How to do a system restore on windows xp? How to restore or roll back a Windows XP system Roll back a Windows XP system.

Theoretically, any updates are designed to optimize the performance of the system and certain programs. However, in practice, it happens that everything goes wrong as the user wanted, and the system crashes. This can also happen when installing new software. What to do in such a situation? Some users believe that the way out is to reinstall the operating system. In fact, everything is much simpler, especially if you know how to roll back Windows XP a day ago or any other period when the OS worked fine.

What will be needed?

Some users find that third-party utilities are needed to get back to the rollback point. This is partly true. But the system also has built-in tools that will help us restore a successful configuration.

The first thing you need is a restore point. By default in Windows these points are made automatically. Usually, such an operation occurs before any significant events affecting the system, for example, before cleaning the registry or installing new applications, etc. Actually, this procedure in terms of complexity is almost the same as checking the authenticity of windows 7 online, so the point for rolling back you can create it yourself.

Rollback Windows XP

To reset the system to a previous state, you must first log in with an administrator account. Next, click Start and click on the All Programs link. Here we are interested in standard and utility utilities. In them, click on the System Restore command. We mark the Restore the previous state and confirm by clicking on the Next button. After that, in the window that opens, you need to select a restore point. The last step is to confirm your choice and start the process.

After the operation is completed, the computer will restart. Actually, in the future, problems with the operation of the system should not arise. However, if the computer does not start, then you may need to undo the OS restore.

I note that files that were saved on the computer after the selected date will be deleted. Therefore, if necessary, take care of having a backup copy of them. Some users prefer to use third-party utilities in order to roll back the system to the desired state. In principle, this is also a good way out, but it is not recommended to use programs for beginners, since they are not as easy to use as they seem.

Hello everyone, Ruslan Nova is in touch, and today we will talk about how to roll back the Windows system.

Operating systems from Microsoft are equipped with the ability to rollback, that is, loading the last created restore point. This option is very useful if your computer started to work incorrectly, crashes appeared, and there is no way to reinstall the system from scratch.

From this article you will learn:

how to roll back a system based on Windows XP;

how to roll back a system based on Windows 7;

how to roll back a system based on Windows 8 and 8.1;

How to roll back a system based on Windows 10.

How to roll back Windows XP system?

Option number 1

First you need to click Start, after which the main panel will open, in which we select the All Programs tab.

In the window that appears, look for the line Standard and click on it.

The tab that appears contains many items, but we need to find the Service line and activate it.

In the tab that opens, all that remains is to select the Restore item, after which the desired service will automatically start.

Option number 2

The second method starts by opening the My Computer folder, then you need to open the Local Disk C.

After that, go to the Windows folder

Inside is another folder called System32, which also needs to be opened with a double click.

Inside you need to find and open the Restore folder.

Double clicking on the rstrui.exe application will activate the System Restore system.

How to restore Windows 7 checkpoint

Option number 1

This method is somewhat similar to the principle of system recovery on the XP platform. Click the Start button, in which we look for the All Programs line.

Click Standard.

After that, activate the Service line.

The System Restore shortcut launches the process we need.

Option number 2

This method is one of the simplest. It consists of only 2 steps. The first is to open the Command Prompt by pressing the Win+R key combination.

Then it remains only to enter the rstrui command and click OK, after which system recovery will automatically start.

Option number 3

Option similar to 1. Open the My Computer folder, then the Local Disk C folder.

We go to the Windows folder.

Double-click to go to the System32 folder.

It remains only to select and launch the rstrui application, after which the system will begin to roll back to the last restore point.

Option number 4

Another simple way to quickly restore Win 7. Right-click on My Computer and open the Properties line.

In the left column of the window that opens, you need to find the line System protection and click on it.

The tab contains the Restore button, pressing which starts the process.

Option number 5

The last method that allows you to roll back the system. Click Start and select Control Panel.

We start Recovery.

How to roll back Windows 8 and 8.1

Option number 1

The simplest way is to activate the Command Prompt followed by a special request. By pressing Win + R, you will open the above line.

Then you need to enter rstrui, and click OK. This will start the recovery service.

Option number 2

This method is the same as in the case of Windows 7. Right-click on My Computer and go to the Properties tab.

After that, go to the System Protection line.

The corresponding tab contains the Restore button. Its activation starts the process, and eliminates the questions of how to roll back the system.

Option number 3

And this method is classic for almost all Windows systems. Go to the My Computer folder, and then to the Local Disk C folder.

