----- Original Message -----
From: "Hans Saul"
Subject: [PCSOFT] system restore


> hi list,
> about 4 months ago i blew away my computer,reinstalled windows me,then before i installed a lot of
things i made a restore point.now when i go to system restore ,i can only see the month of august,i
cant look back any farther.
> looked on windows update site for a fix,,,no luck.
>
> running a amd 1700+
> 256 megs of ram
> windows me
> gigabite motherboard
>
> no sense having a restore point if i cant get to it?
----------------------------------------------------

Hans,

The bad news...believe it or not, the problem is likely that Restore cannot find any 'major changes'
to your configuration, even though a complete format would certainly seem like a 'major change'.
(It's actually looking for changes since your format.) Restore basically draws a map of everything
on your drives, then watches for configuration changes in hardware, but not much in the way of
software because it changes too much. Files that don't generally change can be saved longer, but
even those will be lost eventually. You have to think of it like your recycle bin - older files will
eventually get written over, specifically, program files, because of their size. It's somewhat
misleading in that you'd expect to be able to go right back to your restore point, but that is not
the case. If it were, you would require far too much hard drive space. Restore was not intended as a
backup, but rather a safety net, which you put in place just before changing your configuration in
the event the changes really mess up your system. For a far better explanation, a search on the net
will provide much more about what Restore really does than I can, but here's a good start:
http://www.windows-help.net/windowsMe/system-restore.html

In my humble opinion, if you want to be able to save your program configuration, your best bet is to
save them on another hard drive using a program that actually does what people *think* Restore does,
such as Ghost, which takes a snapshot. I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice if you ask about such
programs. I would not count on Restore for anything, but that's only my opinion. I hope this doesn't
seem bleak and that someone can offer better news, but from everything I've read, I would bet
whatever you're trying to recover is gone.

Al Thompson

               The NOSPIN Group Promotions is now offering
              Mandrake Linux or Red Hat Linux CD sets along
         with our NOSPIN Power Linux CD...  at a great price!!!
             http://freepctech.com/goodies/promotions.shtml