Removing Old System Restore Points

[John]

Out of curiosity, are there any advantages to removing old system restore
points, other than recovering hard disk space?

I am running Win XP MCE 2005 SP3.

Thanks...

 

[Jonathan Harker]

Out of curiosity, are there any advantages to removing old system restore
points, other than recovering hard disk space?

None that I can think of.

 

[JS]

No advantage to removing old restore points. But any restore point
more than about a week old is probably worthless. If you have already
installed XP Service Pack 3 (which does create a large restore point)
more than say two or three weeks ago then that large restore point
is most likely no longer available so you might want to consider
reducing the amount of disk space allowed for System Restore points.
The default is set to 12% of your drive or the size of your Windows
partition if you have more than one partition. If you do have more
than one partition on the same drive then turn off creating restore
points on the non Windows partition or restore points on a second
hard drive as they are of no value.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Out of curiosity, are there any advantages to removing old system restore
points, other than recovering hard disk space?

I am running Win XP MCE 2005 SP3.

Thanks...

If you are doing it right, you should only ever need the last restore point.
You can manually create one, then go to Disk Cleanup and remove all but the
last.. gains a little space too..

 

[Bill in Co.]

None that I can think of.

And each restore point is (typically) on the order of 60 MB, at least over
here. (If you installed some LARGE application (like SP3), it could be
significantly larger).

 

[gigobert]

The advantage of being able to remove individually a system restore point
( srp ) is obvious. You can select them to keep just the points you trust
and remove all points made during doubtful installation etc
I'm working for over 2 years with a free, originally french but I think now
also available in english, program ( only 300 kb ) that allows a.o. each srp
to be removed individually. Other features a.o. create new srp's ,deactivate
systemrestore, configure system restore etc.
Name: RestorWin version 1.3B2. Beware: only for xp
nb. the server of the maker is down for quit some time but certainly you
will find this elsewhere.
success

 

[Jon]

"If you are doing it right, you should only ever need the last restore point."

Sometimes PC problems that have been introduced aren't that obvious, and you might not spot them
immediately. So, isn't it useful to have a few restore points, so you can go back further to where
the problem was introduced?

Jon

Out of curiosity, are there any advantages to removing old system restore
points, other than recovering hard disk space?

I am running Win XP MCE 2005 SP3.

Thanks...

If you are doing it right, you should only ever need the last restore point.
You can manually create one, then go to Disk Cleanup and remove all but the
last.. gains a little space too..

 

[Jon]

"any restore point more than about a week old is probably worthless."

Why are they probably worthless?

No advantage to removing old restore points. But any restore point
more than about a week old is probably worthless. If you have already
installed XP Service Pack 3 (which does create a large restore point)
more than say two or three weeks ago then that large restore point
is most likely no longer available so you might want to consider
reducing the amount of disk space allowed for System Restore points.
The default is set to 12% of your drive or the size of your Windows
partition if you have more than one partition. If you do have more
than one partition on the same drive then turn off creating restore
points on the non Windows partition or restore points on a second
hard drive as they are of no value.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

"If you are doing it right, you should only ever need the last restore
point."

Sometimes PC problems that have been introduced aren't that obvious, and
you might not spot them
immediately. So, isn't it useful to have a few restore points, so you can
go back further to where
the problem was introduced?

Jon




If you are doing it right, you should only ever need the last restore
point.
You can manually create one, then go to Disk Cleanup and remove all but
the
last.. gains a little space too..

Using System Restore to go too far back can cause problems with other
changes and installations which may have occurred.

 

[Unknown]

While what you say is true, Jon has a very valid point. Other changes and
installations can be remade.
I once had a situation where I had to go back two months. I prefer to have
as many restore point my system will handle.

 

[Twayne]

"any restore point more than about a week old is probably worthless."

Why are they probably worthless?

No advantage to removing old restore points. But any restore point
more than about a week old is probably worthless.

