Manual Delete Restore Points

Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in Vista
Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access Denied pop
up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that Vista does not
like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C drive to the
administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up all them temp
files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep more than 5
restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there was 34GB of
restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to delete all but the
latest backup, but I want to manually control the amount of restores in
there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?

Thanks in advance.

One cannot delete individual restore points. This is by design.


"Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in Vista
> Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access Denied pop
> up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that Vista does not
> like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C drive to the
> administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up all them temp
> files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep more than 5
> restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there was 34GB of
> restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to delete all but the
> latest backup, but I want to manually control the amount of restores in
> there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>
> Thanks in advance.

Carey Frisch [MVP] wrote:
> One cannot delete individual restore points. This is by design.
>
>
> "Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in
>> Vista Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access
>> Denied pop up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that
>> Vista does not like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire
>> C drive to the administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean
>> up all them temp files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to
>> keep more than 5 restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today
>> there was 34GB of restores in there. I used the System Restore applet
>> to delete all but the latest backup, but I want to manually control
>> the amount of restores in there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>
The way I would do this is to turn off system restore. Restart. Shut
down the computer for about an hour, including removing power to the
box. The start back up from scratch. Re-engage sys-restore after you do
a disk cleanup. Then make an initial restore point from where you are
at. Hopefully there won't be anything to go wrong during the process.

--
Lester Stiefel
In Romans 1 there are qualities of Unregenerate man listed which
describe him in the last days.
Is your quality found on this list??

Why shut the computer down for an hour? All you have to do is turn off
system restore, reboot, then turn system restore back on. The reboot handles
it all.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User


"Lester Stiefel" <les7954@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:OWZlOR2bHHA.2316@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
> Carey Frisch [MVP] wrote:
>> One cannot delete individual restore points. This is by design.
>>
>>
>> "Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in
>>> Vista Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access
>>> Denied pop up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that
>>> Vista does not like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C
>>> drive to the administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up
>>> all them temp files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep
>>> more than 5 restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there
>>> was 34GB of restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to
>>> delete all but the latest backup, but I want to manually control the
>>> amount of restores in there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
> The way I would do this is to turn off system restore. Restart. Shut down
> the computer for about an hour, including removing power to the box. The
> start back up from scratch. Re-engage sys-restore after you do a disk
> cleanup. Then make an initial restore point from where you are at.
> Hopefully there won't be anything to go wrong during the process.
>
> --
> Lester Stiefel
> In Romans 1 there are qualities of Unregenerate man listed which describe
> him in the last days.
> Is your quality found on this list??

You cannot delete individual restore points. The reason is that each restore
point depends on the other restore points to function properly. The best
option is what you already did, which is to delete all but the most recent
restore point.

You should not change the permissions, especially for the system drive.

You can delete all types of temporary files by using the Disk Cleanup tool.
Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup.

It sounds like your maximum size for System Restore is way too large. Not
sure how this happened, but it should be set to a maximum of about 10GB. You
can check the amount of disk space allocated for shadow storage with the
command prompt. As the maximum allocated size is approached, older restore
points will be automatically deleted.

Go to Start and type cmd in the Program, right click the cmd item and
select "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompts.

When the command window opens, type the following.

vssadmin list shadowstorage
Press ENTER.

The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system. The following
command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for the shadow
storage to 10GB.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10.0GB
Press ENTER.

(type the command as shown, including the spaces)
You should see a message that the command succeeded.

You can adjust the final value in the command to suit yourself. (ie: change
10.0GB to 5GB)

This command assumes that your system drive is C:

Print this message.
--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in Vista
> Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access Denied pop
> up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that Vista does not
> like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C drive to the
> administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up all them temp
> files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep more than 5
> restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there was 34GB of
> restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to delete all but the
> latest backup, but I want to manually control the amount of restores in
> there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>
> Thanks in advance.

