SupportAssist OS Recovery v5.4.3.15135 Not Creating System Repair Points

Hi Imacri:

You can read my earlier reply to your other post today (August 3)  .

The gist of the note there is that a) I've always had "all automatic update and optimization scans" DISABLED in SupportAssist at Options (gear icon) Settings | Automate Scans and Optimizations | Scan Your System and Drivers; b) I've always had System Repair ON at DSA>Gear icon>Settings since the feature was first introduced; c) day by day in Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settings, the Space Used keeps increasing and new Restore Points are added; d) the info there about Space Used and new Repair Points is corroborated in TreeSizeFree at C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ 

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@lmacri wrote:

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Right now I have no way of knowing if my System Repair was corrupted during the update, if system restore points are now only created on an "as needed" basis (e.g., after a Feature or Quality update by Windows Update, when third-party software is installed or updated, etc.) or if SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 is now storing system repair points in a location other than C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\.

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A. I haven't done any Windows Updates since June 28, yet new Repair Points have been created day by day up through today on my two devices. 

B. I installed the new version of TreeSizeFree (4.5.1.569) on the 5482 on July 30 and on the 7569 on August 1, yet new Report Points on both devices have been created day by day before then and since then. 

System Repair backup files are created day by day at the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ through today, even 7 days after the new version of SA Remediation was installed on the 5482 and 3 days after the new version of SA Remediation was installed on the 7569.  So, the backup files are located in the same place that they were before the new version of SA Remediation was installed.

As a matter of fact, C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair shows lots of backup files before I upgraded to 20H2 in April and after I upgraded to 20H2. 

At Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settings, today the box on the right shows three Current Repair Points:  1) the date and time at which I upgraded to 20H2; 2) the last Repair Point from yesterday; 3) the last Repair Point day. (The last two Current Repair Points keep changing day by day.)  This is an image of the box on my 5482 today and there are backup files at the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ the match dates and times in the box.

 

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@DELLKaren wrote:

... System Repair backup files are created day by day at the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ through today, even 7 days after the new version of SA Remediation was installed on the 5482 and 3 days after the new version of SA Remediation was installed on the 7569.  So, the backup files are located in the same place that they were before the new version of SA Remediation was installed. ...

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Hi DELLKaren:

Thanks for letting me know that the latest Support OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 appears to be working as expected on your Inspiron laptops.

Unfortunately, nothing I've tried since 29-Jul-2021 [e.g., updating my Inspiron 5583/5584 BIOS to the latest v1.14.1 (rel. 19-Jul-2021), toggling System Repair OFF, re-booting and toggling back ON again in both the SupportAssist settings and SupportAssist OS Recovery control panel] has kick-started Support OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 into creating new system repair points on my Inspiron 5584.

If System Repair is ENABLED in SupportAssist I still see a flood of "Successful Application Reconfiguration" events in Event Viewer and the Win 10 Reliability Monitor approx. 30 min after boot-up (see my 30-Jul-2021 post in your "Successful Application Reconfiguration" and SupportAssist thread) and file dates will change in C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair (note the time stamps for 07-Aug-2021 in the image below), but there are no new system repair points being created in the \Snapshots subfolder and \Snapshots\Backup still has a size of 0 KB.

I have no idea if this is relevant, but Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features indicates my Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update v5.4.1.14954 was re-installed on 29-Jul-2021 but the version number is unchanged (i.e., it wasn't updated to v5.4.3.15135).

I don't know if System Repair stopped creating system repair points because I had this feature disabled prior to the forced update to Support OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 on 29-Jul-2021, but I'm not going to waste any more time with this buggy, bloated software. A bug fix for the long-standing problem where System Repair exceeds allocated disk space isn't expected until SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.5 is released (see Dell employee NikhilKiroula's 05-Aug-2021 post in Reduce Disk Space Used by SARemediation) so I'll just DISABLE System Repair for now and and uninstall the Dell SupportAssist Remediation program the next time I have to perform another clean reinstall of SupportAssist per DELL-Chris-M's instructions in SA Uninstall / Reinstall. I already use Macrium Reflect Free for creating full disk images for emergency recovery so having the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools installed isn't crucial for me.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v20H2 build 19042.1110 * Firefox v90.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2107.4 * MB Premium v4.4.4.126-1.0.1413 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.1.23 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.4.3.15135 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.3.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v7.3.5925 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.5.1.566
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G 256 GB NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

Hi Imacri,

Thanks for your post.  Your quote is from my August 3 post, where I said that “System Repair backup files are created day by day at the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ through today [i.e., Aug 3].”

