System Restore - disk space

How to Change the System Restore Disk Space Usage Amount in Vista ​

   Information

By default Vista allocates 15% of your selected hard drive volume to storing System Restore points after installation. If System Restore is turned on much later, it may only allocate a minimum of 30% of the available free space instead. When the allocated space fills up with restore points, System Restore will delete the older restore points to make room for the new ones. System Restore needs at least 300 MB allocated to it to run, and will not run on a hard drive smaller than 1 GB. In the Vista Business and Ultimate versions, this area is also where backup copies of deleted or changed files are stored and made available through the Previous Versions feature (Shadow Copy). For more information about the Vssadmin command, see: Microsoft Technet: Vssadmin

   Note

System Restore needs to be turned on to be able to change it's storage size. To turn on System Restore and select what drives Vista is to create restore points for, see: How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista

   Warning

• If you shrink the available storage space for a selected drive, Vista will kick out the system restore points and backups on a first-in, first-out basis. The oldest restore point will be deleted as the new one is saved when out of available max space. This will, of course, leave you with fewer restore options.
• If you dual boot with Windows XP, then everytime you start in XP the System Restore Points and all except the most recent Complete PC Backup files in Vista get deleted. For how, see: How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP

   Tip

If you just want to free up some space, then you can run Disk Cleanup instead.

STEP ONE

How to See the Current Allocated System Restore Size

1. Open a elevated command prompt.​

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2. If prompted by UAC, click on Continue.​

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3. In the elevated command prompt, type vssadmin list shadowstorage and press Enter. (See screenshots below)​

NOTE: This will give your the details on the Used, Allocated, and Maximum spaces of Shadow Copies for the available disks that you selected to have restore points created for in step 6 here: How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista. The left screenshot is for just one drive selected, and the right screenshot is for two drives (C & D ) selected.​

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Result	Description
Used	This is the amount currently used on the hard disk.
Allocated	This is the amount that it has reserved from the hard disk at this time.
Maximum	This is the maximum amount it will allocate and use from the hard disk.

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STEP TWO

How to Change the Maximum System Restore Size

NOTE: If you disable or enable System Restore for a selected drive, the original default values will be set back and the restore points will be deleted. For how, see: How to Disable or Enable System Restore in Vista.

1. In same elevated command prompt window from above, type for EX:​

WARNING: If you change the MAX size to a smaller size than the current Used size shown in METHOD ONE above, then the older restore points will be deleted to adjust to the new size. Nothing will happen to the restore points if you make the MAX size larger than the current Used size shown in METHOD ONE above.​

A) For the listed C: drive, type the command below and press Enter.​

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vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=[B][COLOR=red]3GB[/COLOR][/B]

B) For the listed D: drive, type the command below and press Enter.​

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vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=D: /On=D: /Maxsize=[B][COLOR=red]3GB[/COLOR][/B]

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   Note

See the screenshots below step 5 in OPTION ONE above under the Shadow Copy Storage association line for each drive listed.​

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Command	Description
/For=	The For volume: listed. (Ex: C or D above)
/On=	The Shadow Copy Storage volume: listed. (Ex: C or D above)
/Maxsize=	What you want to limit the maximum storage size of Shadow Copies (restore points) to. For example, # + GB or MB (Ex: 3GB or 3MB) This must be 1MB or larger.

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2. You will get a Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association message.​

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3. If not, repeat step 1.​

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4. If yes, then check with STEP ONE above to confirm the change for the selected drive.​

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5. Close the elevated command prompt when done.​

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That's it,
Shawn



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Related Tutorials

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• How to Create a System Restore Shortcut in Vista
• How to Create a Create System Restore Point Shortcut in Vista
• How to Create a System Restore Point in Vista
• How to Undo the Last System Restore in Vista
• How to Do a System Restore in Vista
• How to Turn System Restore On or Off in Vista
• How to Use Disk Cleanup in Vista
• How to Restore Previous Versions of a File and Folder in Vista
• How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP
• How to Change the Automatic System Restore Point Settings in Vista Task Scheduler
• How to Enable or Disable Create Vista System Restore Point when New Device Driver is Installed
• How to Enable or Disable Create Vista System Restore Point when a Application is Installed

 

[Sound_Asleep]

well I don't really do anything that should really cause me to system restore, and I also have 2 complete backups
I had 10GB of System Restore points
yet when I checked today could only choose from 6 System Restore points
the oldest being the 13th of this month
surely it doesn't need 10GB just to allowed me to system restore back 6 days?
so really 5GB should be ok for me :D

 

[Brink]

You should be fine since you have 2 complete PC backups as well.

