system recovery issues (especailly in multiboot systems)

[archp2008]

I have a multi-boot system Windows (xp, vista x86, vista x64, win7, win 8, and win 8.1) along with two linux distros (the latest Mint and Ubuntu). Everything seems to be working well this past month or two but there are some threatening issues regarding backup and restore capability that I have become aware of. First of all Windows Restore Points are systematically deleted by Windows upon rebooting. Oddly enough, the oldest system, Windows XP, is the only one that keeps its restore points regardless of how many times you reboot. No wonder so many users will need to be electronically blocked from booting into XP before they will stop using it. All the other Windows systems end up getting most or all of their system restore points deleted such that if and when the need to use a restore point happens, I will almost definitely get the message that there are no restore points available. There is never any notification that this is happening or has happened, of course In addition to this, the Win 8.1 does not offer the option to create a recovery disk to a cd or dvd. It must be a usb drive and this computer cannot boot from a usb drive. I am also a bit vague about system recovery disks, vs. images, vs. restore points. I find it difficult to see MS as trying to make the process of creating and restoring system restore points as more convenient and not more difficult. I'm surprised they even provide a graphical multiboot menu from Windows 8, one thing that is nice and positive. Any comments on the problem of capturing and keeping restore points in multiboot systems and creating an optical recvery disk in Win 8.1 (other then the installation disk) would be much appreciated. Is there a way to transfer the usb recovery disk for windows 8.1 frin the thumb drive to another drive, either optical or hard drive?

 

[archp2008]

I seem to have fixed the system restore point deletion following this link: System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete (applies to Win8 as well). The only downside is that by turning off the mounted volumes blocks access to the same volumes in XP; for example, when I am into Windows XP, I can only see the names "local disks" for Vista and Win7. I can't open or see anything inside these "local disks." This is not usually a big issue for me, as I can always use another storage drive on the computer for data transfer. Alternatively (a PITA) I can turn the registry settings on and off each time I need to access the other system volumes. There is no problem when in OS's other than XP. I don't know if the registry edit effects anything else such as program installation or disk maintenance. On the second issue I was talking about "making an optical recovery drive from Windows 8.1" there must be a way to copy the data from a bootable usb drive to make an optical disk (perhaps with Nero). I wonder if it would work to copy system restore points to a usb thumb drive and back to the system drive again when needed. (anyone?)