I don't know about worthless; in the event malware, corruption or plain
old errors get wrapped up in a restore point it could be pretty handy to
be able to go back to older points even if some apps may need to be
restored because they were installed after the date of the restore
point. I'd rather be able to go back a week or more than to be have to
re-image or rebuild the drive.

If you have already

installed XP Service Pack 3 (which does create a large restore point)
more than say two or three weeks ago then that large restore point
is most likely no longer available so you might want to consider
reducing the amount of disk space allowed for System Restore points.
The default is set to 12% of your drive or the size of your Windows
partition if you have more than one partition. If you do have more
than one partition on the same drive then turn off creating restore
points on the non Windows partition or restore points on a second
hard drive as they are of no value.

The above however is very good information, not just for SP3. If you do
turn it off on non-system drives, windows will complain during a restore
that drives x, y and z weren't included in the restore points and so
won't be restored, but ... big deal - there is nothing on them as a rule
that could be restored anyway. OTOH it doesn't really waste any space on
other drives since the allocation isn't used unless there is something
to put in it. Turning off restore points on a non system drive doesn't
result in any space increase in other words.

One can and probably should however, set the 12% allocation to a lower
number. This is an assumption and not something I'm sure of, but: If
you decide to do that, be sure to check periodically to be certain there
is room there to still hold at least two restore points, or you could
find yourself with no restore points due to lack of room for them. I
don't know for sure that an error message would be generated if that
happened.

HTH,

Twayne

 

[JS]

I think Mike Hall answered your question.

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

While what you say is true, Jon has a very valid point. Other changes and
installations can be remade.
I once had a situation where I had to go back two months. I prefer to have
as many restore point my system will handle.

Using System Restore to go too far back can cause problems with other
changes and installations which may have occurred.

The only situation where one would have to go back that far is if the user
had screwed so many things up without addressing each screw up as it
happened and was putting in a last ditch effort to save the system rather
than re-install..

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

That is not a true statement. It is entirely possible to screw up one
small item and then not use the item for a month.
Then when finally using the item it's broke.

The only situation where one would have to go back that far is if the
user had screwed so many things up without addressing each screw up as it
happened and was putting in a last ditch effort to save the system rather
than re-install..

Going back too far will cause other stuff to crap out. You would have more
problems than you started out with..

 

[Unknown]

Also not true. It depends on how corrupt the computer is. Going back 'too
far' will not necessarily screw up other things.

 

[Bill in Co.]

No, but the probability of potential problems generally increases the
further back you go. However, it's often a moot point if you only have a
few of them to fall back on (dating back only a week or two), as is often
the case. Ones that are a few months old would be likely much more prone
to problems (like being unable to complete the system restore operation
successfully)

 

[Unknown]

I agree 100%. We are talking probabilities however. Going back two months
for example does NOT guarantee failure.
I once had to go back 2 months after letting a relative use my computer.
Earlier restore points were unsuccessful.
Of course I had to reinstall some updates and other items but it beat
setting it back to purchase status.

 

[Jake Marley]

I agree 100%. We are talking probabilities however. Going back two months
for example does NOT guarantee failure.

But when you talk about registry cleaners, you are quick to talk
probabilities.

Hmm...

 

[Unknown]

We are talking probabilities in both cases. With registry cleaners, there is
a probability you can cause damage.
Why risk it?
With system restore the probability is that old restore points may not be
good. But what if it is?
I.E. If the system cannot be restored you will get a message stating that.
If you get a successful restore you may have to reinstall some items however
your system should be capable of running..

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

We are talking probabilities in both cases. With registry cleaners, there
is a probability you can cause damage.
Why risk it?
With system restore the probability is that old restore points may not be
good. But what if it is?
I.E. If the system cannot be restored you will get a message stating
that. If you get a successful restore you may have to reinstall some items
however your system should be capable of running..

Yeah, what if it isn't..