Roll back Windows XP, Vista, and 7 with System Restore

If you are in friendly terms with your computer, you are not scared to check new games, update the firmware drivers, and play with system settings. In most cases, you do not see any drawbacks of your activities, in some cases, the performance of your PC even improves. But, sometime, it gets really bad. You get strange and unusual warnings, you cannot access files and services, and you know that you screwed up. One of the ways to resolve the generated problems is get back to the system status, when it was working properly. And that is quite easy task for even not very experienced users.

Windows XP

Windows XP System Restore takes snapshots of your computer's configuration over time. In the event of a disastrous installation or configuration change that didn't go your way System Restore can roll back Windows' state to a working version, without affecting any of your data.

By default, Windows XP enables System Restore on all your computer's hard drives (if you have over 200 megabytes of disk space available after Windows XP is installed). To see if System Restore is turned on, in Control Panel, under Performance and Maintenance, choose System. From the System Restore tab, clear the "Turn off System Restore on all drives" checkbox. Make sure that your computer's drive - at least the one that contains your system and program files, usually the C: drive - status is listed as "Monitoring," as shown below.

System Restore tracks changes in the Windows registry, user profiles, .dll's and other internal Windows files over time. Therefore, if you have multiple drives or partitions on your computer, but only one runs Windows, it makes sense to just set System Restore to monitor the drive where your operating system and applications reside.

To run System Restore, from the Start menu, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, choose System Restore. From there choose whether or not you want to restore a previous state or create a new saved state, which you can name. For example, if you wanted to clean up your computer's startup by hand, you'd take a snapshot first and call it "Pre startup cleanup."

To restore your computer to a previous state, note that current documents, files and email are not affected. Choose your previous state from a calendar, as shown.

Finally, a restoration can be undone. To reverse your restoration, start up System Restore and choose "Undo my last restoration," and click next.

System Restore is not a replacement for file backup; it takes snapshots of your computer's configuration and program files, not your personal data and information.

System Restore takes system snapshots every day the computer's on during idle time, as well as before system changes, like Windows Automatic updates, driver installations, software installations and system restorations. The Microsoft web site lists specific times and instances in which System Restore snapshots are taken.

One of the main gripes against System Restore is that it can take up a lot of hard drive space. By default, System Restore is given 12% of disk space. To change that amount, right click on My Computer and choose Properties. From the System Restore Tab, adjust the disk space slider in the Settings area, as shown.

New snapshots age and overwrite old ones, so the more space you allocate to System Restore, the more restore points you'll have available in the event of a system misconfiguration.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

Windows 7 and Vista has a feature called System Restore that automatically backs up registry and system files whenever you install new software or drivers as well.

There are two places that you can use the system restore feature from. From within Windows, you can just type restore into the Start menu search box, and you’ll immediately see System Restore at the top of the start menu

You can also type rstrui into the search box and hit enter.

You will immediate see a screen where you can choose to roll back the system to the last restore point. You can select “Recommended restore”, and just click next, or you can choose a different restore point.

If you do choose a different restore point, you will see a list of restore points that you can choose from. Click one of them, and you will have to confirm and then restart your computer to roll the system back.

Note1: For best results, you should run System Restore from safe mode. If you receive an error while restoring, then use it from safe mode and it should work fine. To get into Safe mode, you can reboot and use the F8 key right before Windows starts up.

Note2: If you can’t even get into windows, you can boot off the installation DVD, and choose the “Repair your computer” option on the lower left hand side. Click next on the next screen, and then choose System Restore from the System Recovery dialog. It will take a few seconds to come up, and you will see the same screen that you would see in Windows. Click next, and on the next screen select the drive that your copy of Windows 7 or Vista is installed on.

Click Finish, and Windows will roll back to the previous restore point.

How to Optimize Computer Performance with Hard Drive Defragmentation?

Hard Drive Performance Optimization

Windows comes with a collection of house cleaning tools, including ScanDisk, Disk Defragmenter and Disk Cleanup, to help keep your disk in peak working order.