Inside there is a Windows folder, which is what we need.

Inside it, we are looking for another folder called System32. We go there.

We find the rstrui application, it is activated by double-clicking, and now you don’t need to think about how to roll back the system.

Option number 4

The last method has 6 steps. It all starts with opening the Options tab in a special pop-up window on the right.

Click Shutdown in the window that opens.

After that, a tab with a choice of 2 items is displayed. We need to select the Restart line, but we need to click on it while holding the Shift button

The screen that appears has 3 items, but we need Diagnostics. Activate the line.

After that, go to Advanced Options.

System Restore is the button we need to bring the service into action.

Option number 1

The easiest and most famous way starts by pressing the combination Win + R, which opens the command line.

Enter the rstrui command and confirm with the OK button.

Option number 2

Alternatively, right-click on My Computer and select the Properties tab.

The last step is to click the Restore button in the corresponding tab.

Option number 3

A method specific only to Win 10; 8 and 8.1. Open the Shutdown menu.

In the window that opens, find the Diagnostics parameter, activate it.

Click on Advanced Options.

The final step is to activate the System Restore line.

Option number 4

First you need to open the Search menu, located to the right of the Start button.

In the bottom line, enter the query Recovery, and click the corresponding tab, which immediately appears above after entering the word in the search box.

Click on the line Start System Restore.

So we looked at how to roll back the system and how to run system restore on the most common Windows operating systems. Good luck and see you again.

Recovery (rollback) of Windows XP

1. Introduction
The more you work with Windows, trying to get the most out of it and customize it to your needs, preferences, and tasks, the more the half-joking concept that Windows should be treated as one big glitch is confirmed. After all, it often happens like this: a function that worked wonderfully yesterday, today either does not work at all, or does not work at all the way it used to.

Every Windows problem is caused by objective reasons: changes in the Windows registry, system files, settings, boot options, drivers, the consequences of malicious and simply poorly written programs. Even small changes to the system can make it impossible to boot into Windows XP, one of the most stable Windows in the world. Therefore, in the section (Frequently Asked Questions) questions so often arise what to do if something in the system suddenly began to work differently than before.

In some cases, you can assume the source of the trouble, check, find and fix it, but very often it turns out that it is faster and easier to reinstall the system than to spend time studying registry errors (which is usually on the order of tens of MB), system files, their versions, system settings, etc.

Reinstalling Windows XP, with its distribution kit at hand and some experience, usually takes no more than an hour. However, installing additional drivers, programs, configuring them, as well as organizing work in accordance with user preferences can take more than one hour, and possibly more than one day. This procedure is routine, and you can simply forget what these or other settings and parameters were before.

This article provides information on how to return a system to a known-good state as it was before, with the desired settings and in full accordance with individual preferences. This procedure is called "system rollback" (in English - "rollback") or "system restore". Below we consider the rollback of changes to Windows XP (hereinafter, we mean the update of Windows XP 32-bit Professional SP2), as the most popular home PC system.

Windows Vista, released in late 2006, did not live up to expectations and proved to be less reliable in terms of data storage security, as a result of which it is not optimal. The next version of Windows for home PCs, currently codenamed Windows Vienna, is scheduled for release no earlier than 2010. Therefore, it is obvious that Windows XP will remain relevant, at least until 2010-2011.

2. Built-in Windows recovery programs
Windows has several such programs:

- System Restore Application- a system recovery program, the full path to which C:\WINDOWS/System32/Restore/rstrui.exe(hereinafter in the text it is assumed that the system is installed in the "default" directory - on the C: drive in the "WINDOWS" folder);

- Windows Backup Utility- a Windows backup program, the full path to which is C:\WINDOWS/System32/Restore/ntbackup.exe;

- System File Checker- program located as C:\WINDOWS/System32/Restore/sfc.exe. Checks the versions of protected system files and, if they are changed or damaged, restores the original files from a special folder C:\WINDOWS/System32/dllcache. You can read more about this program;

Dr. programs with a very narrow application profile.

Shortcuts of the first two of the above programs can also be found in the main menu (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools), unless, of course, you deleted them from there. The original location of shortcuts for system recovery programs in the "Standard" menu group is deeply symbolic. It seems that when Windows XP was created, it was already understood that failures and rollbacks in the system would be a frequent occurrence. Label for System File Checker If desired, you can create it yourself in the start menu.

