Kitz ADSL Broadband Information
adsl spacer  
Support this site
Home Broadband ISPs Tech Routers Wiki Forum
 
     
   Compare ISP   Rate your ISP
   Glossary   Glossary
 
Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

News:

Author Topic: How to reduce Vistas' System Restore usage  (Read 14858 times)

oldfogy

  • Helpful
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 3568
  • If it ain't broke....... I'll soon fix it.
How to reduce Vistas' System Restore usage
« on: December 30, 2007, 05:29:49 PM »

How to reduce the amount of space used by Vistas’ System Restore Points.

Because Vista will not allow you to delete all previous system restore points other than the last one created (as with XP), this can only be done by turning off System Restore then turning it back on again which will then remove ALL restore points.

Vistas' default is set to use 15% of a hard-drive’s space for it’s Restore Points.
So if you have a 180GB drive that means 27GB is used for this purpose - far, far too much in my opinion, I believe it is totally unnecessary to have 20 to 30+ restore points that Vista will create, but more like six or seven restore points should suffice.

Unlike Windows XP, Vista does not have a slider control to change the amount of space allocated, but it can be done with a very easy registry change.

To reduce the amount of restore points to six or seven (or however many you chose) can only be achieved by trial and error with altering the value in the registry because the amount of restore points is determined by the amount of programs and data that is stored on the HDD/s.

To change this value, click Start, followed by:
“All Programs, Accessories and then Run”
Now in the Run box type regedit and click OK.

When the registry opens select and click:
" HKLM (HKEY LOCAL MACHINE) " in the left hand column, then,
" Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/System Restore "

Select and expand System Restore and click on:
" cfg " then, Right click on " Disc Percent " (on right of page) then click on Modify and make sure a spot is placed in the small circle next to Decimal. Now change the value in the Value Data Box from 15 to 5 (or whatever you chose) then click OK to close. Now close the registry.

In this example System Restore will now occupy only 9GB (5%) of your hard-drive space.

By monitoring over the next few days you will get to see how many restore points are now being created, so you can then decide if this is acceptable or not.
(Simply go to System Restore and select “Restore my Computer to an earlier date” and count how many restore points there are.

WARNING: Before carrying out any alterations to the registry make sure you have made a backup.
.
Logged

guest

  • Guest
Re: How to reduce Vistas' System Restore usage
« Reply #1 on: December 30, 2007, 05:32:53 PM »

Sorry but I couldn't resist :

"How to reduce the amount of space used by Vistas’ System Restore Points."

Ermm de-install it? :P
Logged

oldfogy

  • Helpful
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 3568
  • If it ain't broke....... I'll soon fix it.
Re: How to reduce Vistas' System Restore usage
« Reply #2 on: April 01, 2008, 01:33:49 AM »

Having just come across this article why people should not reduce the System Restore from 15% so I thought I would post it also.

Personally I found the "last two" paragraphs very interesting.

http://talkback.zdnet.com/5206-12354-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=33047
Logged

dave.m

  • Kitizen
  • ****
  • Posts: 1453
Re: How to reduce Vistas' System Restore usage
« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2008, 04:35:14 PM »

Phil,
This works with XP.
Jack Hackett discovered it from somewhere and when asked if it worked with Vista he said it would.
Have a read and try it. Let us know how you get on.

http://forums.vnunet.com/thread.jspa?threadID=111965

dave
Logged

oldfogy

  • Helpful
  • Kitizen
  • *
  • Posts: 3568
  • If it ain't broke....... I'll soon fix it.
Re: How to reduce Vistas' System Restore usage
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2008, 05:36:30 PM »

Thanks Dave.
Interesting, but during my "delving" somewhere within Task Schedulers restore "System" settings I also came across these time settings and it's also possible to change them there also.
But Jacks method is quicker.

However, what I discovered I believe, is this:
There are two (2) users on my PC!

Yes two (2), myself and someone called "SYSTEM" (must get a rent book for him)
So it is almost pointless changing my settings because the SYSTEM user account has it's own agenda running in the background whenever it want to.

This I discovered by accident early one morning at roughly 2am when the PC started to make a noise.
Most people are in bed at that time with their PC turned off, or is it off? because the power button on the start menu only puts it to sleep, it does not turn off the PC, therefore enabling the PC to run whatever and whenever it wants.

Like I said, most "normal" people (which excludes me) are asleep, but I was on my other PC at the time, which is how I got to notice this happening.

Both System Restore and De-frag are set to run on a daily basis during the early hours of the morning.
To test this I disabled both of these function on my account, but at the alloted times "SYSTEM" still ran them.

*******

To get back to your post. Have you taken a look at the other thread with regards to Vista losing ALL the restore points on a dual boot system?

So for Dual boot systems, it's almost irrelevant what we do.
By default the space is temporarily regained each and every time we re-boot into the XP operating system.

Therefore, backups and Drive Image backups are more important than ever before on Dual Boot systems.
Because, ALL of the System Restore Points are removed.
Not just all but the most recent. (You have NONE)
Logged
 

anything