Where are the Windows 7 System Restore Points stored and how to preserve them?

Solution 1:

They are stored in a hidden folder called System Volume Information on the root of the C drive.

System restore can become corrupted after time, one way to keep this in check is to occasionally turn off system restore and then turn it back on, then immediately make a manual restore point, the only downside to doing this is you will lose all previous restore points.

Windows System Restore is not a perfect way to backup your system but is handy when you just want to roll back a software or Windows Update installation, and does have problems when the restore file becomes corrupted due to many restore points and other problems.

There is another method to clean out all but the most recent restore point, see method 2 in this article, http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/336-system-protection-restore-points-delete.html

If System Restore is corrupted, I prefer the first method to insure it works properly the next time you need it.

To answer your other question, I do not know of any way to backup these restore points, but there are other methods to backup the entire hard drive, here is a free utility that can do this. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp

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Solution 2:

Change folder settings to view hidden files + protected operating system files.

System Volume Info becomes apparent in the C drive. You need to right click it, go to the security tab, click advanced and continue. Then add yourself to the list (add principal or change owner whichever it gives you based on your OS) (just type in the user name you use at login, leave permissions alone)

You'll find system restore in there. You need to gain access the same way, by doing the above again for each folder you encounter. You'll probably get an error like "could not apply the settings to bla bla bla" (3 times). Ignore that.

Back up your restore points, they have cryptic names or some such. Yeah, system restore is pretty useful, but hate how it deletes older restore points after some time passes. I almost got deactivated with some stupid update (yes I'm genuine) but you know MS...

Solution 3:

Many viruses and trojans (e.g. PWS Banker OXM) delete the registry keys that are where windows looks for restore points. It also changes the file associations so you have to first restore all the file assocations

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19449-default-file-type-associations-restore.html

So there is a need to be able to go back to these earlier restore points.