In addition, it is possible to restore the Windows configuration (but not the entire OS!) to the state it had at the time of the last successful boot. To do this, press the "F8" key after turning on the computer, just before the moment when the Windows boot logo and the boot ID line (a running white bar at the bottom of the screen) usually appear. If you have several operating systems installed on your computer, then the "F8" key can be pressed when the OS selection menu appears to start. If the above steps are performed correctly, a menu will appear on the screen with a list of additional Windows boot options, in which you must select the item " Last Known Good Configuration" and confirm your choice by pressing the "Enter" key. More information about this method of restoring the operating system can be found on the Internet at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307852 .

The described method helps if you have just installed:

A faulty driver that does not allow normal booting of the OS;
- the second antivirus, which began to conflict with the previously installed one, preventing it from working normally under the OS.

Strictly speaking, there is another Windows tool created for the most extreme case, when the problems are so serious that the system can no longer boot. This tool is the Recovery Console located on the Windows XP installation disc. However, the recovery console is too limited and works only from the command line, so it can only be used by qualified specialists. You can read more about the Recovery Console.

2.1. Windows Backup Utility
Unfortunately the funds Windows Backup Utility very far not only from the ideal, but even from the wishes of an undemanding user. In practice, it can only be used as an archiver of individual user files. The archives obtained as a result of the work of this program are saved in files with the "BKF" extension, which other programs cannot work with. There are other significant drawbacks, including the impossibility of restoring the system from an archive when the latter "does not load", and a low degree of data compression. Therefore, third-party archivers are much better suited for creating backup copies of individual user files - for example, the well-known winrar, and the lesser known free 7-Zip File Manager.

2.2. Built-in system recovery program
(System Restore Application)
Archivers that are convenient for creating copies of user files cannot be used to back up the current state of the OS. The reason, in particular, is that a running Windows XP will not allow the archiver to read the contents of many system files to create a backup copy, not to mention replacing system files under an active OS. In addition, some files and system data are located in strictly defined areas of the hard drive; when restoring, their location must very strictly coincide with the original (before restoration), and archivers do not have such an ability.

Where archivers are unsuitable, programs for rollback (restoration) of the system work successfully. First of all, it is a program built into Windows XP. System Restore Application, already mentioned above and described in detail.

Since the OS was installed, the Windows Recovery Service (service name - service) is automatically included in working with hard disk partitions, the format of which is supported by Windows XP. While Windows is running, this service monitors:

Changes in the registry and system configuration files;

Changes in OS modules, including changes resulting from the installation of system updates and patches;

Some other changes that the Windows developers found it necessary to keep track of in order to restore the original state of the OS using System Restore Application.

If any of the above changes take place, then the data necessary to cancel them, the original copies of the files and additional service information are written to special folders with the name "System Volume Information". Such folders are created at the root of each hard disk partition that is monitored.

See if it works for you System Restore Application, and you can also manage this program by right-clicking on the "My Computer" icon, selecting "Properties", and then the "System Restore" tab:

After a certain period of time, as well as during serious system events (more precisely, immediately before them), a so-called "return point" is created, relative to which changes are fixed. As a rule, such an event is the installation (installation) of a new program or a package update.

The command to create a restore point can also be called manually, while specifying the description of this point, so that after a while you yourself will not get confused why the latter was created and what state the system was in at that time:

If necessary, you can return to one of the previously saved system states (to one of the saved restore points):

In this case, the service data for recovery is read from the above backup folder (System Volume Information), and then Windows is transferred to a special state when some of its auxiliary functions are disabled and the protection of replaced system files is disabled. The files and data required for recovery are then restored from the specified folder. After the automatic restart of the computer, the system should be restored (ideally) to the state recorded in the specified restore point. However, the picture of the restored system obtained in practice does not always fully correspond to the desired one.

In particular, the cause of errors is not quite a good idea to divide files into "necessary" and "useless" (depending on their extension) for system recovery. This idea is the following:

Files whose extensions match the user's documents (for example, "DOC", "XLS", "PPT", etc.) are not monitored or recovered;

Files whose extensions correspond to "system" files (for example, "EXE", "DLL", "SYS" and a number of others) are tracked, and all changes made to them are controlled, and when the system is restored, the latter are returned to their original state.

