 | By Fred Langa Window’s System Restore is a good, basic safety net for solving system problems, but what it doesn’t do will surprise you. To use Windows’ system backup tool most effectively, you need to know its limitations — and have other recovery tools readily at hand. |
System Restore is only a Band-Aid backup method
System Restore — in Windows XP, Vista, and Win7 — has always been a good news–bad news recovery tool. Fortunately, reader Mel Rocklin’s recent experience was positive:
- “I recently had strange stuff happen on my PCs. My normal approach is to Google the problem and read articles until one suggests a solution.
“But after several days of searching and not finding a solution that worked on my computers, I was ready to give up, format the drive, and reinstall Windows from scratch.
“As a last resort, I used Windows Restore and chose a restore point dated prior to the problems’ surfacing. Lo and behold, after completing the restore, both computers were back to normal. For further information on Restore, see this Microsoft article.
“I would highly recommend to all Windows Secrets readers to try System Restore before resorting to a reformat. In the future, I’ll restore even before I try any other problem-solving approach!”
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