System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete

How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista and Windows 7 when Dual Booting with XP​

   Information

When you are dual booting XP with Vista and/or Windows 7, this will show you how to stop XP from deleting all of the System Restore Points and Shadow Copies in Vista and Windows 7 everytime you start XP.

You must be logged in as an administrator to be able to do the steps in this tutorial.

For more information, see also:

• Microsoft Help and Support: KB926185
• System Restore "restore points" are missing or deleted

   Note

In Vista and Windows 7, shadow copies are used to maintain System Restore Points. Additionally, shadow copies are used to maintain Complete PC Backup files. Therefore, when you access the volume from an earlier operating system (XP), it will delete all restore points and all except the most recent versions of Complete PC Backup files in Vista and Windows 7.

   Tip

This problem occurs because the volume snapshot driver that is included with Vista and Windows 7 uses disk structures that are incompatible with earlier versions of Windows. Therefore, the earlier operating system deletes Vista and Windows 7 shadow copies with the associated restore points. This behavior occurs because the earlier Windows operating systems do not recognize the new disk structures.

   Warning

This does not actually fix the problem. It is a workaround that will stop XP from deleting the restore points and shadow copies. After you restart XP, you will not be able to access the volume Vista and/or Windows 7 is on from XP. However, you can still access the volume that XP is on from Vista and Windows 7.

It has been reported that some 3rd party disk defragmentation programs could also delete your restore points when used.

OPTION ONE

Using a REG File Download

   Warning

This needs to be done in XP, not in Vista or Windows 7. This download assumes that Vista or Windows 7 is installed on the D: drive as the second OS. If this is not true for you, or you need to add another drive to be hidden from XP, then do OPTION TWO below to do this manually with the drive letter that your Vista or Windows 7 is installed on instead.

1. To Stop XP from Deleting Restore Points ​

A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

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Stop_XP.reg​

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B) Go to step 3.​

2. To Restore Default Settings in XP​

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A) Click on the Download button below to download the file below.​

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Restore_Default_Settings.reg​

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3. Click on Save, and save the .reg file to the Desktop.​

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4. Right click on the downloaded .reg file and click on Merge.​

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5. Approve the merge when prompted.​

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6. Restart XP to apply the changes.​

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7. When done, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.​

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OPTION TWO

Manually Through Registry Editor

   Warning

This needs to be done in XP, not in Vista or Windows 7.

1. Open the Start Menu, click on My Computer to open it, then make note of the drive letter for the Vista and/or Windows 7 installation that you wan to prevent XP from seeing to prevent their restore points from being deleted.​

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2. Open the Start Menu, click on Run to open it,, then type regedit and press Enter.​

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3. In regedit, navigate to the location below. (see screenshot below)​

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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices​

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4. To Stop XP from Deleting Restore Points​

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A) In the left pane, right click on MountedDevices and click on New and Key.​

NOTE: If you already have the Offline key under MountedDevices, then skip this step and go to step 4C. (see screenshot below step 4C )​

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B) Type Offline and press Enter.​

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C) In the right pane of Offline, right click on a empty area and click on New and DWORD Value. (see screenshot below)​

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D) Type \DosDevices\D: and press Enter. (see screenshot below step 4F)​

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NOTE: While in XP, if your Vista or Windows 7 is not showing as being on the D: drive in Computer, then substitute D: with the drive letter that it is shown to be on instead. For example, if it is shown to be on the E: drive, then type \DosDevices\E: instead. Repeat this step if you wish to hide another drive letter from XP.​

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E) In the right pane, right click on \DosDevices\D: and click on Modify.​

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F) Type 1, and click on OK. (see screenshot below)​

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G) The registry should now look like this. (see screenshot below)​

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H) Repeat steps 4C to 4G for any other drive letter that you want to prevent them from being seen by XP.​

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I) Go to step 6.​

5. To Restore the Default XP Settings​

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A) In the right pane of Offline, right click on \DosDevices\D:, and click on Delete. (see screenshot below step 4H)​

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B) Click on Yes to confirm the deletion.​

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C) Repeat step 5 for any other listed drive letter that you would like XP to be able to see again.​

6. Restart XP to apply the changes.​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Create a System Restore Shortcut in Vista
• How to Create a System Restore Point in Vista
• How to Undo the Last System Restore in Vista
• How to Do a System Restore in Vista
• How to Change the System Restore Disk Space Usage in Vista
• How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista
• How to Create a Create System Restore Point Shortcut in Vista
• How to Make a "Create System Restore Point" Shortcut in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Add "Create Restore Point" to Context Menu in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Change the Default Boot Partition in Vista
• How to Create a Complete Computer Backup and Restore Image in Vista
• How to Change the Automatic System Restore Point Settings in Vista Task Scheduler
• How to Enable or Disable Create Vista System Restore Point when New Device Driver is Installed
• How to Enable or Disable Create Vista System Restore Point when a Application is Installed
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista

 

[Brink]

Sorry Matt. I hope you get a solution soon.