If you figure it out, then dividing files by extension can often lead to errors. Consider a small example of such a mistake: on Monday, a system backup is created, and on Tuesday, the user moves his office documents to a self-extracting archive, while deleting the original files as unnecessary. Further, for example, on Wednesday, the user notices errors in the operation of the computer and therefore decides to roll back the system state to the last known working state, i.e. to the restore point made on Monday. In this case, the archive with documents will be lost, and the original document files, as we remember, the user himself deleted.

Why did it happen? Very simple: a self-extracting archive has the "EXE" extension. On this basis, it is ranked among the "system" files and, as a result, it is deleted when the system is restored, because. in accordance with the rules described above, it is superfluous in the OS, because on Monday it was not there yet. Office files are not restored, because their extension determines that they are not needed for the OS.

In such a situation, in order to restore documents, the user will need to return the OS state to the "future" again - to the state of the environment, and then the lost archive will be returned. You will have to extract the original documents from it, and then, in order to restore the system to a working state, it will be possible to return to the "past" again - to the restore point containing the system state records for Monday.

The system recovery program built into Windows has a number of other disadvantages, including the following:

After a system rollback, some types of files may have their duplicates, for example, in addition to the file "file" in the same folder, "file(1)", "file(2)", etc. may appear;

During the operation of the service that provides monitoring of the system, additional resources of the computer's RAM are used, which causes a decrease in the computer's performance;

The active work of the specified service with the hard disk not only slows down the work of other programs with the same disk, but also quickly leads to fragmentation of the latter, which leads to an even greater decrease in performance (this is especially noticeable on laptops, where the performance of the hard disk is one of the "narrow places");

If such global changes were made to the OS that it became impossible to load it, then the recovery program will not be able to be used.

It is very risky to store the data needed to roll back the system in a folder located on the same partition of the same drive as the data to be protected. In case of problems associated with a violation of the file structure of the disk, the contents of this folder will most likely suffer the same problem as the files to be restored. Therefore, it will be impossible to roll back the system to a working state by means of the program in question. A similar loss of data necessary for system recovery can also occur as a result of the destructive actions of viruses.

3. Conditions and means of reliable rollback of the system
So, the rollback of the Windows XP system, implemented in System Restore Application, is far from perfect. But it can also be done with the help of other third-party programs. Most of these programs are created taking into account the above shortcomings of the recovery tools built into Windows.

3.1. Separation of system and user data
So that the program does not have to deal with dividing files into system and user files, which will inevitably lead to errors, the right to separate data should be granted to a person. In practice, data separation can be done as follows: allocate a partition on a physical disk with a capacity of about 10-20 GB, which will be intended for use by the system (usually this is the C: system partition). In this case, another partition is allocated for the user's files, for example, the logical drive D:, or the folder D:\ Documentation located on it.

The "My Documents" folder offered by the system, located on the system drive, should be left in place. Let the files and subfolders that some programs like to leave in "My Documents" without the knowledge of the user will fall into it, and the new "Documents" folder of the user will be automatically rid of such garbage.

In order not to be confused with two similar folders, the "My Documents" shortcut can be removed from the Desktop, and instead of it, create a shortcut to the D:\ folder in the same place. Documentation.

Office programs from Microsoft, system utilities, editors that do not take up very large disk space, as well as most other programs, can be installed on the system partition in the default folder - "C:\Program Files". The exception is programs that take up a significant amount of disk space - approximately hundreds of MB or more. Among them: games, voluminous directories, and other "monsters" of occupation of the hard disk, especially if the latter do not require storing their settings in the registry for work. Such programs can be placed, for example, inside the D:\ Soft.

With such a partition, to roll back Windows, it will be enough to return to the desired state only one small system partition. This will take much less time than a full restore, and will not affect either user data or programs on another partition. In addition, after the proposed separation, you can safely format the system partition and reinstall the system on a clean partition without the risk of losing the user's necessary files. Such actions may be required, for example, if the file system on the system partition is damaged or after an unsuccessful recovery.

3.2. The process of partitioning a hard drive
As noted above, for optimal system rollback, it is desirable to have a hard disk partitioned (i.e. divided) into several partitions. In addition, you may need a separate partition to store system state backups.

To avoid possible data loss, it is advisable to partition the hard disk into partitions before installing the system and before moving any useful data to it. For partitioning, in my opinion, the most effective programs are Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 and Partition Magic version 8.0 or higher.

Even the best splitting program can make a mistake that can lead to irretrievable data loss. Therefore, in cases where partitioning has to be carried out with a "live" system installed, it is necessary to first create copies of all any important files on additional external or internal media. Such media can be a network or local drive, CD/DVD, flash memory, etc. Partitioning should only be carried out under the guidance of a person with the necessary knowledge and experience in the field of OS recovery.

