Windows 7 - shadow copy (previous version)

Asked By Jef

22-Jan-07 08:30 PM

I am running RC2 and experimenting with shadow co have created a few Word
docs and changed and resaved them, but when I rt click and choose restore
previous versions I don’t see anything.

System restore is on and I can see restore points, but my files don’t seem
to have previous versions.

Any ideas?

Jeff

22-Jan-07 09:21 PM

I've tried the same in the past for my files, but no backups for most of
them. Seems to be only for files you have made many revisions on.

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/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Robert Firth                              *
* Windows Vista x86 RTM         *
* http://www.WinVistaInfo.org    *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * */

23-Jan-07 03:25 AM

Since this feature uses VSS that normally creates shadow copies on a daily
basis, you will need either wait for another day or create snapshot manually
by going to system restore and creating a restore point.

I must confess, I'm yet to fully understand the logic behind "previous
versions" in Vista since sometimes for a document I was working on for a
whole week there's only one previous version listed but at the same time
there's full 6 previous versions available for a *folder* where this
document is saved along with other docs.

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Alexander Suhovey

23-Jan-07 07:41 PM

Thanks Robert & Alexander for your input.

The reason I ask is that I see on Microsoft's site they mention previous
copies and show multiple copies of a file over a very short period of time

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/features/foreveryone/backup.mspx

This feature (and a few others) in Vista is one of my reasons to consider
the upgrade.

Jeff

23-Jan-07 11:05 PM

The shadow copy is not made when you save the file.  It is made according to
a schedule.

24-Jan-07 06:21 AM

Hi Colin,

This makes a little more sense, but raises a few more questions:

1. Why does the picture on the Microsoft link about previous copies show a
file that has previous backups every minute?  Does that mean shadow copy runs
every minute?

2. Can you/should you set shadow copy to run more often then it does? My
understanding is that you can force it to run by using the system restore,
but this seems to defeat the purpose of protecting files from being over
written.

Any more ideas would be welcome.

Jeff

24-Jan-07 11:49 AM

I have no idea what marketing is doing, but if you set that frequency I
guess it would.  Although I don't use it myself, this feature has been
available in enterprise networks in the past, just not directly in the
client.  Vista brings control of shadow copies to the user.  Here is a link
for how shadows copies works for shared folders under Windows Server 2003:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/22a0add1-d224-47ee-8f6e-65103fb63e231033.mspx?mfr=true
The equivalent information for Vista seems to still be scattered across MSDN
(mostly programming to leverage it).