Why should you bother with the housework? A couple of reasons. First, disks are hard working, mechanical devices and, like all mechanical devices, prone to failure. A little preventative maintenance can warn you of potential problems and fix minor glitches before they can do damage to your data.

Second, the way files are organized on your drive has a perceptible impact on the performance of your computer. If your files are stored neatly, end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk is speedier.

What is file fragmentation?

Sometimes when you install a program or create a data file, the file ends up chopped up into chunks and stored in multiple locations on the disk. This is called fragmentation.

What makes this happen?

When you first install your operating system and programs on your hard disk, they are written to the disk, for the most part, in one contiguous block without any gaps. The exceptions are certain system files that must be stored in specific locations. Over time, as you create and then delete documents or uninstall programs, once-filled locations are left empty and you end up with files dotted all over the disk.

Now, when Windows is writing a file to the disk, it looks for a suitable piece of free space in which to store it. What happens, then, when you copy a 40 MB database or audio file to the disk and the biggest slice of free space is only 30 MB? Or say you modify an existing file, appending a whole bunch of data so the file now takes up more space on the disk. To accommodate the files, Windows writes the first part of the file in one section of the disk and then scouts around for other places to store the rest of the file. The end result is that a single file may be stored in several chunks scattered about the disk.

Of FAT and files

Windows keeps track of each file’s location in the File Allocation Table, or FAT (Windows 98 and Me use a file system called FAT32). When your file is written to disk, FAT32 provides Windows with the address of an unoccupied disk cluster. FAT32 also tells Windows on which disk sectors it will find that cluster; that is, it provides the physical location of the cluster. This information is used by your PC’s BIOS (the Basic Input/Output System) to direct the actual disk writing operation.

If the file is too large to fit in a single cluster, Windows asks FAT32 for another vacant cluster, and another, and another until the whole file is written to disk. If you have lots of free clusters side by side, FAT32 can point Windows to an adjacent series of clusters, resulting in a file which occupies one contiguous chunk of the disk. If no adjacent cluster is available, FAT32 tracks down a space elsewhere on the disk and tells Windows to put the next bit of the file there; and so on until the full file is written to disk.

A record of the clusters used for storing the file is kept by FAT32 so Windows can find the file once more when you want to read it.

The fragmentation penalty

Although this all happens quickly, it makes a lot of work for your hard disk. Its read/write head, which moves across the drive platter from location to location transferring data, has to zip all over the place when saving or opening a single highly fragmented file. (By the way, many disks have more than one read/write head and multiple platters.) If a file is unfragmented, the disk head moves to one location, reads the file in one sequential swoop, and that’s it.

A file stored in, say, four fragments, can easily take twice as long to open as the same file unfragmented, although the actual performance hit you take is affected by other factors, including the total size of the file.

The techniques used by the Disk Defragmenter

# Moving all the index or directory information to one spot. Moving this spot into the center of the data, i.e. one third of the way in, so that average head travel to data is halved compared to having directory information at the front.
# Moving infrequently used files further from the directory area.
# Obeying a user provided table of file descriptions to emphasize or ignore.
# Making files contiguous so that they can be read without unnecessary seeking.

Windows XP Disk Defragmenter Limitations

Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP has the following MAJOR limitations:
# It does NOT defragment files residing in the Recycle Bin.
# It also cannot defragment "in-use" files.
# Does not defrag and clean the registry.
# It can defragment only local volumes.
# It can defragment only one volume at a time.
# It cannot defragment one volume while it is scanning another.
# It cannot be scheduled automatically. If you need to schedule disk defragmentation, use the Defrag.exe command line tool.

Defragment Your Disk Drive Volumes in Windows XP

Disk Defragmenter Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is based on the full retail version of Executive Software Diskeeper. The version that is included with Windows XP and later provides limited functionality in maintaining disk performance by defragmenting volumes that use the FAT, FAT32, or NTFS file system.
To start Disk Defragmenter MMC, use one of the methods.

Method 1: Use the Properties of Your Local Disk

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right-click the local disk volume that you want to defragment, and then click Properties.
3. On the Tools tab, click Defragment Now.
4. Click Defragment.
5. If you have more than one hard disk, repeat this process for each hard disk listed.

