System Protection turned on, but won't save restore points on OS drive

Question

I'm running Windows 10 Pro on a Dell T7910 Workstation housing 8 drives. I have System protection enabled on all of the drives with max usage set to 20% on each drive. I am able to create shadow copies on all of the drives EXCEPT the OS drive. Obviously, that's the most important one when it comes to saving restore points so this is a problem that needs to be resolved. Please don't give instructions on how to turn on System Protection or Volume Shadow Copy as I have made clear that both are running, and working fine on 7 of my 8 drives. I just can't figure out why my OS Drive keeps showing " There are no Previous Versions Available " while the others show a list of previous versions dating back as far as 2 months.

Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Hi Tony,

Thanks for your post. In general, there are two reasons for the prompt “there are no previous versions available”. One is that File History is not enabled because the “Restore previous versions” function is only valid when you have backed up your data using the File History for data backup. The second reason is that your Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is disabled. Would you please check the following solutions?

Solution 1. Enable File History

Please make sure you have enabled File History to make a backup of your files using File History first. Then you can use the function of “Restore previous versions” to get your files or folders back.

Tips: When you enable the File History after data loss, the lost data cannot be recovered through the File History. Previous versions will be available next time after turning on File History.

Solution 2. Enable Windows Backup

In addition to File History, there is another backup option which is called Windows Backup. It supports backup of the system, entire drives as well as your files and folders.

You can enable the feature of Windows Backup by following the steps below.

Step 1. Press Windows + I key combinations to open Windows Settings.

Step 2. Click Update & Security > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 3. Then click Set up backup in the right panel.

Step 4. Select where you want to save your backup (It is highly recommended to choose an external drive). Then click Next.

Step 5. Choose what files you want to back up based on your preferences. Then click Next.

Step 6. Click Save settings and run backup.

Solution 3. Create a System Restore Point

System Restore is a Windows built-in utility designed to protect and repair computer software. It takes snapshots of certain system files and the Windows registry and saves them as restore points.

If you accidentally deleted Windows system files and are encountering the “there are no previous versions available” error when using “Restore previous versions”, it means that there is no system restore point available.

In this case, you need to create a system restore point to save the previous version of your system. Then you can recover deleted system files by performing a system restore.

Note:

System Restore will not process any personal data, such as personal photos, videos, audio, etc. It can only restore system-related files.

For more information about what a system restore point is and how to use System Restore, you can refer to this post: What Is System Restore Point and How to Create It.

Note:

Performing a System Restore on a Windows PC may affect installed programs. This means you may need to reinstall some software manually after restoring your system.

Solution 4. Re-Enable Volume Shadow Copy Service

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a technology included with Microsoft Windows that creates backup copies of computer files or volumes. As mentioned above, if this service is disabled, the error message “there are no previous versions available” may also occur.

In this case, you need to re-enable the Volume Shadow Copy Service. And then you can download ShadowExplorer, a free replacement for the “Restore previous versions” feature of Microsoft Windows 7/8/10/11 to retrieve your lost files. Here you can see how to recover data from shadow copies using ShadowExplorer.

Step 1. Click here to download ShadowExplorer and install it by following the prompts on the screen.

Step 2. Run this tool and get its main interface.

Step 3. Select a date in the drop-down box to restore shadow copies of folders or files.

Step 4. Find and right-click the file or folder you want to restore to a previous version and select Export.

Step 5. Select a safe location where shadow copies of your files will be saved, and then click OK.

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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