Beware - System Restore

[RollerBall]

Despite all the cobblers that M$ give you about how 'you will not lose any work' blah blah...


...I have found that if you use XP System Restore to return to earlier system settings you will go back to the fs9.cfg that applied then AND also the aircraft folder that applied then as well ie you will lose any planes you have installled PLUS any work you have done on textures, panels etc that you might have only saved in the local folders since the restore point you have chosen.

I'm also pretty certain that the same will apply to addon scenery as well - in fact I'm more or less sure.

So be careful. I think that this is a serious System Restore bug. I know about FS9 - I don't know what other progs - if any might be also affected.

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

I never use stupid MS updates...they are all crap...I still use XP Home w/ SP1....I don't use the System Restore either...

[Zaphod]

I have to say that "System restore" has got me out of a few non flight sim related problems in the past and has never had a detrimental effect on FS9. It may have just been bad luck in your case, and I would only use it as a last resort after checking everything I'd done which may have caused a problem, but I for one am very gratefull to MS for including it.

All the best  :)

Zaphod

[wealthysoup]

I lost a few planes restoring once but with a bit of effort you can get them all back  ::)

[Zaphod]

and has never had a detrimental effect on FS9

.

Did I really say that???
Asking for trouble or what??

Zaphod (the worried)

[Hagar]

Well, I'm one of those dinosaurs still on WinMe so I've never used System Restore. It does seem a tad buggy & won't even work properly on Me so I couldn't use it even if I wanted to. While messing around I discovered that it's supposedly possibly to revert back to the point before you did the aforesaid Restore so would this fix the problem? In theory & whatever the reason you originally did the Restore you could go forward again & save those important files before repeating the operation.

Maybe I'm imagining it but I seem to recall someone having a different problem with System Restore. It apparently wiped all CFG files off his system thus completely ruining all his 3rd party aircraft.* This is similar to a bug with CFS2 where uninstalling it does exactly the same which is the reason I suggested it. This was only a wild guess as his problem was with FS (I forget if it was FS2002 or FS9) but apparently I was correct.

*PS. Here's the thread. I didn't imagine it after all. http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=fs2002;action=display;num=1124984476;start=1

[FreedSpeak]

I had a problem  once where FS wouldn't fire up at all. Not sure what caused the problem but system restore bailed me out and I was up and running immediately. Sure you'll lose anything added since the restore date but it's better than a complete reinstall. I think one of the freeware planes I downloaded caused the problem but it was gone when I got the sim back. No big deal. I love system restore. You just have to know it's limitations.

[RollerBall]

Nice catch there Doug

What the heck is wrong with the programmers who work for Microsoft. Don't they ever check and test the work they have done? Heck, they charge enough for it - why do we have to keep acting as unpaid testers for one of the richest companies in the world.

This cannot have been a desired outcome of System Restore - if it was they need their heads examined.

And if it wasn't - why hasn't it been dealt with? All we get is patch after patch after patch to resolve issues that should never have arisen if the progarmmers had done their jobs properly in the beginning.

And what really pees me off is that I did a complete new XP system install only a week or so ago and it's already falling to bits - generic host process errors that a lot of other people are also raising in the forums. Presumably one of the patches we've all installed to solve one problem has now caused yet another.

Give me strength.

[Hagar]

Nice catch there Doug

What the heck is wrong with the programmers who work for Microsoft. Don't they ever check and test the work they have done? Heck, they charge enough for it - why do we have to keep acting as unpaid testers for one of the richest companies in the world.

Give me strength.

I share your frustration Roger. Nothing surprises me any more about these things. More than once M$ have sent me a preview copy of a new sim that either wouldn't install properly or locked my whole system solid. Maybe I shouldn't say this but I have three different versions of FS9 that they sent me over the period of one week. None of them worked properly on my system & I was tearing my hair out. Despite the best efforts of the support team I finally had to figure the problems out myself. I suspect that they test these things on brand new PC with none of their other products installed. I discovered that the whole cause of my problems was having previous versions of CFS & FS installed which I obviously need for troubleshooting purposes & which caused a conflict with the recognition software on the new CDs & those previous sims. When I tried to start FS9 the EULA for FS2002 popped up & the same thing with CFS3 & CFS2. I finally cured it permanently by installing the No-CD patch for both CFS3 & FS9 which I'm still using now. This seems a completely ridiculous situation to me.

[Saitek]

System restore is never fully effective. That's been our experience.

[Katahu]

I don't think M$ deserves blame when it comes to that situation. Even the best programmers can screw up. If you were an addon developer, can you promise me that the addon will work 100% on every single system on the planet [considering that computers have their own unique configurations]? Look at my addons, they don't always work on every computer. I still get rare e-mails about the Ferrari still jumping for a few users [out of 1,000+ who downloaded it].

As the old saying goes: Nobody is perfect.

Whenever I try to use system restore, I always make a backup copy of all recently-made files that are critical to my work. I didn't start doing this because of experience. I started this habit because of a nack that I have [it's called instinct].

I have only used the system restore function a few times in my life with FS. Believe it or not, each recent file, made after the restore point, has never been lost [except when I delete them manually by accident ].

[Hagar]

It's easy to be wise after the event but these are professional programmers. It should be obvious that some people will have other versions of the software installed & even an amateur like me makes sure that at least one of my beta testers has a different setup to the rest of our little team. We try to account for everything that could possibly go wrong within reason before unleashing it on the unsuspecting public & I'm proud to say that our files have been favourably compared with the best payware.

As for that bug with uninstalling CFS2 deleting all CFG files they must surely realise that the main reason for its popularity & success is the thousands of addons that 3rd party developers will create for it. If they don't appreciate that then they're living in Cloud Cuckoo Land with the rest of us idiots.

[Bazza]

I have succesfully used it since it was brought in and have never noticed any ill effects......I certainly have never lost any aircraft or addon-scenery.

[FridayChild]

If you are not satisfied with how the system is after you restored, you can always go back to the original situation by "undoing" the restore. In theory, that is.

[microlight]

I work in a manufacturing environment where all computer systems are required to be validated (i.e. proven that they work) and are held to this during inspections by global regulatory authorities. In other words, you know that they are going to work fine. It's not the same in the commercial world especially with leisure products, so that companies like Microsoft (and it's not just Microsoft!) have no pressure - except from customers - to prove that their systems and software work before they sell them. If they are producing things that people want (like FS) then of course people will buy them, pretty well regardless of condition.

After all, if you have the largest testbed on the planet (the PCing population), why bother to prove it works? Just issue patches, if you feel like it...

 ;)