Category Archives: Backup/Restore

Backup/Restore, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Nearly Perfect PITR Makes Windows 11 Debut

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Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) is one of the most interesting recovery features Microsoft has added to Windows 11 in recent memory. It arrived quietly through cumulative update KB5095093 in June 2026. Yet it brings a welcome new option for users who want a fast way to roll back their systems. PITR works by capturing snapshots of key system areas. These snapshots let you return your PC to an earlier state when something goes wrong. The idea is simple, and the execution is surprisingly smooth. In fact, I’d say MS has delivered a nearly perfect PITR to the OS.

What Makes It Nearly Perfect PITR, and Nor More or Less?

PITR creates restore points that include system files, settings, and some application data. These snapshots live on the local drive. They also tie into Microsoft’s cloud services when available. This hybrid approach gives PITR more flexibility than older tools like System Restore. It also makes the feature more resilient when local files become damaged. With the release of KB5095093, PITR gained a major upgrade: it now appears directly inside WinRE. That means you can access PITR even when Windows won’t boot. You can see it as a Troubleshoot option in WinRE in the lead-in graphic.

Seeing PITR listed in the WinRE Troubleshoot menu feels like a big step forward. It signals that Microsoft wants PITR to serve as a real recovery tool. You can boot into WinRE, choose Point-in-Time Restore, and pick a snapshot to roll back to. The process is quick and clear. It also avoids the complexity that sometimes comes with older recovery methods. For many users, this will be enough to fix common problems.

What Limits Warrant a “Nearly Perfect” Label?

Still, PITR is not a full replacement for image-based backup solutions. Tools like Macrium Reflect and Hasleo Backup Suite offer deeper protection. They create complete disk images that capture every sector of a drive. These images can be mounted like virtual disks. That means you can browse them, copy files out of them, and inspect their contents. PITR cannot do that. Its snapshots are not mountable. They do not support file-by-file access. They also do not cover the entire disk.

This difference matters when you need more than a simple rollback. If a drive fails, PITR cannot help. If you need to recover a single file from a past state, PITR cannot help there either. Image backups shine in these situations. They give you full control over your data. They also let you restore a system even when the internal drive is gone. PITR is faster and easier, but it is not as complete.

Even so, PITR fills an important gap. It offers a middle ground between System Restore and full image backups. It is quick, lightweight, and built into Windows. The addition of WinRE support makes it far more useful. You can now rely on PITR when Windows refuses to load. That alone makes it worth enabling.

Worth Enabling, But Not A Panacea

In the end, PITR is a welcome addition to Windows 11. It is not perfect, but it is close. For everyday problems, it may be all you need. For deeper issues, image backups remain essential. The best approach is to use both. PITR gives you speed. Image backups give you safety. Together, they create a strong recovery strategy for any Windows system.

To check PITR and it settings visit, Settings > System > Recovery > Point-in-time restore. On my systems it’s enabled by default with a single PITR restore point every 24 hours, 72 hour retention, and a space ceiling 2.0% of disk capacity. YMMV. Check it out: seems like a nearly perfect addition to Windows 11’s recovery capabilities.

To learn more about PITR, read this June 23 Windows IT Pro blog post “Point-in-time restore for Windows 11 is now generally available.” Lots of good stuff in there!

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Backup/Restore, Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Secure Boot, WED Blog, Windows 11

Checking Boot/Recovery Media CA-2023 Status

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Here’s an interesting consequence of the switchover in the Secure Boot chain of trust from CA-2011 to CA-2023. Once that occurs, you can’t boot from install, repair and recovery media that doesn’t support CA-2023. The PC firmware will reject it as “non-compliant.” What that means is with the revocation of CA-2011 upcoming in June, it’s time to start checking boot/recovery media CA-2023 status. When you can, it’s also time to replace older non-compliant media with newer, compliant versions.

I had Copilot write me a PowerShell Script that did 3 key things:
1. It checked to make sure drive G: (default letter for my UFDs) was present and accounted for
2. It showed me the top-level directory so I could see what I was dealing with (handy to distinguish installers, repair tools, etc.)
3. If it found EFI files, it reported Yes/No on their CA-2023 compliance.

After Checking Boot/Recovery Media CA-2023 Status, Then…?