 

[Sound_Asleep]

I did have 4 but I didn't see much of a point of having 2x 15GB back ups when the other two have everything anyways
it backs up every months
shall let it back up this month and delete a previous,
that way I keep 49GB on my Recovery Drive
and as usual a great tutorial Brink :D

 

[Brink]

LOL, I suppose whatever suites your needs.

 

[GradeAbra]

Hi brink,

Well it been quite sometime i did not mess around with the Shadow copies and setup..

My question here is, what is the correct method to delete all my shadow copy? Well i seems to have forgotten what i should do.

Thanks

 

[Brink]

Hello GradeAbra,

Well, you cannot delete shadow copy, but you can delete the restore points if that is what you wanted to delete. You can delete them all by turning off System Restore, then you can turn it back on if you like to start clean again.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[GradeAbra]

Oh yes thats right. Thanks

 

[Brink]

You're welcome.

 

[AbsentMinded]

Hi Brink!
I'm using Vista Ultimate SP1 and have two drives: C:\ (System, Boot e.t.c) and F:\ (Complete PC Backup). I set system restore for both drives by checking the boxes in the system protection window. My question is: Should I set the system restore pont for the F:\ drive or is it best to leave it alone(unchecked)?

Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Hello AbsentMinded,

That would depend on if you wanted Vista to create restore points of your F drive to be able to restore the F drive to that restore point. Usually you would only check this for drives or partitions with a operating system installed, or stored system files.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[GradeAbra]

Brink, do you have any idea howcome my last Restore Point away got deleted when my shadow copy space hit 3GB(i set it to the maximum of 3GB space for restore point and shadow copy)?

How can i prevent this from happening?

 

[Brink]

Hello GradeAbra,

Here are some common reasons why it may have been deleted:

• Dual boot with XP. This wipes them all out though.
• Restore point is older than 90 days. Nothing can be done to stop this though.
• You ran out of max space and it was deleted to make room for a new restore point.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[GradeAbra]

I am 100% sure it runs out of max space and it was deleted to make room for a new restore point.

If i set the space to a higher value, will it prevent this from happening? If not what should i do?

Thanks

 

[Brink]

If that is the case, then yes bumping it up a bit higher (say 5-6 GB) will allow more restore points stored until that space runs out. It just depends on how many you want to have stored for the size to set it.

 

[GradeAbra]

Which is more reliable system restore of backing up of computer image?
Regarding backing up of Drive image. If i store my C drive image in another drive, can i still get back 100% of it if my pc or C drive encounter failure?

 

[Brink]

Hello GradeAbra,

A drive image is more reliable than a system restore. System Restore is only good to help restore system files back to a previous date that have only recently been changed by mistake. However, manually backing up your individual files (ex: Music, Documents, etc...) is the most reliable method I have found.

Oh yes, storing a drive image on another separate hard drive is the best and safest method to ensure that your backup is not lost if your C: drive should fail.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[GradeAbra]

Will work even if the separated drive is in the same PC as the one that encounter failure?

I can no longer post in the "backup computer image" thread anymore where can i post again if i got further question regarding this issue? Thanks

 

[Brink]

In older threads, you will need to check the box under the reply window to acknowledge this before it will allow you to post it. That's all.


Yes, as long as the backup drive has not been corrupted as well, you should be able to boot from your Vista installation DVD to select the backup drive and restore the image to the C: drive.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/99718-restore-complete-computer.html

 

[GradeAbra]

Isit better if i store it in another external drive?

 

[Brink]

Not for System Restore, but yes for a backup.