How long does windows 7 system restore take. Windows system restore

Mar 3 2015

How to restore the Windows 7 system on a laptop, a black screen comes up on boot, the recovery environment does not work, I deleted all the hidden partitions, there is no original disk with Windows 7.

I spent a lot of time, tell me what to do now, or at least how to insure myself against such situations in the future, preferably without using paid data backup programs.

How to restore the Windows 7 system

Unfortunately, there are enough reasons for this trouble, ranging from incorrectly written drivers, the harmful effects of a virus, file system errors and ending with our erroneous actions when working with a computer, you don’t need to be afraid of such problems, you need to learn how to deal with them effectively.

Let's think about how to restore the windows 7 system, as well as insure ourselves for the future from possible troubles using the backup and recovery tools built into the operating system.

We will learn how to restore Windows 7 without using third-party backup programs, even when System Recovery Options does not load and the F-8 button is useless.

It has in its arsenal a fairly powerful and good tool -> Recovery Environment, which is created automatically when you install Windows 7 in a hidden partition and contains five other tools that solve numerous malfunctions and problems.

Note: If you learn how to use Windows 7 recovery tools correctly, which is not difficult, then you can do without additional and paid data backup programs.

You can start the recovery tool by pressing the F-8 button on the keyboard immediately after starting the computer. After that, a menu of Additional boot options will open in front of you: Troubleshoot your computer, then Safe mode, Safe mode with loading network drivers, etc.

Small digression: Before choosing the Troubleshoot your computer item, try the simpler option - Last Known Good Configuration - in simple words, the operating system always remembers the last successful boot of the computer and enters this information into the registry.

In case of problems with booting, Windows can remember the registry settings and driver settings that were used the last time the system was successfully booted and use them if you select the Last Known Good Configuration option.

If this tool does not help, select the first -> Troubleshoot your computer,

Next, we get to the Windows 7 System Recovery Options menu, which is what we need, it is here that we can select the System Restore Tool we need, there are five in total, let's take a closer look at how they all work.

The first thing to do is apply Startup Repair (Automatically fix problems that prevent Windows from starting).

Required digression: After pressing the F-8 button when the computer boots up, you may not have an item > Troubleshoot your computer, but only Safe Mode and so on, the question arises why.

When installing Windows 7, a recovery environment partition is created automatically and is located at the root of the drive (C:) in the Recovery folder. You can also see in the Disk Management window - a separate, hidden partition of the hard drive, its volume is only 100 MB, it is used to store boot configuration files (BCD) and the system boot loader (bootmgr file).

You can see it Computer-> Management-> Disk Management. In no case can you delete this partition (many people delete it out of ignorance), otherwise you will not start the recovery environment, that is, you will not have the Troubleshoot computer item, and in more severe cases you simply will not boot the system.

On the bottom screenshot, you can see another hidden partition, with a capacity of 9.02 GB, this is a hidden recovery partition with the factory settings of my laptop, you can have it more or less. It is also better not to delete it, if necessary, you can always restore Windows 7 from it.

What to do if you do not have a partition with the recovery environment and when you press the F-8 button, in the Advanced boot options menu, the Troubleshoot your computer item does not appear? How then to restore the Windows 7 system?

The installation disk with the Windows 7 operating system can save here. You can start the recovery tool by booting from the original Windows 7 installation disk by selecting System Restore at the very beginning.

If you don't have an installation disk, then you can use the Windows 7 Recovery Disk (you can make one in any running Windows 7) in five minutes, then you can also boot from it and do the same.

So, we still got into the System Recovery Options, either using the F-8 button and the Troubleshooting item, or the Windows 7 installation disc or the Windows 7 Recovery Disc.

In the System Restore Options menu, select the first one:

Launch Recovery-> there will be an analysis of faults that interfere with the normal loading of Windows 7 and their further correction for the normal loading and operation of the operating system.

In the process, we may be warned that problems have been found in the boot options, click Fix and restart.

