Win7 System Restore- Can It Be Only Partial???

[Viper69]

So something WEIRD happened when I ran a Win7 System Restore.

I have a HP netbook, and I was using restore points which were on my portable HDD attached via a USB port.

It didn't complete, the software mentioned it didn't work etc (I don't have the exact error message)

After hitting OK to close the message, I ended up with a BSOD (never saw that in Win7 ever, nor on this netbook). I turned off/on the netbook.

The Restore was only partially successful (didn't know that was possible, thought it was all or nothing)

I say partially successful because a software I installed after the restore point I selected was gone (as expected if System Restore worked).

SO, does this happen often? I thought System Restore was an all or nothing deal. Either it worked completely or didn't at all.

Never needed to use System Restore, so I'm new on this one.

 

[EarthDog]

How is it partial if a piece of software you installed AFTER the restore point is not there...? Sounds to me, and to you, like it worked?

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Probably a bad drive or unstable CPU core because of bad cooling.

 

[Viper69]

How is it partial if a piece of software you installed AFTER the restore point is not there...? Sounds to me, and to you, like it worked?

I had some PDF files on the desktop created AFTER the restore point, and after the restore process, these PDF files were still there.

Also, there was an error from Windows telling me the restore process was unable to be completed.

SO, I was wondering if it's partial.

Shouldn't the PDF files have been removed if the restore had worked as it's supposed to? Or are those types of files not affected by system restore?

 

[trekky]

No system restore Do not touch personal files such as PDFs an DOC files
I have had it "fail" but work 100% I think it failed one thing and thinks it failed all

 

[Viper69]

No system restore Do not touch personal files such as PDFs an DOC files
I have had it "fail" but work 100% I think it failed one thing and thinks it failed all

Thanks! This is the first time I had to use it. I thought it replaced EVERYTHING. Good to know!

 

[EarthDog]

Exactly.. does not touch the personal files.

 

[Viper69]

Thanks guys!

I think this drive might crash too. Im debating if getting a SSD for my netbook is worth it though.

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

I got bad news, System Restore will delete personal files created after the time of the restore point creation!

 

[Viper69]

That's what I thought..Now we have conflicting information in this thread.

 

[c627627]

Drive imaging nukes an entire partition and replaces the entire hard drive partition.

System Restore focuses on restoring the Windows operating system to the state it was in previously.


The best approach i.m.h.o. is to install the Windows OS on a relatively small partition, *never* save any personal files on the Windows OS partition, even move Desktop folder away from the OS partition and then just nuke the OS partition when, that's when not if , something goes wrong.