The TL;DR answer to this question is: replace it if needed, keep it otherwise. I also used this opportunity to label my UFDs so I would know what I had in the future. I found all kinds of interesting stuff, including:

  • An MSI flash drive for my “new” MAG Tomahawk B550 mobo, a UEFI updater for v 2.90 on the ASRock B550 Extreme4+
  • Multiple Macrium Reflect and Hasleo Backup Suite rescue UFDs
  • A copy of the Windows DaRT (Diagostics and Recovery Toolset)
  • Multiple Windows Installer UFDs, mostly via MCT, some from UUPDump

Here’s the interesting thing: NONE of these items is CA-2023 compliant. Copilot says, in fact, that MS has not yet released an installer or repair ISO that includes the CA-2023 boot files in the EFI partition (see lead-in graphic bottom portion). I’d planned to update my dozen or so bootable UFDs today if I could. Looks like I’ll be waiting a while…

Key Takeaway

If you revoke CA-2011 support on any or all of your Windows PCs, you put yourself in the position of having to go into UEFI and turn off Secure Boot sometimes. When might that be? Whenever you want or need to use media to boot that PC for repair, recovery or installation. Good to know! That’s not the kind of thing I’d like sprung on me as a total surprise. Bet you feel the same way, too…

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Backup/Restore, Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Two Checkboxes Means 12X Faster

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I plugged a Samsung 990 Pro 1TB NVMe into the Thunderbolt 5 port on my Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3 mobile workstation. ICYDK, TB5 promises up to 80 Gbps bandwidth. The 990 Pro is one of the fastest consumer NVMe drives money can buy. I expected fireworks. I got a firefly. Fortunately, I determined that clicking two checkboxes means 12 faster results. This comes from foregoing quick disconnect and enabling write caching. Let me explain…

Exploring: Two Checkboxes Means 12X Faster

As shown in the lead-in graphic, CrystalDiskMakr tells the ugly truth. As you can see on the left hand side, read speeds looked good. But writes are stuck in what I’d charitably call “USB 2.0 territory.” Something was very, very wrong — and it wasn’t the hardware. Results come from CrystalDiskMark 9.0.2 x64 software.

Now, look to the right, you can see that write speeds jumped significantly, while read speeds stay more or less the same. Indeed, the Thunderbolt 5 (TB5) link and Acasis TB501Pro enclosure weren’t the whole bottleneck. Sequential writes jumped from 473 to 5,943 MB/sec for a 12.6X speed boost.. Even more amazing: 4K Q1T1 writes leapt from 1.04 to 110 MB/sec, for a 105X gain.

All this came from two little checkboxes, on the Policies tab from the Properties window for the Acasis TB501Pro enclosure. Deets follow…

Two Related Settings in DevMgr Do the Trick

Here’s the 30-second procedure:

  1. Open Device Manager → expand Disk drives → right-click your external NVMe → select Properties → click the Policies tab.
  2. Switch from “Quick removal” (the default) to “Better performance.” This unlocks the write caching option that’s otherwise grayed out.
  3. Check the box for “Enable write caching on the device.” This is the setting that actually turns on write caching.
  4. Click OK, then rerun your benchmarks and enjoy the results.

Both settings are required. Selecting “Better performance” alone without the write caching checkbox won’t deliver these numbers. You need both.

Here’s the Tradeoff

Windows defaults to Quick Removal for a good reason: it protects against data loss if you yank a drive without ejecting it first. With Better Performance and write caching enabled, you must use “Safely Remove Hardware” before unplugging, or you risk losing data still sitting in the write cache.

That’s the tradeoff. For a stationary workstation drive that stays plugged in during work sessions, it’s a no-brainer. For a drive you hot-swap constantly throughout the day, think twice. I’m going for maximum speed on backups and restores, so I’ll make myself remember this tradeoff if I need to unlplug the NVMe enclosure.

The Results Could Still Be Better

I’m still of the opinion that — as I opined in my Feb 20 blog on this topic — that buying a TB5 NVMe enclosure isn’t worth the added expense. TB4 enclosures cost about US$100 less, and deliver nearly the same performance as TB5 (it’s a 10-15% difference at best). Doubling the price for a modest gain just doesn’t make sense. TB5 shines for video and networking. For storage links, not so much, because controllers basically limit links to PCIe x3/x4 levels.