Method 2: Use Computer Management MMC

1. Start Computer Management MMC (Compmgmt.msc).
2. Click Disk Defragmenter.
3. Click the volume that you want to defragment, and then click Defragment.

Method 3: Use Disk Defragmenter MMC.

1. Start Disk Defragmenter MMC (Dfrg.msc).
2. Click the volume that you want to defragment, and then click Defragment.

It May Take a While

The Disk Defragmenter tool can take anywhere from minutes to hours to run, depending on the size of your hard drive and also how fragmented the drive is. One way to run the Disk Defragmenter and not lose any computing time is to leave the system and run the Disk Defragmenter during a time when the system can be left on but is not be in use (e.g., 3 or 4 a.m.). You can simply use the steps above to launch Disk Defragmenter when your computing tasks are done for the day or you can have the Windows Task Scheduler automatically run the Disk Defragmenter on a certain day and time each week or month.

Tips for Getting the Best Results

• Ensure you have no applications running when you start the Disk Defragmenter. If you system is accessing applications the Defragmenter will not stay running. Be sure to turn off your screensaver also.
• Delete your Temporary Internet Files and other files you do not use. You can also uninstall unused programs. In the Properties tab of your hard drive you can access "Disk Cleanup," which will help you get rid of unused and unnecessary files.
• Run the Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals. However you can also run the tool if you add a lot of files to the disk at one time or find you are running low on disk space.
• The volume must have at least 15% free space for Defrag to completely and adequately defragment it. Defrag uses this space as a sorting area for file fragments. If a volume has less than 15% free space, Defrag only partially defragments it.

Automatic Defragmentation Scheduling with Task Scheduler

1. Open Control Panel, double-click Scheduled Tasks
2. Double-click Add Scheduled Task
3. On the Scheduled Task Wizard dialog, click Next.
4. Click Browse and navigate to windows’system32 folder. Select defrag.exe and click Open. In the Scheduled Task Wizard dialog, type a name for the scheduled task (for example type Disk Defrag).
5. Under Perform this task, select how often you wish Disk Defragmenter to run. Click Next.
6. Set the time at which you wish the Disk Defragmenter scheduled task to run. This should be a time when your computer is turned on but not under heavy use (i.e. at night time). Select the frequency at which you want the Disk Defragmenter task to run (Every Day, Weekdays, or Every <N> days, where <N> is the number of days between scheduled runs). Click Next.
7. Enter a user name under which the Disk Defragmenter scheduled task will run. This user must be an administrator on the local machine (see note above). Enter the password for that user and confirm it. Click Next.
8. Check Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish, and click Finish.
9. In the Run text box, you can see the full path and command for defrag.exe.  Add the drive letter for the drive you wish to defragment to the command in the Run text box. If you want to defragment drive C:, your Run command should look like this: C:’WINDOWS’SYSTEM32’defrag.exe C: Click OK.
10. In the Set Account Information dialog, enter and confirm the password for the user listed in Run as and click OK.
11. Task Scheduler will automatically run Disk Defragmenter with the settings you selected at the time you selected.

Only one instance of Disk Defragmenter can be running at any given time. If you have multiple partitions you’ll need to add a separate scheduled task for each one, and make sure you give each task a different starting time, allowing for the previous one to finish.

Defrag Your Boot Files

File fragmentation can happen at start-up too. A real power tip (not for beginners) is to have Windows XP automatically defragment these files, but you will have to make sure your Windows XP registry has the correct setting.

Open your Registry Editor and go to key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE’SOFTWARE’Microsoft’Dfrg’BootOptimizeFunction
Look for a VALUE in the right hand pane called BootOptimizeFunction
...if it does NOT exist, choose from the menu Edit > New > String Value and create it.
Make sure that it has the entry Y.