System Restore-> using this function, we can select a previously created system restore point, if we have it enabled, and roll back to the time when our Windows 7 worked fine and loaded, everything is simple here.

Restoring a system image-> I personally use this tool, with skillful use it can replace paid data backup programs, if you are interested, read on.

Why is he good? It will help when you don't have the original Windows 7 installation disc and you have deleted the hidden partition with the factory settings of your laptop, but that's not all.

Sometimes there are situations when, for various reasons or due to the actions of a virus, you will not be able to load the operating system at all, or many people ask How to restore the Windows 7 system, even if the menu with Additional boot options is also unavailable. Reinstall the operating system again?

Therefore, immediately after installing Windows 7 on your laptop or computer, we use this function to create a system image restore, an archive image of our Windows 7 on your hard drive, and save it.

Be sure to create a Windows 7 Recovery Disc (read below), it will help you use the System Image if the Advanced Boot Options menu does not load.

Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Backup Computer Data.

Select "Create a system image".

In my case, the Local Disk (E :), if you have several hard drives in the system unit, then of course it is better to place the backup on the hard drive where the operating system is not installed.

By default, the data backup program will automatically select the partition with the Windows 7 operating system, if you wish, you can add Local drives for archiving yourself, as long as you have enough space.

Note: You can see that I have two operating systems installed on my laptop, so the backup program chose two Local drives.

Click Archive and the process of creating an archive with our Windows 7 will begin.

Created, it will look like this.

Now, you can deploy the archive with Windows 7 to your computer, if necessary, in 20-30 minutes. It would be better if you copy the archive with the system additionally to a portable hard drive, this will double your safety.

Let's pretend that we can't start Windows 7 and deploy the backup we created, let's do it together.

We launch the Windows 7 Recovery Tool by pressing the F-8 button on the keyboard immediately after starting the computer.

The Advanced Boot Options menu opens, select Troubleshoot your computer.

Restoring a system image

Use the latest available system image.

Of course, all our data on the Local Disk, where the operating system is now being restored, will be deleted, so you can pre-boot from any Live CD and copy what you need.

How else can you restore your Windows 7 system? Of course with the help of the Windows 7 Recovery Disk.

Let's create, which can be used to boot the computer, it will contain recovery tools with which you can repair Windows 7 boot problems, as well as restore the operating system from the backup copy that we created in advance.

Important: The bitness of the system is important for the recovery disk, you can use a 32-bit recovery disk for any 32-bit Windows 7, and a 64-bit recovery disk for any 64-bit Windows 7.

Again we go Archiving computer data.

Create a system recovery disc, insert the DVD into the drive, click "Create Disc".

When the Windows 7 Recovery Disk is ready, put it in a safe place.

In order to restore Windows 7 from the Recovery Disk, in principle, no operating system is needed at all.

You will only need to change the boot priority to the drive in the BIOS of your computer, insert the recovery disk into it and restore your Windows 7 using the archive.

Many here can draw an analogy with data backup programs, and rightly so, they work on the same principle, but their functionality is of course more convenient.

Restoring Windows 7 from the Recovery Disk. I show you how to do it. Suppose we are in trouble, we cannot start Windows 7, when we press F-8 on the keyboard, nothing happens immediately after starting the computer.

We cannot get into the menu with Additional boot options and an error message is displayed. In this case, the system archive on the hard disk is not available to us. It was precisely such a nuisance that happened to our reader Ilya, who wrote us a letter asking for help.

In this situation, many reinstall Windows 7 from scratch, but not us, because we have a System Recovery Disc.

We insert it into the drive and reboot, set the BIOS to boot from the drive, as I said the disk is bootable, the System Recovery Options program starts.

Press Enter until the offer to boot from disk is gone.

Automatically, the recovery tool running from the disc will try to repair the startup of Windows 7.

If all else fails, select any tool, try for example Recovering a computer using a previously created image of the operating system.

We use the latest available system image.

What other ways are there to restore Windows 7?

