System Restore issue

I think srservice.exe existed in Windows XP.

http://revertservice.com/xp/srservice/

There's no such file in Win 10.

Presumably you're not using Win XP, are you?

Frankly, I gave up using system restore years ago as it was so temperamental.

I have turned it off and just use image backups with Maxrium Reflect instead.

I opted to pay for the paid version, mostly to get incremental updates.

However, best (imo) feature of paid version is Rapid Delta Restore (RDR).

So if I am doing something where traditionally system restore is handy e.g. installing new app or messing with registry, I make an incremental image backup (having previously made a full backup), make change, and if it goes wonky, I just restore incremental image backup. This normally only takes less than 2 minutes with RDR.

This is faster than traditional restores, and far more reliable.

You can do same to an extent with differential images with free version of Reflect, but you have to do a full restore which can take a lot longer but it is still very reliable (reliabilty is far more important than time).

cereberus said:

Frankly, I gave up using system restore years ago as it was so temperamental.
I have turned it off and just use image backups with Maxrium Reflect instead....

For one build, 1809 I think it was, system restore was totally reliable - you could rely on it to fail every time

Like you I restore using Macrium Reflect for the most part, and yes, RDR is very fast.

But like @dalchina I find that there are times where system restore is more appropriate. I have used it several times recently in 20H2 and it has always worked sucesfully.

Bree said:

For one build, 1809 I think it was, system restore was totally reliable - you could rely on it to fail every time

Like you I restore using Macrium Reflect for the most part, and yes, RDR is very fast.

But like @dalchina I find that there are times where system restore is more appropriate. I have used it several times recently in 20H2 and it has always worked sucesfully.

Problem is it works for some and not others. Good old Reflect is just far more reliable across the board. I see no advantage of system restore over incremental backup restores. Only minor difference is system restore does not remove data added since previous restore point, whereas a Macrium Restore would remove recent data on C drive. However the data is still on the image backup. I avoid this anyway by keeping data on a separate drive (backed up separately).

Also, I save all space on C drive that gets taken by system restore points (of course, image backups use space on other drives.

Also, you have more control over image backups than creation of system restore points.

In the end, it is all about reliabilty. Macrium backups have never let me down but system restore points are too temperamental (in my experience).

As I said incremental backups + RDR more or less does same and a lot faster (and reliable in my experience).

I guess it comes down to fact that I KNOW image backups will work but I DO NOT KNOW system restores will work.

Of course, if a user has good experience with system restore points, then fine.