Windows 7 System Restore Automatic Restore Points Not Created
Checked Task Scheduler, triggers set for daily at 12 midnight and at system startup. Computer is not in sleep mode, during midnight, because it won't resume from sleep properly, so I've disabled sleep ( another technet issue to post....) So there is no reason it should not create restore points. Per this article: http://forums.computeractive.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1282921, my computer is certainly idle at midnight. So what could be preventing the restore points from being created Let's try another way. A system restore scheduled task (named SR in Win7) controls when a snapshot occurs. By default, the task is set to run at 12:00AM every day and 30 minutes after every system startup, but will only execute when the system is plugged in and has been idle for 10 minutes. If the system is not idle, the task will continue to wait for idle for 23 hours. It therefore follows that even though a task schedule for a restore point is set, Windows may not be able to create one due to the "triggers" and "conditions" not being met i.e. the computer was never at idle. Now that condition may continue for days at a time. However, if a restore point/snapshot has not been successfully created in the last seven days, system protection will create one automatically. Here is a scenario. 1. The SR in Task Scheduler may create a restore point on a daily basis but equally, may not do so for reasons outlined above. 2. No manual restore points have been created by the user. 3. No software installation has triggered a system restore point to be created. 7 days elapse and due to all 3 conditions above, no system restore point has been created. The Windows protection system then invokes the 7 day rule to create a restore point.
April 25th, 2011 12:09am

Hi, As we can see, the condition is that: start the task only if the computer is idle for 10 minutes. You have noticed that Windows may not be able to create restore point due to the "triggers" and "conditions" not being met. For the idle time definition, please kindly refer to the following document: The Task Scheduler service will check if the computer is in an idle state every 15 minutes. A computer is considered to be in an idle state when a screen saver is running. If a screen saver is not running, then the computer is considered to be in an idle state if there is 0% CPU usage and 0% disk input or output for 90% of the past fifteen minutes and if there is no keyboard or mouse input during this period of time. Once the Task Scheduler service detects that the computer is in an idle state, the service only waits for user input to mark the end of the idle state. For more information, refer to the following article: Task Conditions Hope it helps. Alex ZhaoPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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April 26th, 2011 9:08pm

Hi, I am just writing to check the status of this thread. Was the information provided in previous reply helpful to you? Do you have any further questions or concerns? Please feel free to let us know. Alex Zhao TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
April 28th, 2011 9:26pm

Alex, I still not sure this solves my problem. So you are saying I essentially need to have the screen saver running to ensure that I will get a restore point?
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April 29th, 2011 10:30pm

can you manually create a restore point or is that also failing?
April 30th, 2011 7:36am

I can manually create restore points. I have the computer set so that it goes into screen saver mode when idle for 20 minutes. Sleep is shut off. The display is set to go off in 1 hour. It's been over a week since the last manual restore point and no automatic restore point has been created. I have a feeling I will have to use one of my Technet Support Incidents to get a solution to this problem.
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April 30th, 2011 8:56am

I can manually create restore points. I have the computer set so that it goes into screen saver mode when idle for 20 minutes. Sleep is shut off. The display is set to go off in 1 hour. It's been over a week since the last manual restore point and no automatic restore point has been created. I have a feeling I will have to use one of my Technet Support Incidents to get a solution to this problem. do you also have the hard drives set to turn off after 1 hour, I think by default they turn off much sooner.
April 30th, 2011 9:04am

I have the hard drives to turn off after 22 minutes, formerly I had the computer set to sleep at 30 minutes, but I was having problems with resume from sleep. I just went into task scheduler and unchecked the idle condition for system restore. However, you are saying if the hard drive is set to turn off, the system restore will never happen?
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April 30th, 2011 9:40am

I have the hard drives to turn off after 22 minutes, formerly I had the computer set to sleep at 30 minutes, but I was having problems with resume from sleep. I just went into task scheduler and unchecked the idle condition for system restore. However, you are saying if the hard drive is set to turn off, the system restore will never happen? No was just thinking "some systems" seem to have a hard time waking the hard drives up once they have gone to sleep. I'm a bit confused about which backup you speak of, are you talking about "system restore" (which normally sets a restore point when installing new software, or are you talking about windows backup in control panel (which backs up your profile and settings)?
April 30th, 2011 9:47am

System restore has automatic restore points that are set in the Task Scheduler by default.
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April 30th, 2011 5:44pm

System restore has automatic restore points that are set in the Task Scheduler by default. OK I didn't consider that, my bad. Have you tried creating a new time/day for the task to take place and see if that helps?
May 1st, 2011 8:04am

