I successfully create manual system restore points. I typically clean the PC with CCleaner (but not the registry cleaner feature). But when I shut down and reboot the next day, they are gone.
After reading your post I checked and confirmed that all of my system restore points were recently deleted. Note that my system normally retains around 10 restore points and the oldest usually dates back a few weeks.
I'm not sure which program is responsible since I ran both CCleaner Portable 5.44.6575 and a Malwarebytes Free v3.5.1 Threat Scan on 29-Jun-2018 around 4:20 PM, but every restore point created prior to that CCleaner disk clean and subsequent MB Threat Scan was wiped from my system. My MB scan report for 29-Jun-2018 shows there were no threats detected. My Norton Security antivirus automatically runs a background QuickScan each time my SDS (virus) definitions are updated but there's nothing in my Norton security history to indicate that the QuickScan that ran 29-Jun-2018 @ 10:45 AM detected anything.
Control Panel | System and Maintenance | System | System Protection | System Restore confirms I only have those two newer restore points, so it's not the CCleaner anomaly Andavari mentioned <here> regarding corrupted restore points.
I tried running both CCleaner and a MB Threat scan today (with re-boots after each program was run) and neither removed my two recently created restore points so I can't re-create whatever caused the deletion of all my restore points a few days ago. I also had two Norton QuickScans run on 30-Jun-2018 and those QuickScans haven't touched either restore point.
Oh well, at least it's ruled it out as a possible cause.
I've just checked, both in CC and in Windows, and I also currently only have 2 restore points, although one is almost a month old. (From when I uninstalled and reinstalled my word processor).
EDIT-
I decided to try some testing so made 3 new restore points by different methods.
One by a script I have, one by running JRT (which creates one automatically), and one through Windows.
All 3 were created sucessfully, giving me a total of 5 RP's.
To try and roughly recreate what had been said above:
I ran CCleaner (v5.44 Free) - All 5 RP's were still showing in CCleaner after cleaning.
Checking in Windows System Restore only the 3 that I had just created were showing at first - until I checked the box for 'Show more restore points' at which time all 5 were shown.
I then ran a threat scan with MB3.5 free (v3.5.1.2522) - Again all 5 RP's were still there afterwards, both in CC and in Windows.
I did a restart of Windows, all 5 RP's are still there.
So it would seem that it's not CCleaner or Malwarebytes that are removing the old Restore Points. (And as you can see from the screenshot 2 of mine are a few weeks old).
Unless there is something strangely different between our version of these programmes?
I saw your post # 11 in sethm1's thread System Restore Points are Missing in the Malwarebytes forum which stated "My feeling is that it's 1803 removing them in the background for some reason" but my post above shows that I have a Vista SP2 OS.
My last MB Threat Scan was run yesterday (02-Jul-2018) @ 7:55 AM and when I opened CCleaner Portable v5.44 today (without running a disk clean) I saw that all but my most recent system restore point has been wiped.
I still don't know why my system restore points are disappearing but it could be happening when:
I run a MB Free v3.5.1-1.0.365 Threat Scan
I re-boot and launch CCleaner Portable v5.44
I go to Control Panel | System and Maintenance | System | System Protection | System Restore and cancel the System Restore after double-checking my available restore points.
Norton QuickScans or some other third-party automatic scan runs in background
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To be sure: you don't have wipe free space checked off in ccleaner's windows>Advanced
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Hi Nergal:
That might the cause. Both Wipe Free Space Drives (Local Disk C:) and Wipe MFT Free Space have been enabled in my CCleaner Portable v5.44 at Option | Settings. I'll disable those settings and post back if it makes any difference.
I'm not sure how those settings were enabled. I copied over my ccleaner.ini file I was using with CCleaner Portable v5.43 and I'm sure they were disabled before. Is it even normal for Wipe MFT Free Space to delete older system restore points when this setting is enabled?
I also don't have active monitoring or scheduled scanning enabled and Run CCleaner when the computer starts is also disabled, so I'm not sure why simply launching CCleaner Portable v5.44 would wipe my old system restore points, regardless of whether Wipe MFT Free Space was enabled or not.
- Run Antibody's Wiztree. The program can pull up the size of the folder called "System Volume Information" in which the data/info for the System Restore Points (SRP) are stored. Even if the user deletes all SRPs (with e.g. CCleaner) then this folder still can contain GBs worth of data. I have come across one example where this folder still contained over 60 GB of data.
