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

---

• 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

 

[ilikefree]

Failed to work said I needed to set another setting
Fixed it by cut and paste of the cmd.

 

[Brink]

Hello ILikeFree, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You need to run a elevated command prompt (right click on command shortcut and click on "run as administrator") instead.

 

[ilikefree]

Thank you I found the mistake was gaps in the wrong place in the command I fixed it by cut and paste of your command

 

[Brink]

You're welcome ILikeFree. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted out.

 

[Gibson]

Just an FYI to people, I reduced my Allocated SRP space from 50GB to 5GB and it tanked all of my SRP and left none. However, I am not upset, I just simply created a new one. I am pretty meticulous with my computer so I have no infections or anything to worry about (that I know of at least =D). I noticed when I left XP to Vista (for a few short weeks) then right to Steve, that there wasn't an option for adjusting the allocated size for SRP. Yes, this guide was extremely helpful and ran into no hangups along the way. Thanks for the guide guys.

Chris Gibson

 

[sassofalco]

Re: System Restore - disk space: vssadmin list shadowstorage - ERROR message

G'Day Shawn,

Any idea what gives here? I'm stumped with this, and yes in System Protection, all Restore point drive letter boxes are checked. This has happened over several attempts and this snip of the problem says it all;



Any advice appreciated, in good time.

Restore points are still being created automatically, and on User demand.

Cheers Mate.

 

[Brink]

Hello Tony,

About the only thing I can find on this error is for Server 2000 and not Vista. What little I did find for Vista is to restart the computer to see if that may help. It helped in some cases.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[sassofalco]

Hello Tony,

About the only thing I can find on this error is for Server 2000 and not Vista. What little I did find for Vista is to restart the computer to see if that may help. It helped in some cases.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Regret to advise Shawn, that four restarts later, the situation remains unchanged......dammit!

Coupled with that, the Wdi Service Host is not running, and access is denied, but will post in General soon on that one.

Cheers Mate.

 

[Brink]

Sounds like it's time for a Repair or Clean install.

 

[sassofalco]

Ouch! But with system an OEM, that could be difficult. However, what sort of repair admin would you recommend I try....any, and all?

 

[Brink]

Unfortunately a Repair install is only good for a retail and not OEM copy. If you knew when this was working properly, you could try and do a system restore at boot using a restore point dated before this issue to hopefully fix it.

 

[sassofalco]

Unfortunately Shawn, my Restore points go back only a couple
of days or so.

However, I'm trying to be practical here and looking to resolve
the issue before it goes too far.

I've had a bit of a think about it and want to run a couple of options
past you. And these are.......either,

First: Buy a new Vista Home Premium OS Disk, and boot from that over
the top of my current OEM installed system?
Can that be done though?.......or,

Second: Bite the bullet and go for a new clean install of Windows 7?

Incidentally, I have just run a full sfc /scannow and my system is
reporting back with no integrity violations.

Very frustrating.

 

[Brink]

Tony,

If you are going to buy a new copy of Windows anyway, you might as well go with a retail Windows 7 Upgrade or Full copy to be current. It's better and more stable than Vista. Before you do, double check to make sure that all of your devices have Windows 7 drivers available for them.

 

[sassofalco]

Thanks Shawn,

Thought so. And so to bullets for dinner then!:huh:

 

[Brink]

Want some ketchup to go with them?

 

[sassofalco]

.....the hot chilli peppers and glass of spicy vinegar will be just fine thanks. It's the bitter pill, that will be hard to swallow!!

 

[jackson88]

Just read this thread on 6-4 late pm or 6-5.

I had 2 1/2 weeks of System Restore points on the computer, and that is the amount that I have been holding in my laptop system for years.
I did the check to find out how much space on my hdd is allocated for System Restore, as your article describes.
It is or was allocating about 15% of my 250 gb (230 actually) laptop hdd C drive, as it should be.

Just went into System Restorefor the first time since then just now (6-6) and all of my Restore points are gone prior to 6/4, although as described they were there before I checked for how much hdd space is allocated to System Restore.
This is very disturbing.

I did not alter the amount of space being used when I did the ElevatedCommand Prompt and got the info - I simply "X"ed out of the Command Prompt I believe after it showed me the info.

I have plenty of space available on my C Drive (about 20% available).
I did nothing to use up the available space and cause System Restore to delete older points.

Could simply getting the info via the Elev. Comm. Prompt as you describe in the thread have caused this?

There is another possible culprit - although I have 32bit Vista Home Premium (not Windows ME), I got the Blue Screen of Death on 6-4 in an issue separate from the Elev. Command Prompt (related to using a 1394 Firewire from my laptop to my Ext. Hard Drive apparently, per the Windows Error Message (KB960884 - Stop error when plugging in 1394 disks).

I guess it seems more likely that the deletion was related to this - but - I had the same incident today with the same Error Message - yet as described my Restore points are there from 6-4 thru today 6-6 - i.e., if it was the Blue Screen crash which deleted my Restore points prior to 6-4 when it crashed on 6-4, it did not delete the few Restore points which are still there when the same crash occurred today.

Was going to go in and make sure that the allocation of Sys. Restore space is the same as it was on 6-4 when I looked at the info, but am now hesitant to do so, in case the deletion of the Restore points is somehow related to my doing the Elev. Cmd. Prompt and looking at the System Restore space being used.

Is there any chance that my doing so could've somehow caused the deletion of my Restore points prior to 6-4?

Could the Blue Screen crash (it caused an immediate "Windows will shut down your computer now" msge) have been responsible for deleting the Restore points?

If so, why did it not delete the 6-4 to 6-6 Restore points when the same crash with the same error msge occurred today?

I've been working on a number of system checks on my computer, and may need those Restore points in the future - still tweaking the system - so it's very disturbing to find only 3 days of Restore points on there, and 2 weeks worth have mysteriously vanished.

Any explanations/suggestions will be welcome.

 

[lasmar]

Hello!

My system is eating up most of my free space. I have now only a few kb left. I've tried to solve the problem with the vssadmin, but for some reason, it doesn't work. I get the following error messages:

- for vssadmin List ShadowStorage:

"No items found that satisfy the query"

- for vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSiz=2.0GB:

"The specified volume shadow copy storage association was not found."

The status of "Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider" and "Volume Shadow Copy" are set to started and manual, and the System Restore is on.

How can I solve these?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Brink]

Hello Lasmar, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Do you have System Restore turned on for the C: drive?

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

 

[lasmar]

Hello Lasmar, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Do you have System Restore turned on for the C: drive?

I've just deleted some files in order to gain some space available and then create a restore point. I ran vssadmin again and this time it worked. But the problem still presists: the system is eating up a lot of free space. What else can I do to solve the problem?