When partitioning, the question often arises: which file system to choose for the partition - FAT32 or NTFS. From the point of view of storage security and optimality for most tasks performed under Windows XP, preference is often given to NTFS, as it is more modern, self-healing, and protected in terms of data access control. On the other hand, FAT32 is much simpler and preferable in terms of performance, especially in the case of an outdated computer with 128 MB or less RAM. In addition, if the system cannot be booted for some reason, you can access data to fix problems on a FAT32 partition using a regular MS-DOS boot floppy disk. In the case of NTFS, this will be more difficult to do, because. you need to run a cumbersome driver. At the same time, for a full-fledged comfortable work of the user with files, you will need a Live CD or DVD based on Windows PE(Windows Preinstallation Edition), which will perform a number of OS functions without requiring the latter to be installed on the hard drive, but its files will take up a large part of the computer's RAM.

3.3. Third-party programs for rollback (recovery) of the system
Writing programs for rollback (recovery) of the system is a responsible process, because errors made in them during development can cost users dearly. The creation of such programs requires the work of many specialists who have deeply studied the system and equipment, both in theory and in practice, therefore this task is only possible for the leading large software companies and, as a result, there are not so many such programs.

You can define standard functions that are available in all modern system recovery programs:

Ability to restore the entire system partition, or only selected folders and files, or only files;

The ability to create backup copies of the system state on another (non-system) physical or logical disk, on the network, on removable media (CD, DVD, flash) with automatic splitting of these copies into parts;

Recovery from all the above types of media;

Support for all file systems used by common operating systems on hard drives: FAT16/32, NTFS, Ext2/3FS, etc.;

Ability to recover data even if the OS does not boot;

Ability to backup or restore (rollback) without installing the program - from a bootable CD that supports access to disks with FAT16/32, NTFS, Ext2/3FS file systems and CD/DVD-ROM drives;

Possibility of differential copying of data, in which not all data is written, but only changes made since the previous full copy of data.

The following table is a list of some well-known OS recovery software as of the time of this writing (December 2007 - January 2008):

Program name	Price	Developer site

Paragon Drive Backup 8.51

Acronis True Image Home 11.0

Manufacturers ShadowUser pay attention to the main feature of their program: the ability to create a "layer" between the file and operating systems. When activated ShadowUser file changes are written to free disk space, and after a reboot they can be destroyed. Therefore, this program is more suitable for using a computer in Internet salons, for lovers of various "experiments" on the system, as well as for using a computer by a child or other person who cannot ensure the safety of important data on the hard drive.

ShadowUser, like the more well-known program Norton GoBack, uses free space on protected partitions to store its recovery data. System recovery tools like ShadowUser, have a number of the above disadvantages of the recovery program built into Windows, the main of which is the slowdown of the computer when the OS is running due to streaming recording of all changes that occur.

As can be seen from the information provided on the developer's website APBackup, the program, frankly, is weak, and even uses ZIP-format files that are clearly not intended for this purpose to store copies of the system state. The program installer available for download is very small (it has a size of just over 3 MB), so it will be easy for everyone to check in practice the validity of my opinion about the program. Numerous other programs of this kind, which are only more or less successful archivers, are absolutely unsuitable for a complete recovery of the OS.

4. System rollback using Acronis True Image Home as an example
Job description below Acronis True Image(we considered the version of Acronis True Image Home 10, which we will simply refer to as " Acronis") has much in common with the work of other programs, such as, for example, Norton Ghost And Paragon Drive Backup.

Work with Acronis especially convenient due to the fact that the program has an interface and built-in reference materials in Russian. It also adds special features that Russian-speaking PC users need. For example, in cases where the program is launched from a bootable CD without the need to boot Windows, a switch between the Russian and English keyboard layouts appears on the screen, very similar to the switch found in Windows.

Having studied the main menu of the program below, you can get acquainted with its main functions:

A PC user who has some experience with other similar programs may well start working with Acronis immediately after its installation in Windows OS, because The program interface is intuitive, and the execution of individual functions is carried out using well-thought-out step-by-step "wizards" that will not let the user "go astray". Convenient "wizards" are used even in loading cases Acronis from a CD or from the security zone. However, due to the responsibility of the assigned tasks, it is necessary to study the functionality of the program in more detail using, for example, reference materials built directly into Acronis.