Things have changed.  I updated to 21H1 on August 5 on both devices.  And now at Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settings, the box on the right says "A repair point has not yet been created” on both devices, similar to what you have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the 5482, TreeSizeFree reveals that almost everything that was there in C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ in 20H2 is gone now in 21H1.  This image doesn’t look too different from yours.

 

 

 

On the 7569, everything is gone now in 21H1.

 

 

 

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@lmacri wrote:

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I have no idea if this is relevant, but Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features indicates my Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update v5.4.1.14954 was re-installed on 29-Jul-2021 but the version number is unchanged (i.e., it wasn't updated to v5.4.3.15135).

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Here’s a snapshot of Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features on my 7569.  It looks the same on my 5482. It’s the same as yours, e.g., the version of SA OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update is also v5.4.1.14954 and is not updated to v5.4.3.15135.  It looked this way on August 3 as well, when in 20H2 System Repair backup files were being created day by day at the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\.  It doesn't seem to have been relevant in 20H2.

 

 

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@lmacri wrote:

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I don't know if System Repair stopped creating system repair points because I had this feature disabled prior to the forced update to Support OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 on 29-Jul-2021, ...

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Are you in 21H1?  Another reason for there being no repair points could be that you are in 21H1.

 

Thanks also for your lead to the post on the anticipated bug fix for the problem where System Repair exceeds allocated disk space. 

I have to say that the functioning of System Repair is in far worse shape in 21H1 than it is/was in 20H2; there’s a lot more that needs to be fixed than System Repair's exceeding allocated disk space!!

  

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@DELLKaren wrote:

... Things have changed.  I updated to 21H1 on August 5 on both devices.  And now at Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settings, the box on the right says "A repair point has not been created” on both devices, similar to what you have....

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...Are you in 21H1?  Another reason for there being no repair points could be that you are in 21H1...  

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Hi DELLKaren:

No, I'm still on Win 10 Pro v20H2 (installed 08-Apr-2021).  My system specs are posted at the bottom of this post.

There's one tweak I didn't try when I was attempting to get System Repair working again. NikhilKiroula's instructions in Reduce Disk Space Used by SARemediation suggest that users run a Windows Disk Cleanup (Start | Administrative Tools | Disk Cleanup) and choose the advanced Clean Up System Files option (see Step # 2) before enabling System Repair. I didn't do this because it would only recover an extra 4 GB of disk space (I currently have 131 GB of free disk space on my 256 GB SSD) and don't want to run "Windows Update Cleanup", which would prevent me from uninstalling any updates installed by Windows Update if I need to remove a buggy update. @NikhilKiroula would have to tell us if the only purpose of choosing the advanced Clean Up System Files option is to free up up disk space, or if it does something else (e.g., clean temp files) that might get System Repair working properly.

Since you've recently updated to a new version of Windows 10, see the warnings in the How-To Geek article Is It Safe to Delete Everything in Windows’ Disk Cleanup? about cleaning the "Previous Windows Installation(s)" and/or "Windows ESD Installation Files". Deleting "Previous Windows Installation(s)" will remove the old files Windows keeps for 10 days that allows you to easily roll back to an earlier version. Users should also avoid cleaning "Windows ESD Installation Files", if present, that might be needed to reset your PC via Settings | Update & Security | Recovery.

The 15-Jul-2021 image in your thread Problems with SupportAssist 3.10.0.47 shows that the previous SupportAssist OS Recovery v5.4.1.14954 control panel (Control Panel | System and Security | SupportAssist OS Recovery | Settings) used to display the warning "Paused capturing repair points due to insufficient disk space... " on both your Inspiron laptops. I'm beginning to wonder if that message we're both seeing now in SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.4.3.15135 (i.e., "A Repair point has not yet been created. We are first analyzing your system to ensure a healthy repair point can be created...") means that the latest v5.4.3.15135 is unable to determine the amount of free disk space on our systems.