Thanks for all of the replies. I will use Ronnie's suggestion and limit it
to 10GB


"Ronnie Vernon MVP" <rv@invalid.org> wrote in message
news:FAF22ABB-AC55-40D1-8CE4-A0F8EA3322EB@microsoft.com...
> You cannot delete individual restore points. The reason is that each
> restore point depends on the other restore points to function properly.
> The best option is what you already did, which is to delete all but the
> most recent restore point.
>
> You should not change the permissions, especially for the system drive.
>
> You can delete all types of temporary files by using the Disk Cleanup
> tool. Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup.
>
> It sounds like your maximum size for System Restore is way too large. Not
> sure how this happened, but it should be set to a maximum of about 10GB.
> You can check the amount of disk space allocated for shadow storage with
> the command prompt. As the maximum allocated size is approached, older
> restore points will be automatically deleted.
>
> Go to Start and type cmd in the Program, right click the cmd item and
> select "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompts.
>
> When the command window opens, type the following.
>
> vssadmin list shadowstorage
> Press ENTER.
>
> The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
> allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system. The following
> command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for the shadow
> storage to 10GB.
>
> vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10.0GB
> Press ENTER.
>
> (type the command as shown, including the spaces)
> You should see a message that the command succeeded.
>
> You can adjust the final value in the command to suit yourself. (ie:
> change 10.0GB to 5GB)
>
> This command assumes that your system drive is C:
>
> Print this message.
> --
>
> Ronnie Vernon
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
>
> "Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in
>> Vista Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access
>> Denied pop up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that
>> Vista does not like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C
>> drive to the administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up
>> all them temp files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep
>> more than 5 restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there
>> was 34GB of restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to
>> delete all but the latest backup, but I want to manually control the
>> amount of restores in there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>

Glad this helped. Enjoy.

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"disp350" <disp350@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:uPu6%23HIcHHA.4684@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> Thanks for all of the replies. I will use Ronnie's suggestion and limit
> it to 10GB
>
>
> "Ronnie Vernon MVP" <rv@invalid.org> wrote in message
> news:FAF22ABB-AC55-40D1-8CE4-A0F8EA3322EB@microsoft.com...
>> You cannot delete individual restore points. The reason is that each
>> restore point depends on the other restore points to function properly.
>> The best option is what you already did, which is to delete all but the
>> most recent restore point.
>>
>> You should not change the permissions, especially for the system drive.
>>
>> You can delete all types of temporary files by using the Disk Cleanup
>> tool. Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup.
>>
>> It sounds like your maximum size for System Restore is way too large. Not
>> sure how this happened, but it should be set to a maximum of about 10GB.
>> You can check the amount of disk space allocated for shadow storage with
>> the command prompt. As the maximum allocated size is approached, older
>> restore points will be automatically deleted.
>>
>> Go to Start and type cmd in the Program, right click the cmd item and
>> select "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompts.
>>
>> When the command window opens, type the following.
>>
>> vssadmin list shadowstorage
>> Press ENTER.
>>
>> The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
>> allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system. The following
>> command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for the shadow
>> storage to 10GB.
>>
>> vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10.0GB
>> Press ENTER.
>>
>> (type the command as shown, including the spaces)
>> You should see a message that the command succeeded.
>>
>> You can adjust the final value in the command to suit yourself. (ie:
>> change 10.0GB to 5GB)
>>
>> This command assumes that your system drive is C:
>>
>> Print this message.
>> --
>>
>> Ronnie Vernon
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Shell/User
>>
>>
>> "Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in
>>> Vista Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access
>>> Denied pop up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that
>>> Vista does not like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C
>>> drive to the administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up
>>> all them temp files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep
>>> more than 5 restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there
>>> was 34GB of restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to
>>> delete all but the latest backup, but I want to manually control the
>>> amount of restores in there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>
>

By default in XP, it was set at 10% of the capacity of the hard drive. In XP,
you could bring that down to a minimum of 400MBs. To have a look at it, click
on Start, right-click Computer, left-click Properties. then, have a look at
restore

"Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote:

> You cannot delete individual restore points. The reason is that each restore
> point depends on the other restore points to function properly. The best
> option is what you already did, which is to delete all but the most recent
> restore point.
>
> You should not change the permissions, especially for the system drive.
>
> You can delete all types of temporary files by using the Disk Cleanup tool.
> Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup.
>
> It sounds like your maximum size for System Restore is way too large. Not
> sure how this happened, but it should be set to a maximum of about 10GB. You
> can check the amount of disk space allocated for shadow storage with the
> command prompt. As the maximum allocated size is approached, older restore
> points will be automatically deleted.
>
> Go to Start and type cmd in the Program, right click the cmd item and
> select "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompts.
>
> When the command window opens, type the following.
>
> vssadmin list shadowstorage
> Press ENTER.
>
> The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
> allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system. The following
> command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for the shadow
> storage to 10GB.
>
> vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10.0GB
> Press ENTER.
>
> (type the command as shown, including the spaces)
> You should see a message that the command succeeded.
>
> You can adjust the final value in the command to suit yourself. (ie: change
> 10.0GB to 5GB)
>
> This command assumes that your system drive is C:
>
> Print this message.
> --
>
> Ronnie Vernon
> Microsoft MVP
> Windows Shell/User
>
>
> "Disp350" <glickkman@nospam.comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:uHCn5V1bHHA.596@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> > Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in Vista
> > Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access Denied pop
> > up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that Vista does not
> > like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C drive to the
> > administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up all them temp
> > files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep more than 5
> > restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there was 34GB of
> > restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to delete all but the
> > latest backup, but I want to manually control the amount of restores in
> > there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
>
>

It's my understanding that setting the shadow storage size is temporary. The
next time a restore point is created the storage size is set back to default.

To check the storage size use the following command from the command prompt.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

How to adjust disk space in Windows Vista:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/diskspacev.html


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


disp350 wrote:
> Thanks for all of the replies. I will use Ronnie's suggestion and limit it
> to 10GB
>
>
> "Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote
>> You cannot delete individual restore points. The reason is that each
>> restore point depends on the other restore points to function properly.
>> The best option is what you already did, which is to delete all but the
>> most recent restore point.
>>
>> You should not change the permissions, especially for the system drive.
>>
>> You can delete all types of temporary files by using the Disk Cleanup
>> tool. Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup.
>>
>> It sounds like your maximum size for System Restore is way too large. Not
>> sure how this happened, but it should be set to a maximum of about 10GB.
>> You can check the amount of disk space allocated for shadow storage with
>> the command prompt. As the maximum allocated size is approached, older
>> restore points will be automatically deleted.
>>
>> Go to Start and type cmd in the Program, right click the cmd item and
>> select "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompts.
>>
>> When the command window opens, type the following.
>>
>> vssadmin list shadowstorage
>> Press ENTER.
>>
>> The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
>> allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system. The following
>> command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for the shadow
>> storage to 10GB.
>>
>> vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10.0GB
>> Press ENTER.
>>
>> (type the command as shown, including the spaces)
>> You should see a message that the command succeeded.
>>
>> You can adjust the final value in the command to suit yourself. (ie:
>> change 10.0GB to 5GB)
>>
>> This command assumes that your system drive is C:
>>
>> Print this message.
>> --
>>
>> Ronnie Vernon
>> Microsoft MVP
>> Windows Shell/User
>>
>>
>> "Disp350" wrote
>>> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in
>>> Vista Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access
>>> Denied pop up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that
>>> Vista does not like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C
>>> drive to the administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up
>>> all them temp files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to keep
>>> more than 5 restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today there
>>> was 34GB of restores in there. I used the System Restore applet to
>>> delete all but the latest backup, but I want to manually control the
>>> amount of restores in there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.