4.1. Making a copy (archive)
First task Acronis- creating a backup copy of the OS. The backup copy of data created by the program is called an "archive", so we will continue to refer to it by this term in the text.

The archive can be created in the "background" mode - without interrupting the operation of the system and individual programs. In this case, the "checkpoint" for the created archive will be considered the state of the OS immediately at the moment when the process of creating the archive is started in Acronis. Therefore, changes made (for example, adding or deleting files) that will be made after the specified moment are no longer made to the created archive.

We suggest copying "My Computer":

In the next step, select the partition with the OS:

Next, specify the location where the created archive will be saved. This can be another partition of the same hard drive, another hard drive, a place in a network environment, removable media, a place on the Internet accessible via an FTP connection, or a security zone (for a security zone, see paragraph 4.3 of this article). ):

Next, you are asked to choose whether to create a full, incremental, or differential backup:

A "full" archive contains all the information being copied, while an "incomplete" (differential or incremental) archive contains only the changes that have occurred in relation to the previously created full archive. Therefore, these archives will take up less space than a "full" archive, which is their advantage.

In incremental archives, each new archive adds another file to the already existing "chain", taking into account the entire logical sequence of previous archives. Therefore, to restore from it, you will need the original "full" archive and all previous "incremental" archives.

The differential backup contains all the changes that have occurred since the full backup was created. Therefore, incremental backups will take up less space than differential backups, and restoring from a differential backup will require only that archive and the original "full" backup. In addition, restoring from a differential backup will be faster than from an incremental backup.

If the defragmentation program seriously works on the copied disk partition from the moment of full archiving to the moment of creating an incomplete archive, then the location of the files will be strongly "shuffled". Therefore, an "incomplete" copy will be comparable in size to a "full" one and, therefore, will lose its advantages. With this in mind, it is more rational to create a new "full" archive.

Next, you are asked to select the copy options (in my opinion, in most cases it is better to leave them "by default") and enter a comment on the archive. After clicking the "Proceed" button, the procedure for creating an archive is started.

It should be noted that the creation of archives in Acronis done very intelligently. For example, swap and hibernation files that do not carry useful information are not written to the archive. The copied data is compressed ("by default"), with which copying is even faster than without compression. For a complete copy of the system partition, which takes up space of about 5-10 GB, it takes several minutes.

4.2. Recovery (rollback) of the system
After selecting the restore command, you are prompted to specify the location of the archive from which you want to restore data:

In this case, you can choose to restore disks, only certain partitions, or individual files on them:

If you need to view or copy individual archive files, it is more convenient to do this by simply opening the archive file from under Acronis, after which it will be possible to "enter" this archive as in a regular folder. Moreover, you can mount an image of a partition or disk located in the archive. As a result of the connection, a new virtual disk will appear in the computer with the contents of the archive image, which practically does not differ from ordinary (real) disks or partitions in its operation, but will be read-only. This disk will exist either until the image is disabled through the program Acronis or until the computer is restarted.

Please note that in addition to restoring the system partition, it is also possible to restore the MBR (Master Boot Record - Master Boot Record). Acronis True Image includes the MBR in the archive, despite the fact that no such command was given by the user when creating the archive. Obviously, this unplanned action by the user occurs for the following reasons:

MBR occupies a deliberately insignificant size in the archive, while its copy contains critical data about the disk;

Distortion of the MBR leads to dire consequences. In most cases, after such distortions, one recovery of the partition will not be enough to return the system to working capacity and a preliminary MBR recovery will be required (this is where a copy of this record prepared in advance will come in handy Acronis True Image).

Restoring the MBR can (and should) be done only if the data in the MBR is known to be wrong. It is important to remember: if during the period from the moment the archive was created to the moment the restore procedure was started, the position of the partitions on the physical disk changed, then restoring the old MBR will most likely lead to damage to the partitions whose physical location on the hard disk has changed.

Select the desired system partition as the restore location. You can also restore a partition to a location other than its "native" location if there is sufficient free space in the new recovery location.

In subsequent dialog boxes, you can change the type of the partition being restored, the space before and after the partition being restored, assign a letter to the partition (new name), and change some other parameters. In all these windows, the parameters initially correspond to the initial properties of the section - for example, the previously existing section type and its letter (name) are indicated. Therefore, it is undesirable to make any changes to the parameters (relative to the parameters initially set in the dialog boxes) unless absolutely necessary.

