System Restore for Win98se. Possible ?

[wizardofwindows]

Second Chance Get It Here:secondchance zip It installs saying its a 15 day demo but i,ved used it for a year so registering only apply to recieve techinal updates which long since expired .Enjoy i found this after a trip to the wayback machine and some internet savy.by the way its a excellent program that works for win 95/98 including 98se try it out.Long Live 98se. Edited September 12, 2006 by wizardofwindows

[Philco]

Second Chance Get It Here:secondchance zip It installs saying its a 15 day demo but i,ved used it for a year so registering only apply to recieve techinal updates which long since expired .Enjoy i found this after a trip to the wayback machine and some internet savy.by the way its a excellent program that works for win 95/98 including 98se try it out.Long Live 98se.

files broken... please, hosting file secondchance.zip other server (RapidShare, SendSpace,...)

[wizardofwindows]

Sorry philco im on dailup here out in the country takes like 25 minutes could someone else upload it plz. P.S when u install sometimes its better to unrar and click on setup.exe .either ways good .thx u and Long live 98se mgdx for president . B)

[Eck]

Yep, SecondChance is awesome! I never knew about this and for years alternated between the hard drive grinding to destruction GoBack (also real-mode memory grabbing), and just depending on scanreg /restore.

Now I find that SecondChance is actually better than SystemRestore as it's configurable as to which folders to ignore, has an emergency recovery floppy, etc.

It recently allowed me to experiment with which cd burning program would actually work in my current configuration. I had problems with Nero and Roxio and IOS bootup errors. SecondChance saved me from needing to start fresh. Even when I couldn't load Windows, it would restore to any points from the boot floppy. It also works within Windows of course, if Windows will start!

I actually managed to find a sealed retail cd of it, but installed 2.7 instead. Funny that the updated version wouldn't accept the real cd key and I needed to use the "funny" one included on the PowerQuest SystemTools 2006 compilation. I guess that when people used to update from the program PowerQuest used to send them a different key for the update.

2.7 doesn't use Autoexec to load TSR's. Besides that it's probably essentially the same program. I just felt weird using a "funny" key when I actually bought the program!

It absolutely is SystemRestore (but better) for 9x. I wonder why it was left behind when Symantec bought the rights? Much better than GoBack in my view. No worries about what's going on with other partitions as it doesn't do anything to the boot sector like GoBack does. And you can recover individual files just like GoBack. too. Recover files that changed after a restore, the whole shebang.

[Petr]

Second Chance Get It Here:secondchance zip It installs saying its a 15 day demo but i,ved used it for a year so registering only apply to recieve techinal updates which long since expired .Enjoy i found this after a trip to the wayback machine and some internet savy.by the way its a excellent program that works for win 95/98 including 98se try it out.Long Live 98se.

files broken... please, hosting file secondchance.zip other server (RapidShare, SendSpace,...)

I was able to download the rar file and unpack it with no problem, it contains SecondChance by PowerQuest® Version 2.01, the same version can be downloaded also here: http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_down...p/download.html

It seems there is even newer version 2.07, here is German version: http://www.computerhilfe-euskirchen.de/dow...econdchance.zip

English version of 2.07 could be probably found using Google too.

Petr

[Fredledingue]

Despite the availability of Second Chance and whatever you can say, I will keep on with my system back-up script project.

It will be fast, small, easy, open-source and with very litle overhead for each restore point.

I won't say more for the moment.

[bristols]

Sounds great, Fred.

I wish you the best of luck with it, and look forward to trying it out.

[Eck]

It was really hard to find 2.07, at least an English version of it. I wound up downloading a Torrent of that super pack of old PowerQuest programs to get it.

The 2.0 version was on sale by an Ebay seller so that's how I bought that. 2.07 is nicer because of the absence of the AutoExec TSR. Other than that I think it's the same thing.

But it would be great to have something available for everyone. SecondChance can't be that since it is still copywrited software, now owned by Symantec. Kind of like old MS-DOS games. Can't buy most of them but still illegal to distribute.

[Andromeda43]

It was really hard to find 2.07, at least an English version of it. I wound up downloading a Torrent of that super pack of old PowerQuest programs to get it.

The 2.0 version was on sale by an Ebay seller so that's how I bought that. 2.07 is nicer because of the absence of the AutoExec TSR. Other than that I think it's the same thing.

But it would be great to have something available for everyone. SecondChance can't be that since it is still copywrited software, now owned by Symantec. Kind of like old MS-DOS games. Can't buy most of them but still illegal to distribute.

This thread is getting long and I'm sure I've missed a few posts while scanning it, but I'm still wondering what's wrong with scanreg.exe that comes built into Windows 98/SE and ME?????