That’ still true today. But I was pleased to get much more out of my rig once I made the enclosure behave more like a USB drive and less like a USB stick! Here in Windows-World you sometimes have to take your wins where you can find them…

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On Windows 11 Restore Points

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In Windows 11, a restore point provides a snapshot of various essential system files, settings, installed programs, and the registry taken at a specific point in time. Restore points can roll back the OS and associated state info should something go sideways. They don’t replace backups (especially image backups) because they don’t contain personal files and documents, nor do they capture other boot disk partitions for full restoration (e.g. EFI, MSR and recovery partitions, if present). I’ve been thinking on Windows 11 restore points because I don’t use them (I use daily image backups instead) and because they can take up lots of room on disk.

Looking further into Windows 11 Restore Points

Before I could share my reflections and observations about Windows 11 Restore Points (let’s condense that to W11RPs) I had to find a machine with them turned on to dig into them a bit. Turns out my newest personal acquisition — the very nice ASUS Zenbook A14 I picked up during Black Friday sales last year — still has them turned on. You can see that the C: drive has W11RPs enabled, and the info about a single restore point that I just generated right under neath.

You can find restore points inside the WizTree app pretty easily, if you’ve got any. They appear within the System Volume Information folder, which lives at the root of the boot/system drive (C:\ usually). It’s the big purple rectangle in this snippet from Wiztree, and corresponds to the shadow copy item shown in the lead-in graphic (output from the vssadmin list shadows command, in fact):

At 2.3 GB in size, one can see why keeping numbers of them around might be something of a storage-sucker. In truth, that’s one big reason I typically don’t keep them around.

Turning W11RPs on and off, and more

The controls for W11RPs live on the Protection tab of the System Properties applet in Control Panel. Settings in Windows 11 kind of interferes with access to this info, so the best way to get there these days is to invoke its executable directly (Into the Windows Run box (Winkey+R), type this string:

C:\Windows\System32\SystemPropertiesProtection.exe

That fires up the item screencapped next, and shows the key controls for W11RPs, to wit:

For any drives available on the target system, you select its entry, click the “Configure” button then enable or disable restore points. As you can see about the C:\ drive has W11RPs enabled, and it came that way from the factory.

Problems with W11RPs?

If you read up on informed sentiment about W11RPs (I get my insights from many sources, but find TenForums.com and ElevenForum.com particularly insightful), you’ll learn that they sometimes work, and sometimes don’t. If you use them, you’ll learn that they take a while to load (on the order of 15-20 minutes on most of my PCs). They also tend to happen once a day by scheduled task, and whenever you make system changes or install apps that include built-in RP capture commands.

You can use them if you like. I don’t like, and I don’t use them. Macrium Reflect can restore a full system image on my PCs in the 2-6 minute range, is easier to use, runs from a rescue disk if needed, and has shown itself to be thoroughly reliable and capable. For me that’s the end of the story.

Now, pardon me while I go off to disable W11RPs on the AsusSnap. I seem to have forgotten this little step in my intake process…

 

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WinGet Foils MTPW Sneaky Update

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MTPW is the mostly excellent MiniTool Partition Wizard, which I’ve used and recommended for managing disk layouts on Windows for years. I just got bitten for MTPW v13.5 by what I call a “sneaky update” — a move from v13.0 to v13.5 that includes the company’s companion ShadowMaker image backup tool along with MTPW unless you read its update screens closely and carefully. When I followed the update on one laptop (X380) with another (X12Hybrid), I observed that WinGet foils MTPW sneaky update. Let me explain…

Why I  Say: WinGet Foils MTPW Sneaky Update

After I ran the app-based MTPW update, I found it had installed ShadowMake as well as MTPW itself. You can see the “Trial” screen came up with 0 days remaining for use, which makes it:

  • worthless for those who want to try the program out for free
  • require immediately purchase of a Pro version to use
  • earn my ire by installing itself as part of a different update
  • force me to delete an app I never wanted in the first place

Immediately after I’d been bitten by this sneaky update, I saw MTPW pop up in WinGet on  the X12Hybrid. “Hmmm,” I wondered to myself, “Will this also try to sneak MTSM onto this machine?” Nope! It did what it said it would do: updated only MTPW. That’s why I’m glad I tried it on that other machine, and can now warn readers that if they’re using MTPW, they need to use the built-in update carefully to avoid MTSM. Or, like me, they can use WinGet instead and skip all the drama.

