Vista - System Restore Deleting Restore Points Automatically....

I have a problem with System Restore only keeping restore points 5 days back at the most. So for example, the oldest restore point I have currently is from September 6, 2007. I've had this Vista x64 install for around a month now. I should have restore points dating back to about August 1st or so.

I've got plenty of HD space too......around 500GB free I believe so that's not an issue. I don't have any viruses. I bet this is an easy fix, it's just that I don't know what that is. Vista is supposed to automatically make restore points every day doesn't it? According to this post at this site, Vista is supposed to save restore points for around 136 years. Vista's System Restore Points are set to delete after 136 years ! - Windows Vista

While I don't need it that long, I'd like it save them for around 6 months to a year or even whatever the default is supposed to be. I had a problem with a Windows update about a month ago. I think it was a security update or something. Anyway, I don't know which one or why, but it borked my system and I couldn't even boot, not even in Safe Mode. So I put the Vista x64 DVD in and went to use System Restore and I didn't have any restore points. I had no other choice than to reinstall Windows. I just want to know why it's doing this and how I can stop it before I have to use System Restore again and I have to reinstall again.

Thanks in advance!

Hi Bowen,

When you are in System Restore, make sure you check Show Restore points older than 5 days to see your older restore points.

System Restore - How to


By default System Restore allocates 15% of your hard drive for restore points. This tutorial will show you how you can see how much space is being used and change it to your needs.

System Restore - disk space

Shawn

Bowen,

There should be a check box in lower left of list box of available restore
points for "show restore points older than 5 days" .
If I select that box I have restore points back to 8/29. Is the check box
missing or just ineffective on your setup?

Michael

"Bowen" <Bowen.2wszf4@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote in message
news:Bowen.2wszf4@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net...

Thanks Shawn and Michael, the 5 days is actually with the box checked. So, I looked at the tutorial link that you posted and here's how much space it says.

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 21.939GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 24.063GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 69.864GB

I've got 2 HD's one is 250GB and the other is 500GB, but I'm only using System Restore on my C: drive and it has 397GB free so I know I have enough room. By looking at the space that System Restore is using that I posted above, is this why it's deleting them or should is there another reason that doesn't present itself here. I'm just not sure how much room is required to keep older points. Thanks.

Bowen,

It looks like you have enough space allocated.

Do you have a 3rd party program that may be deleting them? See:

Missing Restore Points/Shadow Copies in Windows Vista:

Shawn

On Wed, 12 Sep 2007 10:06:09 -0500, Bowen
<Bowen.2wszf4@xxxxxx-mx.forums.net> wrote:



Others have already told you about the "Show Restore points older than
5 days" setting. I wanted to add one comment: reverting to a restore
point more than a week or two old is likely to cause other problems,
getting other files out of synch with the registry. For that reason,
there's no real value to having restore anywhere near as old as six
months to a year.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

The only 3rd party app I have that I've run since actually looking at System Restore is Perfect Disk which is a disk defragger that you're probably familiar with. Before I was thinking if a 3rd party app was interfering in some way, but I couldn't think of what it might be save Perfect Disk or a few Registry cleaners that I use. Speaking of which, I use: TuneUp Utilities 2007's reg cleaner and the the free reg cleaner called Wise Registry Cleaner and finally TweakNow's Powerpack 2006's reg cleaner.

I don't think it's the reg cleaners because I remember previously that I looked at System Restore prior to running the reg cleaners and my restore points were still there after I ran them and even after rebooting. I didn't look before or after I ran Perfect Disk though, so maybe that's the culprit. The thing is, I was using Diskeeper 11 and I had the same problems, so either Diskeeper and Perfect Disk are erasing restore points or it's another problem.

Right, I don't need that long of a restore point, but I would like to have one that's there for at least a month. If I can get that, I'm good!

Bowen,

I would not think that they would do anything unless they had a feature that cleans junk off the hard drive.

For a test, you might bump up the size to 150 GB to see if it will hold more. If not, you can bump it back down.

Shawn

Bowen wrote:Hi Shawn,

Yes, Perfect Disk may be responsible for missing restore points particularly
if it is run before Vista loads.

Regards,
Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
http://bertk.mvps.org
Member: http://dts-l.org