It makes a restore point every new calendar day when you boot up your PC. It can be set to make more than the default 5 points before dropping the old ones off in the ol' Bit Bucket.

I use it at least once a week to save some old customer's PC.

In MSCONFIG, you should see an entry, "ScanRegistry", with a path statement, "C:\Windows\scanregw.exe /autorun"

Then, to make the program even more usefull in case of disaster, find "Scanreg.ini"

and edit it. Change the line "MaxBackupCopies =5" to read 30 instead of 5 and Save the file.

Now, it will make backup copies of your registry, every day, for 30 days instead of just 5 days, before it starts dropping off the old Restore Points.

When windows won't even boot up, you can boot up your system with a Boot floppy or CD and run:

Scanreg.exe /Restore

And quite often recover a system to full operation. I do it often.

I have the scanreg program already on my custom boot disk, just for this purpose.

here's the menu that comes up when I boot with that disk:

CD Rom Drivers Are Loaded

Main Menu, Windows ME Utilities

1. Fdisk (setup new hard drive)

2. Fdisk: Make New Boot Record

3. Format drive C:

4. Scandisk C: ( /autofix )

5. Scandisk All Drives ( /all /autofix )

6. Run "Scanreg /restore" (restores an older version of the Registry)

7. Delete WMIEXE.exe (this file, not needed by Windows)

8. Run HOOVER.bat (deletes 98, ME junk files)

9. Remove all files from "C:\_Restore\*.*" in Windows ME.

Type your choice at the DOS prompt and press ENTER.

***************************************************

Everyone who still uses Windows 98, 98/SE or ME, should have such a boot disk

handy at all times. You never know the hour or day when you'll need it.

My own Boot disk is actually made with Windows ME, because it's more versatile.

And, it will allow me to set up a 160 gig HD, which 98 won't do.

Cheers!

Andromeda43

[Fredledingue]

Thanks Andromeda for your suggestion.

My program will actualy save and restore installed files. (Scanreg save and restore only the registry)

My program will not save or work on the registry. Only on files.

Then I could add a few stuffs from your boot disk into some batch file.

I intend to use autoexec.bat to launch this batch files.

For the moment I'm working on the 1st step: saving files which has changed since the last restore point.

When this will be ok, I will work on how to restore those files and maybe other stuffs like the registry.

Suggestions are welcome.

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

i can't wait Fredledingue you are very skilled

[Dr. Mac]

Greetings all

Well ... who would have thought that when I started this thread several montyhs ago it would generate so many replies!

Fred - your project sounds great - do keep uo all up to date with your progress.

Eck - please check your PM B)

Anybody found a download for the ENGLISH version of PQSC v. 2.07 ???

Keep the ideas coming.

Best wishes to you all ...

Dr. Mac

[Eck]

Well, of course one would want the registry restored along with the rest of the files on the partition. Just the files is like a back up program. The kind that doesn't help much if you restore files but the registry doesn't have the right connections to them.

Scanreg /restore is nice, but what we're talking about is nicer as just a registry back up can still leave things non-functional without all the files being the same as they were when the registry backup you're restoring was created.

SystemRestore does restore the registry (as does SecondChance). So what we're looking for is a way to do the same type of thing. That is restoring the entire partition, including the registry, with the ability to disable the monitoring of individual folders, such as the TEMP, Temporary Internet Files, My Documents, Cookies, Favorites, etc. That way all the remaining folders are restored, but those are left alone.

[Fredledingue]

Eck,

The concept of partition apeals to notions of computer chirurgy that I'm not very familiar with such as raw data copying and so on.

What I can do is resotirng files from a batch file launched via autoexec.bat and then launch the registry restore app also via autoexec.bat.

Maybe in dos mode or on a bootable CD too. There are tons of unexplored possibilities but that's for the future.

However, the creation of restore points will have to be done under windows, at least for the moment.

The scriptware I will propose is already able to exclude or include the folders of your choice and already suggests in its dialog with the user, to exclude folders such as temp, recent etc...

A file filtering is already in action to discard files above a certain size or of certain extentions. More filters can be added or changed easily in the code and I could easily make an ini file to allow the user to modify these filters if necessary.

In the future I plan to port my script(s) to the more graphic and user friendly HTA interface but all this takes time!

______

Everybody:

Thanks for your encouragements. I will need you for testing "simulation" releases (which will not interfere with your system until it's prefectly safe).

Edited September 15, 2006 by Fredledingue

[charles__]

Dr. Mac

From what i have seen PQSC v. 2.07 was for windows me