There is another little-known way to restore Windows 7 boot after a crash, and I'll tell you about it. At first glance, it will seem difficult to many, but nevertheless it often helps me out.

The fact is, friends, that a very large part of the problems due to which you cannot boot Windows 7 lies in registry errors. And Windows 7 wouldn't be Windows 7 if it didn't have a mechanism to protect registry files. Such a mechanism exists and creates archive copies of the registry in the RegBack folder every 10 days, regardless of whether you have system restore enabled or not.

If you can't fix problems booting Windows 7, you should try replacing the existing (and apparently corrupted) registry files in the Config folder with the zip files in the RegBack folder. To do this, we will have to boot the computer from the Windows 7 installation disc or the Windows 7 recovery disc.

We boot into the recovery environment, select the command line.

We type in it - notepad, we get into Notepad, then File and Open.

We go into the real explorer, click My computer. Now we need the system drive C:, attention, the drive letters here can be confused, but I think you can recognize the system drive C: by the Windows and Program Files system folders inside.

We go to the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder, the current registry files are located here, we specify the File type - All files and we see our registry files, we also see the RegBack folder, in it every 10 days the Task Scheduler makes a backup copy of the registry keys.

So, we will replace the existing registry files from the Config folder with backup registry files from the RegBack folder.
So, first of all, let's delete the SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SYSTEM files from the C:\Windows\System32\Config folder, which are responsible for all registry hives (my advice is to copy the registry hives somewhere just in case before deleting them).

In their place, copy and paste files with the same names, but from a backup copy, that is, from the RegBack folder.

Note: You cannot delete the SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, DEFAULT, SYSTEM files all together, delete them one by one. Then copy the same files from the RegBack folder in their place.

Friends, if this does not help, apply Windows 7 File Integrity Recovery, if the operating system does not boot, it is done in the same way as in Windows 8.

What else do we have left of the Windows 7 recovery tools?

Memory Diagnostics 7-> checks system memory for errors. Command line-> with it you can delete files that interfere with loading Windows 7.

I hope our article on how to restore a Windows 7 system helped you.

Windows 10, the restoration of which can return the computer to its original state, has several options for this action, let's look at restoring the Windows 10 system!

Since the OS itself is a rather complex structure, the frequent occurrence of problems and errors is understandable. On the other hand, as in any complex system, Windows also has tools for its recovery, knowledge of which can help you relatively easily and without significant loss "revive" your computer and save important data.

How to restore Windows 10

Of course, the notorious Windows 10 system recovery tools differ in the specifics of their work and in terms of the end result. They will be discussed below.
To begin with, it is necessary to specify the situations in which it makes sense to return the OS to the previous state.

Windows 10 does not work correctly, an update (regular to the OS itself or a driver) or some application has also recently been installed.
Most likely, the reason is precisely what was recently installed. In this situation, you can. You can do this in several ways:
On the command line, run the command as an administrator, type rstrui - the return to point interface will open.

You can also access this window through the control panel - Recovery.

Pressing "Starting System Restore" The familiar interface will open.

After selecting a point and clicking on the "Next" button, the return process will begin, which takes several minutes (from 10-15 or more). This process affects installed applications and user files that have changed since the point was created.
In order to be able to restore Windows 10 using restore points, you need to make sure that they are created automatically. To do this, in the Control Panel - Recovery window, select "Setting up system recovery".

In the table of available disks, you need to check if OS protection is enabled. If enabled, restore points are created automatically. If not, the point will only be created manually. To create a point, click "Create" and specify the name of the point to be created.

To enable automatic creation of points (Windows OS protection), you must click "Configure ..." and select "Turn on system protection".

If you cannot log in, you can use this function through recovery environment (WinRE). There are several ways to get there:

On the lock screen (password entry), you must click "Shutdown", hold down the key. After reboot, select "Diagnostics" - "Advanced options" - "Command line"– run the rstrui command.
Turn the computer off and on repeatedly using the power button (not the safest way). These manipulations will also allow you to enter the recovery environment and take further actions.