Hi, As we discussed, if the task failed to run, the possible cause might be the conditions could not be met. You could deselect this condition option to check the result. Hope it helps. Alex Zhao TechNet Subscriber Support in forum. If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.comPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.
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May 2nd, 2011 5:34am

Alex, I removed the idle condition for the task and it still doesn't run. I need to get this solved, or I'll have to use a Technet incident. I can't believe it is such a complicated issue that it can't be solved here.
May 4th, 2011 10:05am

Alex, I removed the idle condition for the task and it still doesn't run. I need to get this solved, or I'll have to use a Technet incident. I can't believe it is such a complicated issue that it can't be solved here. try this: You can try the following steps, to fix the issue: Check whether the Volume Shadow copy services is started. To do this: 1. Go to start, type services.msc in start search box and press enter. 2. Now, check Volume shadow copy is running. Perform a sfc scan. The System File Checker tool scans system files and replaces incorrect versions of the system files by using the correct versions. To run the System File Checker tool, follow these steps: Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box. Right-click cmd in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue At the command prompt, the following line, and then press ENTER: sfc /scannow When the scan is complete, test to see whether the issue that you are experiencing is resolved.
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May 4th, 2011 10:30am

Also Win7 by design will automatically create a new restore point once every seven days as long as there has been no other restore points created (ie.. via software installs, manual restore points).... Has this been happening? I found this link that might be helpful also: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/697-system-restore-point-create.html Here is another slightly more in depth site: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/change-how-often-system-restore-creates-restore-points-in-windows-vista/ Hope some of this is helpful cause I'm out of ideas myself, Good Luck!
May 4th, 2011 10:35am

Alex, I already tried these things long ago. Issue is still not fixed.
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May 10th, 2011 10:01am

Hi, Please check the following: A) Disk space allocation 1. Click Start , type System in the Search box and then click System from the list under Control panel 2. Click System protection in the task pane 3. Under Protection Settings click to select Local Disk (C:) (System) [Make sure it is set to On] and then click Configure 4. Under Disk Space Usage , check the current value for Max usage; move the Max Usage slider to the right to increase the disk space usage for System Restore points Note: If protection is turned on for additional drives you might consider increasing the Max Usage for those drives as well. B) Does it work if you manually run the "SR" task ? C) Check the Task Scheduler eventlog and post the events that are thrown at the time of the task, does the task attempt to start at all, is it erroring out? D) Make sure there are no group policies that disables system restore - gpresult /z Sumesh P - Microsoft Online Community Support
May 10th, 2011 10:43am

