Vista - System Restore hard disk trashing is driving me nuts

I just got a brand new Vista x64 desktop PC today, and I've been spending all day getting everything installed and properly set up.
I just can't decide what to do with the system restore feature though. In the Windows scheduler I've blocked it from running after system startup, settling for a supposed once a day restore point creation.

Unfortunately that's not really how things work in the real world - I feel like I can't do a damn thing without Vista deciding it had better spend yet another ten minutes creating a new restore point. Obviously a lot of that is due to all the day one application installs I've been doing, but even on my previous Vista PC (a laptop), I would usually see several restore point creations every day through what constitutes normal PC use for me.

What makes it damn near unbearable with my new PC is that the hard disk is much louder than the 5400 rpm disk in my laptop. I had feared that the GTX 260 graphics card in the new system would be the "trouble maker", but compared to a round of restore point writing, it's almost completely silent even under heavy load .

Right now I'm seriously tempted to turn off system restore - I managed fine without it through six years with Windows 2000 after all. But on the other hand it also seems like it could be a life saver.
The main problem for me is its insistence on writing restore points after even the tiniest system related changes, but as far as I've been able to gather, if you turn it off you don't even get the option of manually creating restore points?

Is there a way to completely limit restore point creation to manual or scheduled runs, or should I just decide that I value my sanity (I hate excessive noise ) more than a Windows life guard?

Hi,

You can stop and start system restore manually - I do it all the time.

Type services.msc in start search box - when it pops up may as well rt click and pin to start menu.

Click it to open it - scroll down to Volume Shadow Copy - rt click , select properties - in the drop down flap, Disable and then Stop the service.

Don't forget to reverse the steps when you want to create a restore point , or do a system restore.

FYI - the other services that need to be running to create a point or restore it are Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider, and Task Scheduler - you should be fine to leave those as they are.

Services

Hope it helps.

Hello Miths,

When System Restore is turned off, all restore points are deleted.

However, you may be able to disable both System Restore tasks in Task Scheduler to be able to have it on and only have restore points created manualy.

System Restore Task - Change Automatic Restore Point Schedule

Hope this helps,
Shawn

The problem isn't really the scheduled run - it's only set to once a day after all. It's all the times Vista decides to run it when I've installed drivers, applications, utilities etc. Obviously that isn't going to happen every single day, but even on my old laptop it certainly seemed like Vista very rarely stuck to just that one scheduled daily run.

But am I to understand that all old restore points will be deleted if I turn off System Restore, whether by disabling or the service or unchecking the boxes next to the drives in the system property panel (can't recall exactly what it's called, I made the grave mistake of getting Vista in my native language - Danish - rather than English as I had on my laptop. I spent the first couple of hours barely able to find my way around Windows , and it can make searching for help online a pain as well)?

If that's the case it sounds like it's pretty much an either-or thing - you can't turn it off and still keep a few older restore points lying around, just in case?

Miths,

I believe you can do what SIW2 suggested to by this by only disabling the Windows Search service and not turning off System Restore.

Hi,

Yes , just to confirm what Shawn said - if you turn off System Restore - you will lose the restore points.

If you Disable and Stop the Volume Shadow Copy service instead - the restore points will still be there.

They will stay there for the default time - which I believe is 90 days. Shawn will be able to tell you how to extend that if needed.

Of course, you have to restart it again to create another point , or to do a system restore.

Hope it helps.

That sounds like a good solution - if only I could find the damn service in the list . It's an ugly mess of English and Danish titles and descriptions in there, but there definitely doesn't seem to be anything in either language that resembles "shadow copy", nor system restore.
The closest is probably Windows Backup (or Windows Sikkerhedskopiering in my Danish version, and the description does mention "restore functions"), but it's set to manual and isn't running.

... I ran a few Google searches, and it sounds like the Shadow Copy service is only present in Vista Ultimate and Enterprise? I'm running Home Premium, which - if I understood it correctly - uses some of the features from Shadow Copy for the System Restore function, but buried under some other services?

Hi,

Volume Shadow Copy service is on Home Premium.

The Description may help:

Thanks the description helped me find it. The Danish name of the service was not remotely close to being a translation of the English name.
Damn I'm cursing at myself for not making sure I got an English Vista version, I have a strong feeling this won't be the last time I go searching for help on the Internet while having to guess at the proper name and description.
And from I've been able to gather from the Windows help files, downloading and using different language packs is only partially supported in the Home versions of Vista, leaving a lot of things untranslated.

Well, back to the original topic - I actually disabled System Restore entirely through the system options earlier today, after yet another several ~15 minute long rounds of restore point creations.
I'll probably look into just disabling the service now though, so I can still keep some of the older restore points.

Thanks for the help everyone.