System Restore Creates multiples of existing files and/or folders

Question

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this, and if so what did you do.   After running system restore (I needed to do it several times after installing the service pack 2 - I lost access to everything upon install, but that's another issue), anyway, after the restore took effect I found that I lost some disk space, so I looked into this and found that system restore created multiples of the same files, folders and programs.  An example is in C:\Windows\explorer.exe, I found that explorer.exe was created 2 times with a number, there is explorer.exe explorer(2).exe explorer(3).exe, another examples is the System32 folder, I have BROWSEUI.DLL, BROWSEUI(2).DLL, BROWSEUI(3).DLL, BROWSEUI(4).DLL, BROWSEUI(5).DLL, BROWSEUI(6).DLL,   I assume after the restore the files are being added and not removed.  Which is safe to delete and which is not?  I am figuring that after the restore my registry keys are pointing to one of these files, but I really do not want to go through each and every key to determine which should be there and which should be not.   Does anyone out there know which ones I can remove safely?

JD Scot · Answer

That is how your operating system marks the files, in they were created after the restore point you are attempting to restore your system to ( those files did not exist at the time of your restoration point, and it will mark them as either .old or use the tilde character and numerical reference to denote renaming the file).

frustratedUser · Answer

JD Scott, Thanks for the info, however it does not help or answer my question. I know the system did for certain reasons, but my question is which one is ok to delete.

My disk Free Space went from 73.9GB down to 62GB of free space, that's far too much when one considers most of these are duplicates.

I just want to remove the dups and leave only what is needed/required

Thanks again

sgtcasey · Answer

frustratedUser,   You could try deleting some of the restore points you created to see if that removes them.  If that doesn't work, then I would say this is just another 'feature' of system restore.  :smileyhappy:   Dave

JRosenfeld · Answer

On the successful restore screen, it tells you that some files could not be deleted and have been renamed, i.e. the a version of the file has been put there by system restore and therefore it renamed the others. There is aa link where you can see the list. The renamed ones are not used and in principle you can delete them. However, you might want to look at the versions and if later than the current one, you could swap over: e.g. for a file filename (n).dll, move it to a temp folder, rename it filename.dll then move it back to replace the filename.dll placed by system restore. That might cause a problem if it was that file that caused problems. Alternatively, you could move the renamed ones to a temporary folder, noting where they came from, then after a while if everything works with the files put there by system restore, you can delete them.

frustratedUser · Answer

So the first response from Dell is that I have a corrupt hard-drive and need to reinstall my operating system.  After telling them that that response had nothing to do with my issue, I received a second response that I will need to delete my temp folder items (something I do almost every week when I run clean disk prior to defrag), then I am instructed to clean out the files on internet explorer.  I am told this will 'resolve my issue'   The only logical answers I have received so far have come from those that have posted here, and I thank you.   If I am understanding all of this correctly, I should first turn off system rrestore to remove all check points, reboot, start up system restore again and create a new check point, then either delete (or store temporarily elsewhere) the multiple files with same names using the latest version as the primary file if needed, and my system should be ok after all this.   Last question to everyone and all. Why is it that Dell Technical Support can not give out logical answers to issues with our systems and they always resort to reinstall of the OS, and yet users out here on the forum can give in depth answers to the actual problem with excellent resolution steps?   Thanks to all who have assisted me.

Windows General

System Restore Creates multiples of existing files and/or folders

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