Hi Bert

The only values I have seen changed when retore points are created or
deleted are the Used/Allocated space.

The Maximum space always seems to stick.

Here is the result of some testing I did a while back. This is on Vista
Ultimate with a 300GB SATA drive. Initially, the maximum size was set at
40GB. I then reset the max size to 10GB and performed these tests over a
period of 2 days.
-----------------------
Before testing with 9 restore points available.

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 9.452 GB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 9.724 GB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 10 GB

-------------
After using Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last restore point.

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 610.781 MB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 900 MB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 10 GB

-------------
After one reboot.

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 629.625 MB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 900 MB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 10 GB

-------------
After creating one additional restore point (2 total).

Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 651.328 MB
Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 934.266 MB
Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 10 GB

--

Ronnie Vernon
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User


"Bert Kinney" <bert@NSmvps.org> wrote in message
news:eITRKfOcHHA.3632@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> It's my understanding that setting the shadow storage size is temporary.
> The next time a restore point is created the storage size is set back to
> default.
>
> To check the storage size use the following command from the command
> prompt.
>
> vssadmin list shadowstorage
>
> How to adjust disk space in Windows Vista:
> http://bertk.mvps.org/html/diskspacev.html
>
>
> Regards,
> Bert Kinney MS-MVP Shell/User
> http://bertk.mvps.org
> Member: http://dts-l.org
>
>
> disp350 wrote:
>> Thanks for all of the replies. I will use Ronnie's suggestion and limit
>> it to 10GB
>>
>>
>> "Ronnie Vernon MVP" wrote
>>> You cannot delete individual restore points. The reason is that each
>>> restore point depends on the other restore points to function properly.
>>> The best option is what you already did, which is to delete all but the
>>> most recent restore point.
>>>
>>> You should not change the permissions, especially for the system drive.
>>>
>>> You can delete all types of temporary files by using the Disk Cleanup
>>> tool. Start/All Programs/Accessories/Disk Cleanup.
>>>
>>> It sounds like your maximum size for System Restore is way too large.
>>> Not sure how this happened, but it should be set to a maximum of about
>>> 10GB. You can check the amount of disk space allocated for shadow
>>> storage with the command prompt. As the maximum allocated size is
>>> approached, older restore points will be automatically deleted.
>>>
>>> Go to Start and type cmd in the Program, right click the cmd item
>>> and select "Run as administrator" option. OK the UAC prompts.
>>>
>>> When the command window opens, type the following.
>>>
>>> vssadmin list shadowstorage
>>> Press ENTER.
>>>
>>> The result will show the current amount of Used, Allocated, and Maximum
>>> allowed size for the Volume Shadow Storage on your system. The following
>>> command will set the maximum amount of disk space used for the shadow
>>> storage to 10GB.
>>>
>>> vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=10.0GB
>>> Press ENTER.
>>>
>>> (type the command as shown, including the spaces)
>>> You should see a message that the command succeeded.
>>>
>>> You can adjust the final value in the command to suit yourself. (ie:
>>> change 10.0GB to 5GB)
>>>
>>> This command assumes that your system drive is C:
>>>
>>> Print this message.
>>> --
>>>
>>> Ronnie Vernon
>>> Microsoft MVP
>>> Windows Shell/User
>>>
>>>
>>> "Disp350" wrote
>>>> Trying to figure out how to manually remove system restore points in
>>>> Vista Home Basic. Whenever I try to delete them, I receive an Access
>>>> Denied pop up. In order to access the folder (and other folders that
>>>> Vista does not like you messing with), I gave ownership to the entire C
>>>> drive to the administrators group. This allowed me to go in a clean up
>>>> all them temp files that never seem to get deleted. I don't like to
>>>> keep more than 5 restore points since it gobbles up disk space. Today
>>>> there was 34GB of restores in there. I used the System Restore applet
>>>> to delete all but the latest backup, but I want to manually control the
>>>> amount of restores in there. Can someone advisee of a workaround?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance.