system restore xp save files?

[shanenin]

I feel uneducated. I have been in the tech business professionally for 5 years giving bad advice and doing some things that may have lost client data. I was under the impression that system restore with xp did not delete personal files/folders. I use it and told clients on a regular basis not to worry about using it, your files will be fine. I noticed a couple of days ago that a folder I created on the root of c: with drivers in it disappeared after running system restore. This behavior also happened with folders on the desktop. Do you guys have any insight to what is going on? A link to a thorough explanation to what files are saved or removed with system restore would be great!

edit added later//

I need to test this, but i think it must filter files based on extension, for example .exe.

edit adder later//

I made a folder on the root of c: it contained the following: test.txt, test.rtf, test.hhh, test.exe. The system restore only removed the test.exe file. Based on that one test, files of unknown type are saved along with known types like word docs. I suspect .exe and .dll files in particular are not saved.

[TheTerrorist_75]

Any files/folders you wish to save should be located in My Documents. System restore does not affect that folder. Any folders on my desktop are shortcuts to the folders in My Documents. All of my backup drivers and executable program files are stored in folders located in My Documents. I also move My Documents to a separate partition or drive and create a backup of them which I store elsewhere.

Understanding System Restore

[shanenin]

thanks, that is a great link! You would think system restore would treat all files on the desktop the same as files in the "My Documents" folder. People store as much personal stuff there as "My Documents".

[TheTerrorist_75]

System Restore will revert your desktop back to what it was for the restore point used.