System Restore Points Missing in Windows?

I recently ran into an issue where all my restore points in Windows were disappearing. If I created a system restore point and then rebooted my computer, the restore point would be gone! I couldn’t figure out why this is happening, but after some research I was able to solve the problem.

In this article, I will introduce several methods that you can try if restore points are missing in Windows. If you are still having problems with missing restore points, please leave a comment and I will try to help.

First method – disable system restore

The first thing you can try to do is turn off System Restore. How does it help? Well, the backups are stored in the System Volume Information folder. If this folder gets damaged, you will have to delete it. You can do this by disabling System Restore and then re-enabling it.

Right-click “Computer” or “This PC” and select “Properties”. Then click the “System Protection” link.

Then click the “Configure” button on the “System Protection” tab. You should also see that the current drive is set to On.

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Now go on, check the “Disable system protection” radio button and click “OK”.

You will receive a message asking if you really want to do this. Please note that this will delete all previous restore points since the deletion of this backup folder.

Restart your computer, then go back and re-enable system protection. Now try manually creating a restore point and see if it disappears when you restart your computer.

Second method – check disk space usage

Following the above, if you go to Computer, Properties, System Protection, click Configure, there is also a section related to disk space usage. Make sure this value is not tiny. System restore requires a certain amount of space, and old restore points will be automatically deleted if there is insufficient disk space.

Another thing to check is the actual disk space left on your hard drive. Sometimes you may not be aware, and suddenly there is only 100MB left on your hard drive! It can also prevent the creation of system restore points.

Third method – checking antivirus and other programs

In most cases, antivirus programs will not cause this problem, but sometimes you may encounter some setting or program that prevents certain files from being created. It is worth turning off protection for a while, creating restore points and seeing if they remain. For example, McAfee Quick Clean has a System Restore Point Cleanup option that will do just that, so be careful.

Additionally, other third-party applications can cause this problem, so you need to try to remember which programs you have installed on your computer before the problem starts to occur. This is especially true of those disk cleaning or tweaking programs that say they can make your computer 100% faster by running their software. Often times, these programs do dangerous things to your system by disabling all kinds of things that you would otherwise like to keep. One of the proposed programs is DisKeeper.

One user who experienced this problem found that the problem was caused by Microsoft Office 97. I don’t know why this person was using Office 97, but it was causing the registry to conflict with Windows and preventing restore points from being created. If you don’t have Office 97 installed, it might be some other program.

Fourth method – try safe mode

You can also try creating a restore point in Safe Mode. If you can’t determine which program or service is causing the problem and interfering with System Restore, you can still create it by going into Safe Mode and then creating it. For some, this may not work, but for others it seems like a viable option.

Fifth method – dual boot system

If you are dual-booting Windows with a different operating system, such as Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 8, and both operating systems are on the same physical disk, one OS may cause problems with the other. Restore points can be deleted every time you restart. I’m not entirely sure which installation might cause this, but it has been reported by users using dual booting, especially with Windows XP. Attempting to remove dual boot or install each operating system on its own drive.

Method 6 – possible virus

Lots of viruses will erase your restore points, so you can never restore your computer to its previous state. At this point, it’s a good idea to run a full virus scan if all else fails. Also, it’s best to run a virus scan before Windows boots up. This can be done using Windows Defender Offline

Method 7 – Chkdsk & SFC

Finally, you can try running Chkdsk / f on Windows and see if there are any problems on the disk. You can also open Command Prompt and type sfc / scannow, which will scan all Windows files and replace corrupted or missing system files.

Hopefully one of these solutions will solve your problem with missing restore points in Windows. If not, leave a comment here and I’ll try to help. Enjoy!

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