Windows 10 is not working properly, but no updates or apps have been installed recently.

This option is already more ambiguous. The reason for the incorrect operation of the system may not be so obvious. In this case, resetting Windows 10 may help. To do this, open Settings, then "Update and Security".

To start the process, you must click "Start".

If the system does not boot, then you can enter the recovery environment () and select "Diagnostics" - "Reset the computer to its original state".
At the same time, we may be offered options for restoring the Windows 10 system:

Keep Files - This will reinstall the OS while keeping all personal files, but will remove installed drivers and applications, remove any changes made to settings, and all applications preinstalled by the manufacturer (If you purchased a computer with Windows 10 installed, applications from the computer manufacturer will be reinstalled).
Remove everything - this will reinstall Windows 10, remove personal files, remove installed applications and drivers, remove any changes made to settings and all applications preinstalled by the manufacturer (If you bought a device with Windows 10 already installed, then applications from the computer manufacturer will be automatically reinstalled). This option is also better to use if you are going to dispose or sell the computer, cleaning the disk can take several hours, but after that it will become very difficult to return the data.
Reset to factory settings(if available) - this will reinstall Windows 7/8/8.1/10, remove personal files, remove installed drivers and applications, remove any changes made to settings, and reinstall all applications preinstalled by the manufacturer.
Important! After completing this procedure, the option to return to the previous assembly will no longer be available.

The system does not boot and you previously created a recovery disk.
To use this option, you must connect the drive to your computer. Next, after loading the recovery environment (WinRE), you need to select "Troubleshooting" - "Advanced Options" - "System Restore". As a result, recently installed programs, updates to the system or Office, as well as drivers that can cause problems on the computer will be removed, but personal files will remain intact.
Also, if there is a disk, it is possible to perform a reset (see the previous paragraph).
Learn how to create a recovery disc.

The system does not boot and no recovery disk has been previously created.
In this situation, installation media can help - a disk, a USB drive from which you can perform a clean installation of the system. If there is no such carrier at hand, then it must be created. You can do it this way:

On a working computer, open the Microsoft Software website.
Click "Download tool now", wait for the tool to be downloaded and run it.
Select "Create installation media for another computer".
Configure the required settings - language, edition, and architecture (64-bit or 32-bit system).
Follow the instructions for creating installation media until the process completes.
Connect the newly created installation media to a non-working computer and turn it on.

After that, you need to boot from the installation media and select the option "System Restore". Further, the set of possible actions is similar to the previous paragraph of this article.

Computer won't boot, no recovery disc was created, and reset failed.
In this situation, there are no options other than performing a clean install. To do this, you will need to create installation media (how to do this is described in the previous paragraph of the article). In general, the installation process of the system, although it is global for the computer, is still not complicated. The main thing is to correctly configure the boot from the installation media. After downloading from it, you must select the item "Install Now". At the next stage, you will be prompted to enter a key to activate the system - you can enter it here or click on the button "I don't have a product key" to continue the installation of the system, activation in this case will need to be carried out immediately after the appearance of the desktop. You will then be prompted to read the license agreement and accept it to continue. The next step is to press "Custom Installation". After that, a window will appear with the partitions into which the hard disk is divided. You must select the appropriate section and click "Next". During the installation process, the computer will restart several times. As a result, a clean system will be installed, all applications and drivers will be removed. The files will be saved in the Windows.Old folder on drive C, if you wish, you can transfer them from there.

Within a month after upgrading to Windows 10 (and within 10 days after updating the assembly), it is possible to rollback to the previous assembly - this will allow you to return the computer, programs and files to the state in which the device was immediately before the upgrade. You can start this process either through the "Settings" (section "Update and Security" - "Recovery"), or through the recovery environment (WinRE, the login methods are described above).

In general, the options described above allow, if not completely returning the computer to its usual state, then at least returning it to working capacity. All of these options differ in execution time and the use of each of them depends on the initial problem.

Have a great day!

Often, users of computers running Windows 7 encounter operating system health problems. Computer problems usually appear when it slows down and programs do not open. Also, the computer may not start at all or do it every other time.

The reasons that cause problems in the performance of the operating system can be very different. For example, if a computer gets virus, it can damage system files. Also, difficulties with the PC may appear during installation. low-quality software, which can damage the structure of system files. To solve the problem with the health of a computer on Windows 7, you need to roll back to the previous restore point.

To protect the OS in Windows 7, restore points are used that the system periodically creates. Essentially, restore points are previous state of Windows 7 system files. To help the Windows 7 PC user, we have prepared a material that will describe the detailed system recovery process in various ways.

Recovery in the loaded seven

If your computer running Windows 7 boots, but the system is not stable, then it's time to roll back to a previous restore point. First of all, we need to get into the window in which you can call up the system recovery options. To do this, open the program "" by pressing the key combinations Win + R, through which we enter the following command: systempropertiesprotection

A window should open before us. Properties of the system» tab « System protection". You can also get to this window in the standard way through the menu " Start". The next step is to press the button Recovery….

After clicking, the System Restore window will open. It will prompt you to restore the system using the recommended access point or choose another one. We will stop at recommended restore point.

This window requires confirmation for the selected restore. To confirm, press the button Done.

This button will bring up a message warning that after the restore procedure it will be impossible to return to the previous parameters of the seven. By clicking on the Yes message, we will start the Windows 7 system restore.

If the process of returning to the previous state occurred without errors, then a corresponding message will be displayed.

If you are unable to roll back to the previous settings using the recommended point, then you should select the point that was created later than the selected restore point Windows 7 systems. I would also like to note that to perform this operation, you will need special privileges. That is, when you log in, you must select an account admin and enter a password for it.

We return the computer to working capacity at OS startup

In case your PC is running seven at all is not downloading, then you can start the operating system in safe mode. After the BIOS start window appears, press F8 on the keyboard (for laptops there may be another key, for example, Del or one of the function keys). This action will cause menu of alternatives loading sevens.

In this menu, select the item " Safe mode”And continue by pressing Enter, after which the system will start in safe mode.

If the system has successfully started in safe mode, then start the recovery of the seven, as shown in the previous example. In this mode, for maximum security many features disabled OS, including the Windows Aero graphical interface. This is how the running program "" with the command " system properties protection” on a system running in safe mode.

We return the computer to working capacity using the installation disk or bootable USB flash drive

If the two previous examples do not help you, then you will need to restore the seven installation disk or flash drive. For computers that do not have an optical drive, you need to use a bootable USB flash drive with the OS. A bootable USB flash drive can be created using special utilities. The most popular utilities for this purpose are Windows USB/DVD, Download Tool and Rufus.

Boot from the installation disk or via a USB flash drive. In the start window of the installer, click the Next button and proceed to the next window.

In the window that opens for creating an image, specify the location to save it and click Next.

In the window that appears, it remains only to click the button Archive, which will start the process of creating an image.

In the window that opens, select the storage " Acronis Cloud».

As you can see, the entire computer is selected as the backup source. Therefore, in the schedule set by us, a backup copy of the system will be created in the cloud storage " Acronis Cloud».

For an example of recovery, let's take an archive copy not from the Acronis Cloud cloud storage, but from the hard drive. If a backup was created on the computer, then Acronis True Image 2016 he will find her.

So we press the button Repair your computer, after which the program will completely restore the system to the state that it was when the backup was created. Also, if you are unable to start Windows 7 on a computer, Acronis True Image 2016 there is a boot image for this that can be burned to disk.

The example shows that starting the boot disk Acronis True Image 2016 using the desired BIOS mode is not at all complicated.

Summing up

In this article, we have analyzed almost all the methods and parameters system recovery. We also looked at ways to restore the seven with alternative software and with the help of an antivirus. Which way to choose to restore Windows 7 depending on the situation is up to you.

Summing up, I would like to note that they mainly disrupt the operation of the OS viruses and experiments with different illegal software. Therefore, so that you do not have to constantly restore the system, use only proven and licensed software, and also use reliable comprehensive anti-virus protection.