Shawn

 

[Rockfarmer]

Hi Bob,

LOL, no such thing as a dumb question remember.

Usually these are loaded before the OS, so it should be ok.

Shawn

Shawn: I had to re-install everything due to a hard drive failure. This time I made 3 partitions: Vista in C: drive; XP in F: drive; and, a file backup drive in D:


The only way I could prevent loss of Vista restore points was to also hide drive D: from XP. I guess it only works properly when a partition on the same drive is not shared between XP and Vista. I also have a second hard drive installed but that can be shared, apparently, without ill effects.

Thanks again.

Bob

 

[Brink]

Bob,

Sorry about the hard drive failure.

The real problem comes if you were to try to share data from a 32 bit and 64 bit OS on the same drive.

I would try to keep actively used system files off the shared drive to prevent problems though.

Shawn

 

[MattDutton]

Sorry Matt. I hope you get a solution soon.

Shawn

Yup. I've just formatted + installed Vista on it's own!! :D

It's prolly for the best, (My Xp was x86 & my Vista x64, too btw!) I was more than likely out of my depth to be changing crazy settings.


Thanks muchly for the help guys!

Matt

 

[Brink]

LOL Matt,

That would do it. 32 bit and 64 bit do not play well together anyway.

Glad you found a solution that worked for you.

Shawn

 

[marcus]

it worked great and my problem (FIXED)

thank you
marcus

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Marcus, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

 

[stox]

Hi, i have just joined and have a quick question.

Does this problem affect Vista if Vista and XP are both 64bit versions ?

Thanx

 

[Brink]

Hi Stox, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, it will still have the same affect regardless of the 32 bit or 64 bit versions of Vista or XP.

 

[dannyboi]

Do you guys think there would ever be a solution to prevent XP from deleting those restore points of Vista, whilst also being able to use all hard drives.
I've got most of my data on my C: drive with Vista, and preventing XP from seeing it is sort of annoying since some of the files I need are sorted in My Documents under Vista in C:.
I have to say that this tutorial seems to have worked, but it deleted some SP1 system restore points which I would have really liked to keep, considering how unreliable SP1 could get.

 

[Brink]

Hello Danny, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Well, restore points will only be good until 90 days before they are automatically deleted, or when the System Restore storage space runs low and the oldest restore points are replaced with newer ones.

Microsoft may come out with a Windows Update for XP that may resolve this issue with still being able to see Vista one day. Until then, you could setup another partition or drive to use to store nonsystem files you wish to share between the two OS's as a workaround.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Ex_Brit]

Why didn't I spot this ages ago before I went to all the trouble of enabling Bitlocker? LOL.

The trouble with B/L is that I don't have a M/B with a TPM and the system refuses to read flash drives at boot time so I have to manually enter the Bitlocker password - yes all 48 digits - to get into the one Vista partition that I work mostly in.

Which leads me to a question.....as I would willingly sacrifice Bitlocker to make life easier

I have 2 XP Pros... partitions C (main) and D (test system) on disk 0
+ 2 Vista Ultimates on partitions M (main) and N (test system) on disk 1 (M being the only one I wish to preserve SR points on)

I probably would have to go the manual route here, am I right?

Excellent tutorial by the way.

 

[Brink]

Hello Ex_Brit,

Na, here you go.

For Vista on M drive only:
View attachment Stop_XP_For_M_Drive.reg < Click to Download

View attachment Restore_Default_Settings_For_M_Drive.reg < Click to Download

Shawn

 

[Ex_Brit]

Wow, thanks very much.

After a day of arguing with McAfee customers at that forum I needed something to cheer me up.
(I mod there - I know, I must be nuts).

Thanks again.

Do you think I now dare to decrypt that volume? I've already disabled Bitlocker and I've checked that XP can't see the Vista drive.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Peter.

It's your call if you want to or not. You will be more secured with it decrypted, but you will take a small performance hit with it decrypted since the computer will be encrypting and decrypting in the background.

 

[Ex_Brit]

I've disabled Bitlocker and decrypted M: now hope that the fix from here works OK. I only used it in the first place to preserve my Vista restore points.
I'm not sure I understand, why would there be a performance delay while it encrypts when I'm not using B/L any more?
Surely there's no no encryption taking place?

 

[Brink]

Oh no Peter, that's only if you had Bitlocker still on that you would.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Oh no Peter, that's only if you had Bitlocker still on that you would.

Ah, that's what I thought you meant. Just making sure....!

Thanks a million.

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Peter.

 

[Ex_Brit]

On reflection I wonder why Microsoft themselves didn't issue an optional patch for XP to do just that? I queried this with them ages ago and their answer indicated that it was far too complicated an issue to be dealt with in such a simple manner.