System restore problem

[Nur]

When i try to restore my system back a month ago, after its done it comes back up and says cannot restore to that date. Reason im restoring is because i lost my cd-key for a game. And i have to go back before the game developer added encryptiuon software. Plz help soon, If the date rolls over i will have to repurchase the game.

[snowmonkey]

do you have a restore point for a month ago ? maybe there is not a restore point for that date you have picked !!


cheers

[Nur]

No i dint save one but i had it enabled so it picks for me. The dates that it says i can roll back to is the ones bolded. There is only 4 a month. I also tried it in safemode but no go on that either.

[josephinekelly]

I notice you say four restoration dates per month are emboldened for selection. I checked on mine and see that I have the choice of most days if required.

Is there a section where you can choose the frequency of restoration dates, as it would seem these vary between users.

[javert]

This depends on the amount of space that you make available for system restore. If you go to the Performance and Maintenance area of the Control Panel, click on System Restore, then click on System Restore Options. There is a slider where you can select the percentage of your disk space to devote to system restore points...the larger the percentage, the more restore point you'll have available.

[josephinekelly]

Well, thankyou very much Javert, as I didn't realise that facility was there. I checked mine and see it is set to the maximum which would explain the frequency of almost daily restore points. Is this advisable and the normal setting? What setting would give a choice of every few days?
This is obviously why Nur has only four choices a month and he could easily increase this for the future.

[javert]

No problem.

Well, in my opinion, if you have the disk space free, keep it at maximum. However, if you're getting low in space, keeping it at a moderate setting will keep you adequately protected for a restore and will free a few gigs on your HD . I seem to have a curse on me....every time I shrink the system restore capacity within a month my computer goes haywire and i have to restore to a point further back than I would have liked. Needless to say, my slider is at maximum.

But seriously, anything above half should definately be adequate.

[MMLLMM]

Hi:
I rolled back my system and instead of going back to the last restore point, it when all the way back to the initial system settings. I lost MS Office, many Excel files and family fotos. I can reload Office but would like to get my fotos and Excel files back. Are they still on the hard drive but hidden? Is there a utility to bring them back? Next time, I'll use True Image and a external hard drive for backups. Thanks, MLM