Yeah, I know. I should’ve read the install screens more carefully when running the in-app upgrade utility. My rejoinder: MiniTool shouldn’t make it so easy for MTWM to appear on my machine as part of its MTPW update. It’s neither what I expected nor wanted. ‘Nuff said!

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Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) Handles ARM PCs

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At the end of yesterday’s hopefully thrilling episode, I said I’d follow up on my experiences with Hasleo Backup Suite. I got it installed on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s (a Snapdragon X based ARM PC). I’m pleased to report it works as it should. Not only did I make and restore a backup, I also built — and successfully booted into — the program’s emergency disk. So far, looks like the Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) handles ARM PCs just fine. As you can see from its tools menu above, it even includes boot menu placement, image handling of all kinds, MBR and VSS repairs, and more. Good-oh!

Proving Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) Handles ARM PCs

How do I get from saying “it looks like Hasleo works” to asserting that the program actually, definitely does the job? That’s going to take time and repeat experience. I’m setting up a daily backup schedule. I’ll be messing around with its other tools and facilities on an ongoing basis. If something is wonky, that will probably clue me in.

I do have one additional piece of positive evidence about Hasleo, however. User Stigg at ElevenForum.com started a long-running and active thread (33 pages, 645 posts) on July 8, 2023 entitled Hasleo Backup Suite. He reports on “extensive testing of Hasleo Backup Suite over the past months” and opines that “it’s looking very promising.” Subsequent long-term traffic and interactions on the thread bear that out.

Indeed, I am coming around to the idea that Hasleo Backup Suite (Free) is a worthy successor to Macrium Reflect 8 (Free), which is no longer being updated (nor works with ARM PCs — one must purchase a license for Reflect X to gain awesome ARM access). I’ll say this, though: Reflect X is at least twice as fast at backups and restores as Hasleo, so those for whom time is money might want to ante up anyway. ‘Nuff said.

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Another ARM Boot Boondoggle

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Right. So I’m in the process of covering my ARM PC assets to prevent further boot and BCD issues. One important tool in that coverage is backup/restore. Alas, I’m learning that most such toolsets — including all of the free ones I try to use by preference — don’t work (or work well) with ARM PCs. Yesterday, in fact, I got caught in another ARM boot boondoggle. Indeed, it produced the dread STOP error message “INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE” (0X0000007B). Let me explain…

Recovering from Another ARM Boot Boondoggle

Here’s the deal: most of the free backup/restore toolsets — including AIOMEI Backupper, EaseUS ToDo, Paragon Backup and Recovery Free, Cobian Backup and so forth — don’t work (or work well) with ARM-based PCs. What caused the boot error yesterday was EaseUs ToDo, which injects additional drivers into the Windows boot process. Not only does that not work on ARM PCs, but the program offers no warnings, nor informs users that proceeding with install results in an unusable system.

“Good thing I’ve got the Lenovo USB Recovery Key,” I thought to myself. At least I knew how to dig myself out of this mess. As far as I can tell, only the Hasleo Backup Suite Free and Macrium Reflect X (free trial, but pay for real use) offer backup/restore and rescue media capabilities that work on ARM-based PCs. Go figure!

One Reflect X License Left…

I just checked my Macrium Reflect account, and I’ve got one X license left. Right now, I have two ARM laptops here at Chez Tittel. I think I’ll give Hasleo a try on the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s. Shoot! I know from repeated use that the Lenovo USB Recovery Key will bail me out of any trouble I might get myself into.

Stay tuned: I’ll let you know how this adventure continues. It’s started to get interesting. And I mean more interesting than I’d hoped or expected. Sigh.

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Digging Into Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service

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On Monday, I was finally able to interact with the Lenovo Digitial Download Recovery Service (DDRS). I used it, with the company’s USB Recovery Creator tool, to create a UFD to reinstall the factory image onto my munged ThinkPad T14s laptop (ARM-based). Having now used it with amazement and appreciation, I’m digging into DDRS to better understand what it is and how it works.

