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System Restore On or Off?

Poll Results: Do You Have Your System Restore On?

 
  • 21% (4)
    Yes
  • 47% (9)
    No
  • 31% (6)
    No, I backup an otherway (Please Explain)
19 Total Votes  
post #1 of 43
6/30/06 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
EDIT! Apparently there is a problem with the Poll system.

JUST POST YOUR ANWSER, POLL IS BROKEN.

(In Order From Top To Bottom, The Damn Numbers Keep Changing)



What do you guys do? Do you leave System Restore on or Off in Windows XP.

I heard it takes up system and HDD resources, but im not sure what to do with my new laptop.


Also when you guys talk about backing up your system every week or so, what exactly do you mean by "backup"? What methods?
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post #2 of 43
6/30/06 at 9:32am
I personally disable it for my personal machines. I've done both on work computers and honestly it has been handy and saved me some time more than once.
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post #3 of 43
6/30/06 at 10:13am
I leave it on for drive C, but reduce the amount of space it takes and clear it out periodically. I disable it on other partitions because, well, there is nothing to restore so its a waste of space.

Oh and, unless you regularly keep loads and loads of files in the trash and then want them back... reduce the size of the trashcan or delete it entirely. By defaults, its another 10% of your disk thats wasted
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post #4 of 43
6/30/06 at 12:28pm
Thread Starter 
How would you back up things then? What methods?
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post #5 of 43
6/30/06 at 3:22pm
I would leave it on, if you're new to computers or just plain lazy (like me) system restore automatically backs up your data from time to time. (you can set it when you want it to back up your data.. or you can do it manually)

Also, system restore has saved my computer more than twice atleast. It's just a tool that comes in handy, personally I think its worth the space it takes up. I would rather know I can always roll back my settings.
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post #6 of 43
6/30/06 at 6:37pm
I turn it off and do regular backups plus after I install everything I want and patch it (xp, office, AV/FW, anitspyware, etc) I make an image of the drive so if anything goes bad I just put the DVD in and presto back to how I want it no problems.
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post #7 of 43
6/30/06 at 7:28pm
I leave it off. I also do what DarqHelmet does...
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post #8 of 43
6/30/06 at 11:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DDDa
I leave it off. I also do what DarqHelmet does...
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post #9 of 43
7/1/06 at 12:05am
I leave it on, I'm also lazy to back it up
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post #10 of 43
7/1/06 at 12:33am
What is the advantage of disabling System Restore? It actually backs up data? Thought it was only meant to back up system files so if crashes happen or a bad install occurs, you can "go back intime" to pre-install . crash state. Data should not be affected.

LEAVE IT ON and it might save your butt one day. Just remember to periodically go into Disk Clean up once in a while to delete old System Restore backups.

Suggestion is to always leave it ON.
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post #11 of 43
7/1/06 at 12:42am
Leave it off. Ghost the system partition and Retrospect (back-up) the documents partition.
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post #12 of 43
7/1/06 at 1:08am
I also do what odious_m does (but I do not have an entire partition for docs). I see I do a lot of what others do...

Seriously: system restore is not as effective as ghosting your disk because it will only secure it from logical damages. Ghosting, however, will provide an effective solution for both logical and physical problems. It also release disk space, which always a plus, considering that media is cheap (I was looking today for a DVD pack: 50 Taiyo Yudens for $18).
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post #13 of 43
7/1/06 at 2:21am
Ghosting is fantastic technology. In fact, my first ghost version came on a 1.4 diskette! For the newwer versions, can you ghost to C drive if your windows is also installed on C drive? Most notebooks (& many computers) only have 1 drive, that is why I ask this question.

Again, ghosting is great. But System Restore is for the times that you installed a crappy piece of software and in screws up Windows, USB ports , hardware conflicts etc... It also saves users when windows crashes due to power failure or even without cause. Again, ghosting is great if you can do it on a regular basis. I tested Version 10 and it does backup ghost images to a folder somewhere.

So for anyone without Ghost, keep that System Restore on. Just search around and you will see so many user comments on the net about this function saving them. Ever boot into windows and the infamous issue where the windows intro screen just keeps loading? Something got messed up on the last boot of Windows and system restore could be an easy fix fo this. Again, besides needing to manually delete some files to retrieve HDD space, there is no reason to turn this off. Hope this can help users who are less tech savvy and do not know how to Ghost.
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post #14 of 43
7/1/06 at 2:36am
i keep mine on because i dont care about reformatting
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post #15 of 43
7/1/06 at 3:11am
If you keep it on every piece of spyware and virus you pick up has the ability to renistall it self everytime you delete it. Also I have had system restore screw up and ended up haveing to do a complete format reinstall lost everything that is why I now use ghost/trueimage to back my stuff up. Also it does use system resouces to backup data.
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post #16 of 43
7/1/06 at 3:14am
Ah, so I see system restore does not only screw up with me... however, I quit saying that because it's good for everyone else (until now)...
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post #17 of 43
7/1/06 at 3:19am
DDD its a POS.
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post #18 of 43
7/1/06 at 3:57am
Ugh, I switch off and leave it there. System Restore is the worst backup system (if you can actually call it that) ever to be conceived. It makes massive amounts of bloat, it's buggy (I used it for a little white at first, but found it created more problems than it fixed)...it's just overall junk.

I create my backups using proper methods...

1. I back up my work data daily to an external USB hard drive using a file synchronization program

2. I backup my entire hard drive to a second identical drive, then swap the drives

3. I also backup my OS partition onto images (using TBU's BootIt NG) in increments along the installation of the OS (eg.: I'll backup the "base" installation of my OS so that I can just restore the image instead of reinstalling the OS when the time comes -- saves at least an hour).
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post #19 of 43
7/1/06 at 4:06am
off. it is a waste of harddrive space. reformating is very fast now days so doesnt really bother me to format or anything. system restore can be screwed up also so ii never depend on it
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post #20 of 43
7/1/06 at 10:42am
Thread Starter 
Alright, what do you guys use to make a "ghost"?

Thanks
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