Sumesh, Actually, the Task Scheduler history shows that the tasks were run. Yet between 5/1-11 and 5/9/11, I have only one automatic restore point in the system restore, on 5/9 So it is saying it is creating restore points every night, but only one on 5/9 was actually created. Information 5/10/2011 12:00:06 PM 102 Task completed (2) ded962ea-842e-4f62-b413-49035904f273 Information 5/10/2011 12:00:06 PM 201 Action completed (2) ded962ea-842e-4f62-b413-49035904f273 Information 5/10/2011 12:00:00 PM 200 Action started (1) ded962ea-842e-4f62-b413-49035904f273 Information 5/10/2011 12:00:00 PM 100 Task Started (1) ded962ea-842e-4f62-b413-49035904f273 Information 5/10/2011 12:00:32 AM 102 Task completed (2) 32a66a6c-7f94-4780-9e29-74a4b9a1345c Information 5/10/2011 12:00:32 AM 201 Action completed (2) 32a66a6c-7f94-4780-9e29-74a4b9a1345c Information 5/10/2011 12:00:00 AM 200 Action started (1) 32a66a6c-7f94-4780-9e29-74a4b9a1345c Information 5/10/2011 12:00:00 AM 100 Task Started (1) 32a66a6c-7f94-4780-9e29-74a4b9a1345c Information 5/9/2011 12:00:03 PM 102 Task completed (2) f1a35219-f524-4632-9cf7-29c74441e4b1 Information 5/9/2011 12:00:03 PM 201 Action completed (2) f1a35219-f524-4632-9cf7-29c74441e4b1 Information 5/9/2011 12:00:00 PM 200 Action started (1) f1a35219-f524-4632-9cf7-29c74441e4b1 Information 5/9/2011 12:00:00 PM 100 Task Started (1) f1a35219-f524-4632-9cf7-29c74441e4b1 Information 5/9/2011 12:02:38 AM 102 Task completed (2) c1c7eeb7-6cdc-485d-993c-7afd2980f0ac Information 5/9/2011 12:02:38 AM 201 Action completed (2) c1c7eeb7-6cdc-485d-993c-7afd2980f0ac Information 5/9/2011 12:00:00 AM 200 Action started (1) c1c7eeb7-6cdc-485d-993c-7afd2980f0ac Information 5/9/2011 12:00:00 AM 100 Task Started (1) c1c7eeb7-6cdc-485d-993c-7afd2980f0ac Information 5/8/2011 12:00:08 PM 102 Task completed (2) 0ed2aaf1-d18e-4a26-a0a2-610a4b8c6701 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:08 PM 201 Action completed (2) 0ed2aaf1-d18e-4a26-a0a2-610a4b8c6701 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:00 PM 200 Action started (1) 0ed2aaf1-d18e-4a26-a0a2-610a4b8c6701 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:00 PM 100 Task Started (1) 0ed2aaf1-d18e-4a26-a0a2-610a4b8c6701 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:14 AM 102 Task completed (2) 5db288db-82b9-4bd6-aa50-53aa08151a86 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:14 AM 201 Action completed (2) 5db288db-82b9-4bd6-aa50-53aa08151a86 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:00 AM 200 Action started (1) 5db288db-82b9-4bd6-aa50-53aa08151a86 Information 5/8/2011 12:00:00 AM 100 Task Started (1) 5db288db-82b9-4bd6-aa50-53aa08151a86 Information 5/7/2011 12:00:03 PM 102 Task completed (2) 14b6ff67-82fb-4936-804a-f0a574e60b2b Information 5/7/2011 12:00:03 PM 201 Action completed (2) 14b6ff67-82fb-4936-804a-f0a574e60b2b Information 5/7/2011 12:00:00 PM 200 Action started (1) 14b6ff67-82fb-4936-804a-f0a574e60b2b Information 5/7/2011 12:00:00 PM 100 Task Started (1) 14b6ff67-82fb-4936-804a-f0a574e60b2b Information 5/7/2011 12:00:23 AM 102 Task completed (2) 13f78fb0-6726-44ef-aeb8-7ab30b00d9c6 Information 5/7/2011 12:00:23 AM 201 Action completed (2) 13f78fb0-6726-44ef-aeb8-7ab30b00d9c6 Information 5/7/2011 12:00:00 AM 200 Action started (1) 13f78fb0-6726-44ef-aeb8-7ab30b00d9c6 Information 5/7/2011 12:00:00 AM 100 Task Started (1) 13f78fb0-6726-44ef-aeb8-7ab30b00d9c6 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:04 PM 102 Task completed (2) b7946f53-4b93-4766-ae19-22ecedcd97a6 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:04 PM 201 Action completed (2) b7946f53-4b93-4766-ae19-22ecedcd97a6 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:00 PM 200 Action started (1) b7946f53-4b93-4766-ae19-22ecedcd97a6 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:00 PM 100 Task Started (1) b7946f53-4b93-4766-ae19-22ecedcd97a6 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:15 AM 102 Task completed (2) e3c6cf84-e531-4ce6-a3b5-e546c95eb620 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:15 AM 201 Action completed (2) e3c6cf84-e531-4ce6-a3b5-e546c95eb620 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:00 AM 200 Action started (1) e3c6cf84-e531-4ce6-a3b5-e546c95eb620 Information 5/6/2011 12:00:00 AM 100 Task Started (1) e3c6cf84-e531-4ce6-a3b5-e546c95eb620 Information 5/5/2011 12:00:04 PM 102 Task completed (2) 5f0a2dcb-4d7e-4ee1-8486-fea0af98ca9e Information 5/5/2011 12:00:04 PM 201 Action completed (2) 5f0a2dcb-4d7e-4ee1-8486-fea0af98ca9e Information 5/5/2011 12:00:00 PM 200 Action started (1) 5f0a2dcb-4d7e-4ee1-8486-fea0af98ca9e Information 5/5/2011 12:00:00 PM 100 Task Started (1) 5f0a2dcb-4d7e-4ee1-8486-fea0af98ca9e Information 5/5/2011 12:00:13 AM 102 Task completed (2) e452a27c-3cb1-474f-875d-00dd14eda8b1 Information 5/5/2011 12:00:13 AM 201 Action completed (2) e452a27c-3cb1-474f-875d-00dd14eda8b1 Information 5/5/2011 12:00:00 AM 200 Action started (1) e452a27c-3cb1-474f-875d-00dd14eda8b1 Information 5/5/2011 12:00:00 AM 100 Task Started (1) e452a27c-3cb1-474f-875d-00dd14eda8b1
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May 10th, 2011 7:41pm

Thanks for sharing that. Did you check the other things i mentioned? A) Disk space allocation for system restore B) Does it work if you manually run the "SR" task ? C) Event log - Checked/Completed D) Make sure there are no group policies that disables system restore - gpresult /z Sumesh P - Microsoft Online Community Support
May 11th, 2011 6:36am