More about Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service

About a year ago, I tried to use this tool and got nowhere. One must place a “digital work order” with Lenovo, based on the Serial Number for the affected unit, for it to build a corresponding image that then works with the USB Recovery Creator tool. Earlier, I couldn’t get this to work for some odd reason or another. This time, all went swimmingly.

I did have to boot into the UEFI to obtain the system’s serial number. With that string in hand, however, I was able to place my order. Then when I ran the tool, it created the recovery UFD I would use to rebuilt the T14s. That took about 40 minutes to complete. As you can see in the following screenshot (from WizTree) this stuff falls into a 32 GB (FAT32) partition, of which 18 GB is actually occupied

This FAT32 partition contains 18GB of files, mostly image stuff.
[Click screencap for full-sized view]

In the RECOVERY folder, you’ll find an image file named M11A16AUS.WIM (appears at left in preceding screencap). It’s the customized recovery image that the tool will use to reinstall a factory fresh Windows 11 on the laptop. Let’s call it the “factory image.”

But There’s More to Do: Before, During & After

The whole recovery process is built around a massive and complicated set of scripts (mostly PowerShell). Here’s a 10,000-ft view of what happens next, over about a 100 minute time span:

  • Download and build media: Lenovo USB Recovery Creator tool downloads around 20 GB of recovery files to a USB drive (I used a modestly speedy full-sized Mushkin 64GB USB 3.0 device).
  • Boot from USB: with recovery media inserted, Secure Boot disabled, and F12 run to choose the drive as the boot source, the laptop passes control to the UFD.
  • Launch Recovery Environment: system boots into the Lenovo customer recovery shell built around WinPE with a variety of Lenovo tools and utilities further at its disposal. At this stage, the user confirms recovery, which wipes existing C:/boot/system drive contents.
  • Reformat and Restore: Recovery tool repartitions the internal (C:) drive, then deploys the factory image, complete with Windows, Lenovo device drivers, and Lenovo apps (e.g. Vantage).
  • System Boot and OOBE: The system reboots six times during the previous activities, and shows itself running a complex and convoluted unattend.xml install. After the final reboot, the laptop goes into the out-of-box-experience typical of a clean Windows install, but one based (in this case) on the Lenovo custom image.

Where Windows Wound Up

At that point I installed pending WU items and found the machine running Windows 11 25H2 Build 26200.7171. This is actually one build newer (thanks to an intervening Patch Tuesday) than ran on this PC before my ill-fated attempt to upgrade to Insider Preview for the Dev Channel.

Interestingly, Secure Boot and BitLocker are both turned off for the running image. I believe that makes it safe for me to attempt another Insider Preview upgrade to Dev Channel. This time, I’m going to make sure I have a current image backup with working recovery media first. That’s much faster than using the Lenovo Recovery UFD.

Next week, I’ve asked for an interview with the Lenovo engineers who built the DDRS and the Recovery Tool. That should shed further light on this amazing environment and toolset. I’ll share that info in a future blog post. Stay tuned, and Happy Thanksgiving (for those who celebrate same).

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Bitlocker Boot Loop Finally Broken

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After at least half-a-dozen failed attempts to build bootable media for the ThinkPad T14s ARM laptop, I finally put a usable UFD together. The secrets? First, I used the Lenovo Digital Download Recovery Service (DDRS) and its associated USB Recovery Creator Tool.  Second, it built me a UFD that actually booted up on the T14s on another ARM laptop (an ASUS Zenbook A14). With the BitLocker boot loop finally broken, the Lenovo Recovery Media successfully reinstalled Windows 11. It was a long, wild and sometimes harrowing ride!

How Was BitLocker Boot Loop Finally Broken?

Because the .wim files for Windows 11 were so huge, I’d been formatting the repair UFD using NTFS. That was apparently not working on the T14s. The Lenovo tool built a UFD using FAT32, and assigned no drive letter to its repair partition. Because the basic Windows 11 .wim files exceed 4GB in size, that means it did some juggling work to create a boot.wim of about 700K, and a Recovery WIM of just under 3.9GB. And then it went through the most complex unattend.xml I’ve ever seen go by on-screen, with no less than six (6!) reboots to get the recovery image installed, updated and ready to run. It took about 100 minutes to grind through its process. Color me impressed.