Sources and Additional Information:
http://www.geekgirls.com/windows_defrag.htm
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2008/disk_defragmentation.asp
http://www.petri.co.il/schedule_disk_defrag_to_run_automatically_in_windows_xp_2003.htm
http://www.updatexp.com/disk-defragmenter.html

Built-in Recovery and Troubleshooting Options in Windows XP

What recovery and troubleshooting options do I have in Windows XP?

Software and hardware issues can affect the way that your system functions. Severe problems might prevent you from starting Windows XP Professional normally.

• Software problems: Installing incompatible software, incorrectly changing system configuration settings, or installing faulty device drivers can cause system instability or a Stop error.
  
• Hardware problems: Hardware that is defective, malfunctioning, incorrectly installed, or incorrectly configured can also cause instability or a Stop error.
  
• Other problems: Deleted or corrupted system files caused by problems such as user error or virus activity can cause data loss or prevent you from starting the operating system.

Any of the preceding types of problems can prevent you from starting Windows XP Professional in normal mode, causing certain applications or data to become inaccessible. Windows XP Professional provides several tools that enable you to troubleshoot startup and stability problems, and restore system and data files. the following list lists these tools according to the preferred order of use, from tools that present little or no risk to data, to those that might cause data loss. With the exception of the Automated System Recovery (ASR) restore phase, Last Known Good Configuration, and Recovery Console, the features in the table are available in safe and normal startup modes. If the following tools and features do not resolve the problem, and you upgraded your system from an earlier version of Windows, you might have the option to uninstall Windows XP Professional.

Last Known Good Configuration
A startup option to use when the system cannot start in normal or safe mode following a driver or application installation that causes a problem. By using the Last Known Good Configuration, you can recover by reversing the most recent driver and registry changes made since you last started Windows XP Professional.

Device Driver Roll Back
A Device Manager feature that allows you to replace an individual device driver with the previously installed version if the driver was updated after you installed Windows XP Professional. Device Driver Roll Back is available in normal or safe mode.

System Restore
A service for x86-based computers that actively monitors your system and records changes to the registry, to system files, and to certain application files. System Restore allows you to undo recent registry and file changes by using information previously saved in restore points. Use to restore the system to a previous state. System Restore is available in normal or safe mode.

Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel
A Control Panel feature you can use to uninstall programs. Use to temporarily uninstall software that you suspect is causing a problem. You can uninstall an application in normal or safe mode.

Safe Mode
If you are unable to start your system by using Last Known Good Configuration, Windows XP Professional provides safe mode, a startup option that disables startup programs and nonessential services to create an environment useful for troubleshooting and diagnosing problems. In safe mode, Windows XP Professional starts a minimal set of drivers that the operating system needs to function. Support for devices such as audio devices, most USB devices, and IEEE 1394 devices is disabled to reduce the variables that you need to account for when diagnosing the cause of startup problems, Stop messages, or system instability.

Recovery Console
A command-line environment that you can use to perform advanced troubleshooting operations. In addition to Last Known Good Configuration and safe mode, advanced users can use Recovery Console to attempt manual recovery operations.

Backup
A tool for saving data, such as the system state, before you troubleshoot problems, attempt workarounds, or apply updates. Backup (Ntbackup.exe) enables you to restore system settings and data if your troubleshooting attempts worsen the problem. Use in conjunction with a parallel installation to restore a system that cannot start in normal or safe modes. Backup is available in safe or normal mode.

Automated System Recovery (ASR)
A Backup (Ntbackup.exe) option to use when boot and system files become corrupt, preventing your system from starting in normal or safe modes, or using Recovery Console. This option is more desirable than formatting disks and reinstalling Windows because ASR restores system settings and critical files on the system and boot partitions.

The user interface to ASR backup is the ASR wizard in Backup, which steps you through the process of creating an ASR backup set and an ASR floppy. Windows XP Professional Setup provides the user interface to ASR restore.

Because the ASR process formats disks, consider this a last resort when using Last Known Good Configuration, Device Driver Roll Back, System Restore, or Recovery Console does not solve the problem. ASR is available in safe or normal mode.

Source: http://www.petri.co.il/recovery_and_troubleshooting_options_in_windows_xp.htm