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64-bit Win 10 Pro v20H2 build 19042.1110 * Firefox v90.0.2 * Microsoft Defender v4.18.2107.4 * MB Premium v4.4.4.126-1.0.1413 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.1.23 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.4.3.15135 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.3.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v7.3.5925 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.5.1.566
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G 256 GB NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620

@lmacri,

Thanks for your advice about Disk Cleanup. 

I’m leaving System Repair ON on both machines, even though it doesn’t work.  I’m sitting tight and will see what happens when a new version of DSA and/or a new version of SA OS Recovery Tools arrives.  I’m not depending on System Repair  -- like you, I have full disk images for emergency recovery so having the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools installed isn't crucial for me, either.

Things have changed again!  

First, some background about the DSA version and the version of related DSA components on my 7569:

 

As shown in the above, I am on DSA 3.10.1.23, installed July 31.  Today (August 17), I checked Control Panel>SA OS Recovery.  There is now no opening message that says “Paused capturing repair points due to insufficient disc space. We will automatically resume capturing repair points once you free up enough disk space.”  Nor is there an opening message that says “This feature is temporarily unavailable. Feature controls and settings will return when  service is back online.”  In fact, there is no opening message.  Instead, Control Panel>SA OS Recovery goes immediately to the page under the Settings tab.  Lo and behold, I get this screen, where is says that I am below the maximum space of 18GB and it lists 6 current repair points from August 15 through August 17!!

This is corroborated by TreeSizeFree (below).

Previously, on the 7569, on August 7, 2021, Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settings looked like this (below)!!

And it was corroborated by TreeSizeFree. It shows 0 GB (presumably a few KB; I had not set the ‘view’ for automatic units)-below:

 

 

 

Why are there Current Repair Points on August 17?  Is it because I turned System Repair OFF and then turned in back ON?

Apparently, on the 7569, DSA has now finished analyzing the system to ensure healthy repair points.

I believe that this might have happened because on August 8 I turned System Repair OFF(i.e., disabled it) at Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settingsand then RESTARTED the laptop.  After the restart, the Control Panel>SA OS Recovery opening message said “This feature is temporarily unavailable. Feature Controls and settings will be returned when service is back online”, clearly evidence that System Repair was OFF.  Then, I turned System Repair back on (i.e., enabled it) at DSA>Settings, set the maximum space to 18GB, closed the DSA, and then RESTARTED the laptop. After that, the Control Control Panel>SA OS Recovery opening message still said “This feature is temporarily unavailable. Feature Controls and settings will be returned when service is back online”.  But, I also opened DSA>Settings>System Repair, where it said“We couldn’t get information about your system backups right now.  Try again later”  Since System Repair had been turned on and allocated space had been set at 18GB via DSA, I waited about 5 minutes, then tried SA>Settings>System Repair again.  This time it said “System Repair is turned ON.  Maximum space is 18GB.” Then I went to Control Panel>SA OS Recovery. There was no opening message; instead, the Settings page came up and it said “A Repair Point has not yet been created.  We are first analyzing your system to ensure a healthy repair point can be created.” 

So, after I turned System Repair OFF and then back ON on August 8, by August 17 (when I next looked at Control Panel>SA OS Recovery>Settings), I see that System Repair had started collecting Current Repair Points.

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My 5482 laptop has the same DSA version and the same version of related DSA components as the 7569.  Dates of installation are similar.

 

In contrast to the the 7569, on the 5482 machine, I STILL get the same screens that I got on August 7 – i.e., STILL no current repair points, and STILL analyzing the system. (below):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, too, on the 5482, TreeSizeFree shows a size for the System Repair files that is miniscule (It’s set for viewing in automatic units and not in GBs)-below. 

 

I did not go through the process of turning System Repair OFF and back ON again on the 5482, as I did on the 7569 (process is outlined above).

So, yes, things have changed.  The fact that the 7569 is now reporting current repair points on August 17 but the 5482 is not seems to be due to the fact that on the 7569, I turned System Repair to OFF and then turned it back to ON, whereas on the 5482, I did not do that (it has always been ON).

Post Script:  Here is 7569 SA OS Recovery>Settings two days later on August 19.  System Repair  continues to collect more Current Repair points!!