I had tried using various other tools to fix things on my own, but none of them produced a working and bootable UFD from which to run the Windows installer. I believe all of them foundered either on the use of NTFS. complex partition structures, or lack of complete ARM support:

  • MCT (Media Creation Tool): doesn’t work properly on ARM PCs right now, and cannot generate ARM installation media
  • Ventoy: The UFD could boot initially and select the correct ISO for hand-off, but would not boot into that mounted image. Here, because the Ventoy partition is formatted NTFS, I’m presuming that caused the problems.
  • Rufus: I told Rufus to use NFTS, not realizing this could stymie proper booting into its runtime environment.

One More Thing…

I also learned that ARM PCs want fast, standard UFDs as boot media. Me, I’m fond of those tiny micro-UFDs (in this case, Mushkin Atom devices). Turns out they work fine on Intel and AMD; on ARM, not so much. I ended up using a Mushkin full-size USB 3.0 MKNUFDVP64GB device (or half of it, rather, because its FAT32 partition maxed out at 32GB). It did the job, though, so I’m glad.

This has been one of my wilder, woolier adventures in Windows-World lately. First, I had to find the right medium. Then I had to use the right format. And finally, I had to use the right tool. Only then could I reinstall Windows and put the T14s back into service. Sheesh!

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VSS Delivers New Windows 11 Point-in-Time Restore

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It’s been a long time coming, and long time gone. Back in the Windows 7 era (public release: July 2009) it included a Backup and Restore utility for image backups. Indeed, it persists to this day in Control Panel in both Windows 10 and 11 as Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Starting with Build 26220.7271, Windows 11 regains a built-in image-based backup. It is explicitly more granular, faster and light-weight, better integrated, more reliable, and fully automated than other Windows options. To say that VSS delivers new Windows 11 point-in-time restore implies those foregoing qualities. But it also means that MS offers a much more potent restore tool than the Windows Backup app.

Digging into VSS Delivers New Windows 11 Point-in-Time Restore

Let’s explore the advantages of Point-in-Time restore vis-a-vis the old Windows 7 image backup utility and the Restore Point facility available through Control Panel > System Properties > System Protection:

  • Granularity
    • Windows 7 image backup: Restores the entire system image (.vhd) — all or nothing.
    • Classic restore points protect system files, registry settings, drivers and installed programs, does not back up personal files.
    • Point‑in‑time restore: Rolls back only system state, drivers, or updates to a chosen snapshot, leaving user files intact.
  • Speed & Convenience
    • Image backup required large storage space and long write times.
    • Classic restore points work more like a mini reinstall with multiple reboots with typical times of 10-30 minutes.
    • Point-in-time restore points are lightweight, created automatically before updates or app installs, and apply quickly (5-15 minutes).
  • Integration
    • Image backup was a standalone utility buried in Control Panel.
    • Restore points work through the Control Panel based System Restore utility.
    • Point‑in‑time restore is integrated with Windows Update, Recovery Settings, and System Restore, making it seamless for non‑technical users.
  • Reliability
    • Image backup often failed if the destination disk wasn’t large enough or if VSS writers conflicted.
    • Classic restore points may fail for lack of disk space or VSS writer conflicts.
    • Restore points use VSS snapshots but are optimized for consistency and modern storage stacks.
  • User Experience
    • Image backup required planning, external drives, and manual scheduling.
    • Using classic restore points is a manual process, requires identifying and selecting items.
    • Point‑in‑time restore happens automatically in the background, with minimal user intervention.

But Wait…There’s More!

Indeed, all four of my favorite (and free, except for Macrium) backup utilities also work atop a VSS foundation. That means Macrium Reflect (no longer free), EaseUS ToDo Backup, AOMEI Backupper and MiniTool ShadowMaker all use VSS to provide shadow copies that it may use itself (or use that very MS service) to operate on Winodws images for file and system backups.

I’m tickled to see this capability show up on my X380 Yoga for 26220.7271. If it’s still on gradual rollout, you may be tickled to see it show up on a test PC or VM, too. Enjoy!


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