then. Is is still 7.64 GB?

7.64 MBs not GBs.
There is a big difference (x1000) between MBs & GBs.

I never get a message when a restore point is created.
Except when a Program like Revo Uninstaller makes one before I Uninstall a program.

Here is a new picture of space being used by my restore points.
I decreased the Max space to as low as it would go since restore points are so small.



No new restore points have been created yet because I set it to automatically create one once a week.
One won't be created until next week on Wednesday.

You said,"It will probably spoil my test of seeing how big the usage grows. with only one restore point."
Not really.
I deleted All restore points & created more just to see the increase.
They got bigger the more I added.
Quote,"My only issue at this time is why do the usage constantly grow instead of instantly reporting the usage size when the restore point is created, and why is it so big.".
The size got bigger each time because the size of the previous restore point was added to each new restore point.
1 - First point
1+2=2 - Second point
1+2+3=3 - Third point
1+2+3+4=4 - Fourth point

The points should only start to disappear when the Max Usage is full.

I'll go read the other forums posts now.

EDIT---

You could use CCleaner to find out how many restore points you have.
A picture:



Same as this but quicker:

 

[JeffL]

Quote,"My only issue at this time is why do the usage constantly grow instead of instantly reporting the usage size when the restore point is created, and why is it so big.".
The size got bigger each time because the size of the previous restore point was added to each new restore point.
1 - First point
1+2=2 - Second point
1+2+3=3 - Third point
1+2+3+4=4 - Fourth point

The points should only start to disappear when the Max Usage is full.

I think you are missing the point that I have only had 1 restore point for several days. With only 1 restore point, the Usage size is still growing at about 2 GB a day. I could see I only had one using the Windows Restore window, Ccleaner, and the command vssadmin list shadows. They all report the same number of restore points.

My hope of seeing how high the Used amount would go with one restore point just got derailed. I had a Mozy backup update come in tonight, and it added a 2nd restore point.

I'm going to change my tactic. I'm going to double up my allocated space, and see if it will retain more restore points over time.