Overview of System Recovery Options for Windows 7

An Overview of System Recovery Options for Windows 7

Windows 7 has a few tools available which can help you when the system no longer behaves as it is supposed to. These tools can be used in the following scenarios: boot errors, upgrade failures or reboot loops.

In this article I will share with you the list of available tools, explain what they do and the scenarios when they are helpful.

System Recovery Options - What they Are & When to Use them

The 'System Recovery Options' are a set of 5 tools, listed below, which can be used to repair or recover a damaged operating system:

Startup Repair - can be used to scan your computer and fix missing or damaged system files that prevent Windows from starting correctly. You can use this tool if you have modified Windows system files or if you installed applications which have modified Windows system files in such a way that the operating system doesn't start anymore.

System Restore - can be used to restore Windows system files to the state of an earlier point in time, while leaving all your user files untouched. You can use System Restore when you want to revert to an earlier configuration which you know it worked properly. For example, if you installed multiple applications and you are suddenly experiencing random restarts, boot failures and Startup Repair failed to fix anything, the quickest way to solve the problem is to use System Restore.

NOTE: In order to use System Restore you must have at least one system restore point previously created. More info about this feature will be published in upcoming articles.

System Image Recovery - can be used to restore a system image. When everything else fails, this can be the solution to your problems. When Startup Repair and System Restore are not helping, try to use the System Image Recovery tool. The only drawback is that you will revert only to the files, folders and applications that were present at the time you created the system image.

NOTE: In order to use this tool you must have a previously created system image file. More info about this feature will be published in upcoming articles.

Windows Memory Diagnostic - scans your computer's memory for errors. If your computer randomly freezes after you upgraded or changed the RAM modules, it is a good idea to use the Windows Memory Diagnostic to check them for errors.

Command Prompt - can be used by advanced users to perform recovery-related operations. These operations should only be used by advanced users. If you are not sure on what you are doing, you can end-up with your Windows 7 in a state which is a lot worse than before.

There are two ways of accessing the 'System Recovery Options': from the Windows 7 installation DVD or directly from your hard-disk. I will start with the first scenario. As you will see, finding the 'System Recovery Options' is easy in both cases.

            

       Access System Recovery Options From The Installation DVD

Enter into bios and set boot device priory first as DVD Rom. Save it

The first step is to insert the Windows 7 installation DVD into your drive and boot from it. Select the language you prefer and click on Next.

E      In the next window click on the 'Repair your computer' link.

Then select the operating system that you want to repair. This step is important when you have multiple operating systems installed and only one is damaged. Click on Next to continue.

In the new window you will see all the 'System Recovery Options'.

Access System Recovery Options From Your Hard Disk

If you don't have a Windows 7 installation DVD, don't worry. You can still access the 'System Recovery Options' from a hidden 100MB recovery partition that Windows 7 automatically creates when you first installed the operating system.

At the next computer restart, right after the BIOS info screen, press and hold the F8 key from your keyboard. Shortly you will see a list of 'Advanced Boot Options.

Select the first option named 'Repair Your Computer' and press the Enter key.

After a few seconds a 'System Security Options' window will show up. Select the keyboard input method that you prefer and click on Next.

In the next window, select a user name to log on to Windows 7. Also, if you have a password for that user name type it in the Password text field. When done, click on OK.

In the new window you will see all the available System Recovery Options that you can use to repair Windows 7.

To open the System Recovery Options menu using the Windows 7 installation disc or a USB flash drive, or a system repair disc

If your computer's system is severely damaged and you can't access the System Recovery Options menu on your computer, you can access it using the Windows 7 installation disc or a USB flash drive, or using a system repair disc if you created one earlier.

To use this method, you need to restart (boot) your computer using the disc or USB flash drive.

1. Insert the Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive, or a system repair disc, and then shut down your computer.
2. Restart your computer using the computer's power button.
3. When prompted, press any key, and then follow the instructions that appear.
4. On the Install Windows page, or on the System Recovery Options page, choose your language and other preferences, and then click Next.
5. If neither the Install Windows page nor the System Recovery Options page appears, and you're not asked to press any key, you might need to change some system settings. To learn how to do this, see Start your computer from a Windows 7 installation disc or USB flash drive.
6. If you are using the Windows installation disc or USB flash drive, click Repair your computer.
7. Select the Windows installation you want to repair, and then click Next.
8. On the System Recovery Options menu, click a tool to open it.
9. There's No Performance Drain From System Restore.

Windows 7 System Restore inside the windows 7

Windows 7 System Restore utility has now merged with the Windows Backup utility. You can now use System Restore with Advance recovery to restore the system using previously created System Images or even restore your computer to its original settings.

Start at the Control Panel, then select System and Security

Security

Select Recovery

You can beging the system restore operation with the following

Open System Restore

Restore System Files and Settings

One has to determine which restore point is the preferred one to use.

 If those are not enough, one can choose others.

Show More Restore Points

 You have additional restore points available.

Confirm Your Restore Point

There's No Performance Drain From System Restore

One of the most common performance-tweaking myths that you'll find on all the amateur tweaking sites says that you should disable System Restore for maximum performance, but that's just ridiculous. We've already shown you that System Restore only kicks in once a day, and only runs when the system is idle—so the only drain on your resources is a little bit of extra drive space being used, not to mention that snapshots take virtually no time to create.

If you're really worried about the use of your drive space, you can easily tweak System Restore to use less space in Windows 7—just head into System Properties –> System Protection –> Configure and drag the slider to choose exactly how much space you want to use. For Windows Vista, it's a lot more difficult—you'll need to use a command-line hack to force Windows Vista to use less space.

The much better solution, however, is to simply clear out all restore points but the most frequent one whenever you're in need of some extra drive space using the Disk Cleanup utility. Just run it as administrator by right-clicking on the utility in the start menu and choosing the Run as Administrator option, or you can open it normally and click the "Clean up system files" button—once you've done so, you can choose the More Options tab where you'll find a Clean up button to remove all the old restore points except for the most recent one. This keeps you safe just in case you need to restore, but doesn't keep the older, more unnecessary restore points around.

At this point hopefully you can see the benefit and learn to love how System Restore can fix your PC easily, but if you really insist, you can disable System Restore easily from the System Protection tab.