How to Restore Windows 7 without Restore Point

About System Restore in Windows

System Restore is a built-in feature in Windows 10/8/7 that allows you to restore your system to the previous version. There are many unexpected things that may lead to system crash like Virus attacks, Ransomware, accidental deletion of system files, etc. Therefore, it is essential to create system restore points.

However, when you try to restore your system to previous state, just find system restore points missing in Windows 7. When this issue occurs, people may have the concern: how to restore Windows 7 without restore point. You can choose to fix no system restore point error in Windows 7 or restore your computer with a system image previously created.

How to fix system restore points missing in Windows 7

Actually, many things may cause system restore points missing, like low disk space, defragmented page file, corrupted files, volume shadow copy not working, etc. To fix this issue, you should first check whether you have enabled System Restore or not, and check the Max usage. If the Max usage is small, increase it. If this will not fix the issue, follow the solutions below to fix the issue.

Solution 1: Make sure that the Volume Shadow Copy Service is Running

If Volume Shadow Copy is disabled, your computer’s System Restore points might not be available. follow these steps to check whether Volume Shadow Copy is running or not.

Click Start, type services.msc in the Search Box and press Enter. It will open The Service utility.

Find the Volume Shadow Copy item from the list. Make sure Volume Shadow Copy is running. If it’s not running, right-click the Volume Shadow Copy and select Start.

Solution 2: Run system files checker

You can check if your hard drive has any issues by running the sfc/scannow commands.

Run cmd as administrator. Type sfc/scannow at the command prompt.

You can also run chkdsk to check and repair errors for NTFS and FAT file systems. Type chkdsk C: /f /r /x in the command prompt and hit Enter. To repair the corrupt files, you can try to turn System Restore off, then turn it on later.

Solution 3: Recreate Page File on your computer

One of the possible reason for system restore points missing in windows 7 is defragmented page file. To fix it, you can disable, delete or recreate page file for your computer.

Disable Page File

Step 1. Access System Properties window by typing View advanced system settings in the search box.

Step 2. Click Settings under Performance. Then click Change under Virtual memory.

Step 3. Select a drive and tick No paging file. At last, click Set to disable page file.

Delete Page File

Step 1. Restart your computer.

Step 6. Go to My Computer, then delete pagefile.sys from your main drive. For example C drive.

Note: pagefile.sys is a hidden file. Thus, you need to show hidden files or folders first. You can go to Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View, then tick Show hidden files, folders, and drives.

Step 7. Open cmd and type: defrag /h c:.

Enable the Page Files

Follow the steps to disable the Page File, click Set to enable Page File. Reboot the computer and check if system restore or Volume Shadow Copy is running correctly.

How to restore Windows 7 with restore points

After fixing the system restore points missing, you can choose to create Windows 7 system restore point again. Then, when you want to restore your computer to an earlier state, you can use the newly created restore points. The overall steps are below.

Navigate to the Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> system restore, or type system restore at Search box.

You have two choices to restore system files and settings: Recommended restore and choose a different restore point, click Next and choose a restore point, then click Next. At last, confirm your restore point and click Finish, this will start your system restore.

When you cannot boot into Windows, you can perform system restore in safe mode in Windows 7:

At your computer startup (before showing the Windows logo), Press the F8 key repeatedly.

At Advanced Boot Options, select Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

Type:”rstrui.exe” and press Enter, this will open System Restore. Then you can choose a restore point and restore Windows 7.

If you cannot boot into Safe Mode, you can use a system repair disc to access System Restore to restore Windows 7.

How to restore Windows 7 without restore point 

System restore points are very useful when you want to restore a computer to an earlier date due to Windows Updates, drivers, software issues. However, you must be attention that there are some situations that restore points will not work. As System Restore is stored locally, if your hard drive dies, you’ll lose your restore points. And it does not back up the entire system as well as your personal data, such as photos, music, Office files, etc, therefore, you cannot use it to restore your computer when it crashes or there is any data loss.

Then, how to restore Windows 7 without restore points from disasters like hard disk failure, corrupted Windows installation. You can create a system image backup with a professional backup and restore software AOMEI Backupper Standard and then restore Windows 7 from a system image you created with it.  With its user-friendly interface, you can operate it very easily. 

Let’s see how to protect your computer with this software. Please download and install this freeware first. 

If you have created a backup beforehand, you can directly restore system image from it. If not, you can still create one on another working computer first. Note if the computer has different hardware with the one having problems, you need to use "Universal Restore" feature in the professional version. 

To create a system image, launch this software, click Backup and System Backup. Then, select the destination path to store the backup image and click Start Backup to start the pending operations. . It is recommended to backup system to external hard drive or cloud drive to avoid backup image corrupted due to computer failure. 

Tips:

• You can schedule automatic backup Windows 7 by its Schedule Backup option. You have five options, namely, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event trigger or USB plug in. The last two features are available in the professional version. 

• Except for automatic backup, you can still enable its backup methods (eg: Incremental/Differential Backup) to backup only changed files. This greatly improves the backup disk full issues. 

After creating a backup image with this software or you previously created one, try the following steps.

Step 1. Connect the disk containing system image. Prepare a new hard drive if your original disk is damaged and connect it to your computer.

Step 2. Launch this software, choose Select Image File under the Restore tab and find the image on your external drive. 

Note: If your computer is unbootable, a system repair disc is required to boot your computer. After loading, you will access AOMEI Backupper Standard as well. 

Step 3. Tick restore this system backup and click Next. You can use the latest backup image or select other images by clicking the inverted triangle icon (if you set a scheduled full/incremental/differential backup task previously).

Step 4. In the Operation summary window, confirm all things are correct and click Start Restore to restore system without restore points.

Notes:

• If you restore system image to new SSD, you could tick "SSD Alignment" to improve the performance of SSD disk.
• If the backup image is created on a computer with different hardware, the "Universal Restore" feature will be checked by default and you will be asked to upgrade to the professional version. Please do so, otherwise the restoration will fail.

Summary

When system restore is missing in Windows 7, you can try the above solutions to fix it or restore system with a system image created by a reliable backup software like AOMEI Backupper. And it's more powerful than system restore points, you can even use it to restore system when it fails or hard disk corrupted.

If you want to deploy your system image to multiple computers within LAN, you will need the help of an image deployment software for help, such as, AOMEI Image Deploy (AID). For unlimited computers, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician or TechPlus. Why not have a try if you want to restore system but don't have a system restore point?