- One also has to take into account that when the amount of of free disk space is too low for making a new SRP, then Windows will delete one or more or even all SRPs.
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Hi Nergal:
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That might the cause. <strong>Both Wipe Free Space Drives (Local Disk C:) and Wipe MFT Free Space</strong> have been enabled in my CCleaner Portable v5.44 at Option | Settings. I'll disable those settings and post back if it makes any difference.
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<a href="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2018_07/5b3bb62a19ed2_CCleaner5_44WipeFreeSpace03Jul2018.png.0d83df7d10895c2769662aeeca014558.png" title="Enlarge image" data-fileid="10966" rel=""><img alt="5b3bb62a19ed2_CCleaner5_44WipeFreeSpace03Jul2018.png.0d83df7d10895c2769662aeeca014558.png" class="ipsImage ipsImage_thumbnailed" data-fileid="10966" src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2018_07/5b3bb62a19ed2_CCleaner5_44WipeFreeSpace03Jul2018.png.0d83df7d10895c2769662aeeca014558.png"></a>
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<strong>I'm not sure how those settings were enabled</strong>. I copied over my ccleaner.ini file I was using with CCleaner Portable v5.43 and I'm sure they were disabled before. <strong> Is it even normal for <em>Wipe MFT Free Space</em> to delete older system restore points when this setting is enabled?</strong>
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I also don't have <strong>active monitoring</strong> or <strong>scheduled scanning</strong> enabled and <strong><em>Run CCleaner when the computer starts</em></strong> is also disabled, so I'm not sure why simply launching CCleaner Portable v5.44 would wipe my old system restore points, regardless of whether <em>Wipe MFT Free Space</em> was enabled or not.
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I wasn't referring to the settings but instead in the cleaning tool on the windows tab under the heading advanced, is the checkmark in wipe free space.
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I wasn't referring to the settings but instead in the cleaning tool on the windows tab under the heading advanced, is the checkmark in wipe free space.
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Hi Nergal:
Sorry for the misunderstanding. No, Wipe Free Space and all my other Advanced items on the Cleaner | Windows tab are always disabled.
I have a 220 GB C:\ drive with over 130 GB of free disk space, and I use the Vista SP2 default which allocates a max of 15% or 33 GB (0.15* 220 GB) of disk space before it starts overwriting older system restore points. I also have a small 12 GB D:\ drive on my HP computer that's only intended for emergency recovery / factory resets.
- When there's too little free diskspace then Windows will delete - AFAIK - all SRPs.
- Please do run Antibody's WIZTREE as well (tree view) and make a screenshot of the treeview.
- I have 6 SRPs on my Win 7 system but I see no relationship between the 6 SRPs and the amount of subfolders in "System Volume Information". See picture attached.
- As said before sometimes when I delete all SRPs then that one folder can still contain GBs of data.
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...Please do run Antibody's WIZTREE as well (tree view) and make a screenshot of the treeview...
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Hi Willy2:
I normally use the portable version of Jam Software's TreeSize Free - hope that's OK. I already checked my System Volume Information folder with that utility and didn't notice anything unusual (besides the fact that it only uses 1.8 GB and I only have the one restore point created 02-Jul-2018 shown <here> instead of my usual 10 or so).
I found some recent recent volsnap errors logged in my Windows Event Viewer, and according to the StackExchange SuperUser threadvolsnap: The shadow copies of volume C: were aborted because of an IO failure on volume C: these Event 14 errors occur when there is no space left for shadow copies to function correctly (i.e., current usage has exceeded the maximum space allocated for system restore points).
I also noticed that my recent volsnap errors occurred if my system was trying to automatically create a system restore point on the same dates that I ran a CCleaner disk clean followed by a Malwarebytes Threat Scan. That still points to a problem with either CCleaner v5.44 or MB Free v3.5.1 (or some odd combination of both), but I've been running those two programs in tandem while troubleshooting this past week so I'll have to do more testing to see if I can isolate which program is causing the problem. It still seems more likely to me that there's a glitch in my CCleaner Portable - perhaps a corrupted cleaner.ini file that causes CCleaner to run a Wipe Free Space on my hard drive even when the configuration setting is disabled.