Is Erunt neccesary ?

I have been advised to use Erunt as a registry backup and also told that it is best to disable System Restore or only allow it to have 2/3 %. I have used System restore once or twice in the last few years and would not be happy to lose it. What is the opinion of more experienced users than myself ?

Hello yorkshire lass,
Its always a good idea to backup your registry, so if this program is to your liking then use it.

One of the more popular tools is CCleaner, it will clean your registry and give you the option to back it up too.

CCleaner - Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download (Backup Registry When Prompted).

System restore can be a life saver, if you only have a few restore points you may need to go back further, sometimes you don't notice a problem until its too late and with only a few restore points, it limits the things you can do to get out of trouble.
I would leave the restore as it is.

Hope this helps, good luck and post your results.

You don't need to turn off System Restore to use ERUNT. I use both. I have ERUNT set up to keep a revolving weeks worth of backups(it only backs up once per day no matter how many times you reboot the system, and the oldest is deleted. See the readme how to set up AutoBack.exe.)

System Restore will restore files as well as registry, depending how you have it set, and ERUNT is good for Registry only backup. A week's worth of ERUNT backups on Vista64 costs me less than a GB in disk space. Well worth it.

It is good to have as many restore points as you can afford in terms of disk space. On the other hand, the windows system restore does not always work. That is why I rely more on imaging which I do daily. Here is one of my tuts and here is a more elaborate one that I made for those that want to see the whole imaging cycle.

I started out with a couple of external USB 2.0 drives to do image backups. Now I find it very convenient to use docking stations. Just slide a bare Sata drive in. Now I've added USB 3.0 because I like to watch video on a set top box and copying to USB 2.0 is just too slow. Also makes for very fast image backups. By swapping the drives around you always have some backups that aren't connected to the Lan.. in case some really clever nasty tries to pollute your whole setup.

Another benefit is having a USB 3.0 drive as source and another as destination for processing whatever you are processing. That way your main system drive doesn't get maxed out. You can run a program if you need to while the other stuff is going on.

edit: soon the new PCs will come with USB 3.0 standard. The USB 3.0 docks are @$50 each... instead of buying one external HD get a dock and a couple of bare internal Sata HD for close to the same money. Plus you don't have all your eggs in one basket.

edit2: for those toying with the idea of putting in a USB 3.0 card, you can upgrade incrementally. I put in an SIIG USB 3.0 express card and even my USB 2.0 docks and external drives showed an increase in throughput. I did an image backup using Macrium Reflect through the USB 3.0 card with a USB 2.0 docking station connected with a USB 2.0 cable. Macrium showed a throughput of 488 Mb/sec.. which is USB 2.0 max. The USB 2.0 external drive had more modest gains. Maybe 25%. Writes that maxed at 24 MB/sec were getting 28 to 32 MB/sec. through the USB 3.0 card. So you don't have to buy all the stuff all at once. The USB 3.0 is not only backward compatible, but better when connected to USB 2.0 stuff.

Thanks to you all for your help. I have now downloaded and installed Erunt and configured it to do a daily back, up. I shall keep system restore and as I have a Maxtor External hard disk I shall do a daily incremental back up of my Documents and a weekly image back up. Thanks again.

You're welcome. In case you would like to try it, this is the target line I use for AutoBack to get the revolving 7 day backup. It's self-regulating so you don't have to worry about the used disk space:

"C:\Program Files\ERUNT\AUTOBACK.EXE" %SystemRoot%\ERDNT\#Date# sysreg curuser otherusers /days:7


Just stick it all on the Target line for the AutoBack shortcut in your StartUp folder and the rest is automatic.

Of course to get an extra ERUNT backup you can just double click the ERUNT icon.