While Windows continues to work, it is impossible to restore the partition on which its files are located (the system partition). Therefore, while the OS is running, actions to restore it can only be planned. After clicking the "Proceed" button, the computer will restart; in this case, the component will be loaded into the RAM Acronis, which works without the need to boot Windows, which will perform the planned recovery actions.

Restoring a system partition with a occupied space of about 5-10 GB takes approximately 5-15 minutes. Then you need to reboot the computer again, after which the restored OS will be ready for use.

4.3. Using Acronis Secure Zone and booting the program from CD
Security zone Acronis is a location on a physical disk, which is a partition that is not connected to the OS. It is not available for Windows ("invisible"), so the risk of intentional or accidental deletion, as well as modification of the data contained on it, by the user, other programs or viruses is practically excluded.

How can I Acronis works with security zone? For this, a special driver is used. Acronis, which allows accessing data on a disabled partition, bypassing OS facilities. Theoretically, it is possible to create a virus containing a driver similar to the one used in Acronis so that the virus can access the security zone. However, information about the appearance of viruses with such capabilities has not yet been recorded in any of the official sources. The fact is that the development of a driver is technically difficult, and the creation of such viruses is practically meaningless. After all, it is easier to develop a malicious code that deletes all information from a physical disk (all partitions along with all the data on them), which will be no less "efficient" than creating a narrow-specialized virus with a complex driver.

In the security zone, you can store not only archives, but also the files necessary to download the program itself Acronis without using Windows. If this function is enabled, then when you start the computer for a few seconds, you will be prompted to press the "F11" key to boot Acronis. If the "F11" key is not pressed, then Windows will start loading.

Implementing this feature requires changes to the MBR. Such changes can be blocked if changing the MBR is disabled in the BIOS settings. In addition, an incorrect change to the MBR can lead to a complete loss of data on the computer, so this kind of procedure must be done with extreme caution.

Another dangerous operation Acronis- this is the creation of a security zone, tk. in this case, a new partition is formed either by allocating part of the space occupied on the hard disk by existing partitions, or by using the space left unallocated by partitions (unformatted areas). Those. in fact, a new partition of the disk occurs. Possible negative consequences of splitting errors have already been considered in section 3.2 of this article.

Download capability Acronis from a CD without the need to start Windows is very useful in cases where, for some reason, the latter is inoperative. In this case, using Acronis it is also possible to restore a corrupted MBR. As with booting from the security zone, the user will be presented with a windowed interface very similar to that implemented in Acronis for Windows XP. The main menu and the order of execution of individual operations are also very similar to those implemented in Acronis for Windows.

5. Conclusion
In some cases, it is enough to use the standard recovery program built into Windows XP, especially in situations where user data, settings and system performance are not very important for a person working at a computer (for example, if the computer is used as a gaming machine).

In those cases when the system works in conditions of frequent experiments and can be damaged at any time, or when fast and more reliable data recovery is required, third-party paid programs are used. In such cases, in order to increase performance and avoid duplication of copying functions, it is advisable to completely disable regular system restore along with the corresponding Windows service. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that working with such programs requires special care and caution, and the user, of course, must be competent in this matter and have a clear idea of what and how the program he uses does. Otherwise, recovery attempts will result in data loss rather than useful results.

No recovery (rollback) methods guarantee a 100% recovery result. Therefore, in all cases, it is necessary to regularly backup user data to external storage media.

The last non-obvious advice: before restoring data, it is advisable to make an additional copy of the current state of the OS. With this precaution, it will always be possible to revert to the state it was in before the restore. This can be very useful in the event that the rollback procedure suddenly went wrong, and further aggravated the current situation.

Sometimes a situation arises when it is necessary to quickly undo unwanted changes in the system: for example, after updating the software, installing drivers or cleaning the registry, stability problems began Windows. However, not all users know How make a rollback How And When make rollback points on your own, and in what cases the OS does them in auto mode - in general, I will try to answer all pressing questions on this important topic in this note in a compact way.

Let's start by checking if the System Restore service is running (process rstrui.exe ). To do this, through the button " Start", right click on " Computer" → next, in the drop-down menu, select " Properties" → "System protection ". In the "Protection Options" area, available local drives and their degree of protection will be displayed. By default, System Restore is enabled for the drive where Windows (C:\). However, it can be enabled for any other disk by checking the required one (for Vista this is all manipulation!) and pressing the button " Tune(first screenshot).