I would also like to note that the considered examples in the material will work not only on Windows 7, but also on more modern operating systems, such as Windows 8 and 10 . And we, in turn, hope that our material will allow you to properly restore Windows 7 and you can say with confidence that I can do system restore.

Windows 10 recovery settings

In order to view the current recovery settings on your computer, right-click on the Start menu and go to Control Panel.

Go to the "System and Security" section.

Go to the "System" section.

Click in the left column "System Protection".

The window that opens shows the protection settings for your disks. The status disabled means that no restore points are made for this drive, but enabled when restore points are made.

In my case, restore points are made only for drive C, on which the operating system is installed. In order to change the protection settings, select the disk you are interested in and click the "Configure" button.

At the top of the window, you can enable or disable the creation of Windows 10 restore points, and at the bottom, specify how much disk space you are willing to reserve for storing these backups. The larger the volume you specify, the more restore points will be stored. As this volume fills up, old restore points will be erased to make room for new ones. Usually, it is enough to store 2-3 system restore points.

In order to free up space on your hard drive, you can click the "Delete" button to delete all saved restore points.

Create a Windows 10 restore point manually

In order to create a Windows 10 restore point on the previous System Protection tab, click the Create button.

A window will pop up in which you must somehow name the restore point, in my case, for example, I called it "Restore point before installing an incomprehensible driver." The date and time of point creation will be added automatically. After that, click the "Create" button.

The process of creating a restore point will begin. It usually takes less than a minute. After completion, the "Restore point created successfully" window will appear (see the picture above). Now you can install that obscure driver that I was worried about and, in case of problems, roll back the system using a restore point.

Set up automatic creation of restore points

As mentioned above, Windows 10 automatically creates restore points before installing updates, and also makes it possible to do this manually. But for safety, it makes sense to set up automatic creation of restore points at the time interval you specify, for example, every day.

Right-click on the Start menu and go to Control Panel.

In the "Control Panel" in the upper right corner, select "View" - "Small Icons" and click on the "Administrative Tools" section.

Open Task Scheduler.

Alternately double-click on the items "Task Scheduler Library" - "Microsoft" - "Windows" - "System Restore".

An SR rule has already been created in the System Restore branch to create Windows 10 restore points. We just have to specify the interval after which this rule will work. Double click on the SR rule.

In the window that opens, go to the "Triggers" tab and click "Create".

In the next window, you can set the period when Windows 10 restore points will be created. You can specify the creation of daily, weekly, monthly, when the computer starts or when it is turned off, and so on.

You should choose the period for creating points based on the reserved hard disk space for storing backups, since when this volume is filled, the newest recovery points will erase the oldest ones.

After you have chosen the period for creating restore points, click OK.

Roll back Windows 10 to a restore point

Now that we have learned how to create restore points manually and automatically, we will tell you how to restore the system after a failure.

There are several ways to roll back the system using restore points - using the Windows 10 interface, using the command line, as well as using diagnostic tools.

System rollback through the Windows interface

The easiest way is when you can run Windows 10. In this case, we do everything as at the beginning of the article. Right-click on the Start menu and go to Control Panel. Next, go to the "System and Security" - "System" - "System Protection" section. In the System Protection window, click the Restore button.

The Restore System Files and Settings Wizard opens. Click next.

In the next window, check the box "Show other restore points". This list shows all possible restore points. The left column shows the dates when the restore points were created. The middle column has a description so we can identify the point.

As you can see in the screenshot below, the restore point called "restore point before installing the obscure driver" that I created in the second chapter of this article is listed as the last one created.

Finally, the right column indicates the type of creation of the restore point (manual, system, or installation), that is, under what circumstances the backup was created.

Also, you can click on the restore point of interest and click "Search for affected programs". The window that opens will display a list of programs that will be affected by the rollback to this restore point.

When you have selected the restore point to which you want to roll back the system, click "Next".