I get used to new Vista feature known as "Previous Versions". It allows you to access previous version of any file. Previous versions of all modified files are created every day. Suddenly this great function stopped working. Here is short log how I managed to make it working again.
It all started with complete backup of my computer then I removed all previous versions from the system with Disk Cleanup / More Options / System Restore and Shadow Copies. After this moment no more shadow copies of changed documents was created, but as mentioned above they should be created on daily basis. Maybe I should also mention that I installed one cpu intensive peace of software these days, but I didn't suspect it as a reason.
I used following command to check how much space shadow copies really occupy on my disk:
vssadmin list shadowstorage
two weeks after cleanup followed by regular using of my computer the result was:
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Shadow Copy Storage association
For volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3face778-0410-11dc-bb91-806e6f6e6963}\
Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3face778-0410-11dc-bb91-806e6f6e6963}\
Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 0 B
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 0 B
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 16.768 GB
really no previous version of any file on entire disk after two weeks! I checked services "Volume Shadow Copy" and "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider", both was set to "Manual" startup type as should be.
I tried to create restore point manually. Used Shadow Copy Storage was 18 MB right away. After maybe 20 minutes even 427 MB. Instantly previous versions of modified files appeared. Looks good, but why restore point is not created automatically?
I checked "Task Scheduler" service, which should be set to "Automatic" and started. Then I went to "Scheduled tasks", which should contain SystemRestore. Yes, they do, but Last Run Time was about two weeks ago. Task Triggers seemed OK, but there is something suspicious under Conditions "Start the task only if the computer is idle for 10 minutes", and that was the reason. I have Folding At Home running in the background eating one cpu all the time and probably this blocks automatic SystemRestore, so I removed that condition and everything is working now.
I hope this can help somebody with the same problem.
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2 comments:
I think I had the same issue, which I happened to notice while tweaking other things. System protection tab under sys props listed "most recent restore point" as none even though I had 1 drive checked. I am guessing something else was stealing idle time (perfect disk??). I'll be keeping an eye on this.
(err can't edit my own comments?)
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