In the window that opens, activate " Restore system settings and previous versions of files" and confirm the changes with the button " OK". Besides, in Windows 7 the ability to manage disk space for system recovery returned, as it was in XP, but for some reason "forgotten" in Vista(screenshot below).

When Windows itself (automatically) creates restore points ?

This happens in the following cases:

when installing programs and drivers;
when installing OS updates via the Internet;
Scheduled (every 24 hours a day) Windows Vista and every 7 days in the "seven");
when you roll back the system to one of the earlier restore points.

Of course, the user can independently create a rollback point before any potentially dangerous actions (such as changing system files) according to the "more is not less" principle.

How to roll back the system ?

All restore points Windows located in a hidden system folder C:\System Volume Information. There are several ways to “roll back” to the desired point on your own, for example:

through the button Start", press " Help & Support " → "Reverting changes using System Restore " → "Restoring an earlier computer state " And " Further" (For Windows XP);

through " Start", click " Control Panel " → "System Restore " (or "Restore") → " Starting System Restore " → in the final, select the desired rollback point (screenshot);
via hot key combination + R" → in the box enter rstrui → "OK" (the most convenient option for Windows 8).

A few important notes

Quoting the help article from the Microsoft website: " System Restore does not protect drives with FAT32 or other FAT file systems because these drives do not support shadow copies.". IN XP when creating a rollback point, only the key files of the system and programs were tracked, in contrast to Windows Vista / 7 / 8 , where, thanks to the Volume Shadow Copy Service (eng. Volume Shadow Copy Service or VSS), changes are committed throughout the section. In any case, personal files are not included in OS restore points, i. all your documents and photos after the "rollback" will not disappear.
If you encounter any problems with the loading and stability of Windows, you should use the last restore point created shortly before the date and time when the problems started. If the situation has not changed, you can always choose another (earlier) rollback point.
For novice computer scientists, I recommend reading my

Situations when the operating system starts to malfunction and errors, or refuses to start at all, happen quite often. This happens for various reasons - from virus attacks and software conflicts to incorrect user actions. In Windows XP, there are several tools for restoring the health of the system, which we will discuss in this article.

Let's consider two scenarios.

The operating system boots, but runs with errors. This includes file corruption and software conflicts. In this case, you can roll back to the previous state directly from the running system.
Windows refuses to start. Here we will be helped by reinstalling the system while saving user data. There is also another way, but it only works if there are no serious problems - loading the last known good configuration.

Method 1: System Restore Utility

In Windows XP, there is a system utility designed to track changes in the OS, such as installing software and updates, and reconfiguring key settings. The program automatically creates a restore point if the above conditions have been met. In addition, there is a function to create custom points. Let's start with them.

First of all, we check if the recovery function is enabled, for which we click PKM by icon "My computer" on the desktop and select "Properties".
Next, open the tab "System Restore". Here you need to pay attention to whether the checkbox is unchecked. "Disable System Restore". If it is, then remove and click "Apply", then close the window.
Now you need to run the utility. Go to the start menu and open the list of programs. In it we find a directory "Standard" and then a folder "Service". We are looking for our utility and click on the name.
Choose an option "Create a restore point" and press "Further".
Enter a description of the checkpoint, for example "Driver Installation", and click on the button "Create".
The next window informs us that a new point has been created. The program can be closed.

It is advisable to perform these actions before installing any software, especially one that interferes with the operation of the operating system (drivers, design packages, etc.). As we know, everything automatic can work incorrectly, so it's better to play it safe and do everything yourself, with handles.

Recovery from points is as follows:

Run the utility (see above).
In the first window, leave the parameter "Restore an earlier computer state" and press "Further".
Next, you need to try to remember after what actions the problems began, and determine the approximate date. On the built-in calendar, you can select a month, after which the program, with the help of a selection, will show us on which day the restore point was created. The list of points will be displayed in the block on the right.
Select a restore point and click "Further".
We read all kinds of warnings and click again "Further".
Next, a reboot will follow, and the utility will restore the system settings.
After logging into our account, we will see a message that the recovery was successful.

You probably noticed that the window contains information that you can choose a different restore point or cancel the previous procedure. We have already talked about the points, now we will deal with the cancellation.

Method 2: Restore without logging in

The previous method is applicable if we can boot the system and log into our "account". If the download does not occur, then you will have to use other recovery options. This is loading the last working configuration and reinstalling the system while saving all files and settings.