Max Usage is set for 8% or 24.0 GB Restore points work fine manually Event log, system and application show no errors. No group policies disable sys restore. IF YOU read my previous post, I did say it created one automatic restore point in about 7 days, so of course there cannotr be a grup policy disabling it. See above post: ' "Actually, the Task Scheduler history shows that the tasks were run. Yet between 5/1-11 and 5/9/11, I have only one automatic restore point in the system restore, on 5/9 So it is saying it is creating restore points every night, but only one on 5/9 was actually created."
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May 12th, 2011 12:50am

I'm going to go out on a limb here, judging by the time its taking for it to run... I'm going to assume the system isn't finding anything new having been done to the hard drives so it bails after the initial scan. Why do you need it to make a daily restore point to begin with? To me that's a bit on the overkill side of things. If its because you want to save work done while on your PC for that day have the system run a backup of your profile each day (keep an eye on it cause it can fill a disk). Reason I say these things is because the system seems to be functioning normally.... It creates a restore when you install something (by design), it creates a restore point after 7 days if no restore point has been made another way (by design), and it creates a restore point when you run it manually (by design) I am not really seeing an issue here.Please remember to flag a post that helps you as "answer" so that it may help others with same problems.
May 12th, 2011 7:39am

Dob, I agree that there may not be an issue, but I need definition by Microsoft of what the proper behavior is. As far as I can tell nobody at Microsoft knows much about it and there are supposed to be experts here. If I tell the task scheduler to run a restore every day, it should do so, otherwise what is the purpose of a task scheduler if it does it when it feels like it? I would actually like to have say two automatic restore points a week, and it would also be nice to know if I can have them with the system normally asleep, and have it wake from sleep to do them. But if the task scheduler is set to do them once a day and doesn't, how then can I set a task to do it twice a week???? Phil
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May 12th, 2011 10:10pm

System Restore in Windows 7 checks every day and creates a scheduled restore point if no other restore points have been created in the last 7 days. System Restore in Windows Vista creates a restore point if no other restore points were created in the last 24 hours. System Restore in Windows XP creates a checkpoint every 24 hours of absolute time. System Restore automatically creates a restore point before the following events: Application installation (provided the application utilizes an installer that is System Restore compliant). If the application install causes system problems, the user can restore the system to a state before the installation of the application. AutoUpdate installation. AutoUpdate provides an easy way for users to download critical Windows updates. After the update is downloaded, the user can install the update on the system. If the user chooses to install the update, System Restore creates a restore point before the installation of the update begins. System restore. For example, if a user accidentally chooses the wrong restore point, the user can undo the restore operation by choosing a restore point before the system restore took place. The user can then choose the correct restore point. If you still want to force a scheduled restore point, you can run the following VBS: 'CreateRestorePoint Method of the SystemRestore Class 'Creates a restore point. Specifies the beginning and 'the ending of a set of changes so that System Restore 'can create a restore point.This method is the 'scriptable equivalent of the SRSetRestorePoint function. Set Args = wscript.Arguments If Args.Count() > 0 Then RpName = Args.item(0) Else RpName = "Vbscript" End If Set obj = GetObject("winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!root/default:SystemRestore") If (obj.CreateRestorePoint(RpName, 0, 100)) = 0 Then wscript.Echo "Success" Else wscript.Echo "Failed" End If You can also further simplify it as follows to eliminate any user interation/dialog boxes. Save this as a .vbs file and call the file in task scheduler directly or using 'cscript.exe c:\path\SR.vbs' Set obj= GetObject( "winmgmts:\\.\root\default:Systemrestore") obj.CreateRestorePoint"Scheduled Restore Point",0,100 You can find more information here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378847(v=VS.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378951(v=VS.85).aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa378910(v=vs.85).aspx Sumesh P - Microsoft Online Community Support
May 13th, 2011 3:30am

Sumesh, Thanks. You don't say in your script how to specify the time and frequency of the restore point....
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May 14th, 2011 3:12pm

That is to be defined in the scheduled "task". The script (.vbs) is to be simply run in place of the current command "%windir%\system32\rundll32.exe srrstr.dll,ExecuteScheduledSPPCreation" in the "Actions" -> "Start a program" option. Sumesh P - Microsoft Online Community Support
May 15th, 2011 11:34pm

It seems that I have the same problem with charlestek, but this code does not solve my problem. What I did, is copied this, pasted it in a notepad++ file, saved the file with the extension .vbs and called it through task scheduler, with the browse button (in the 5th stage when you create a basic task). However an error message appears. Please can you tell me if I do anything wrong? Thanks in advance.
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April 16th, 2012 4:29pm

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