losing older system restore points

[siriusbliss]

I have my system set to automatically restore, but over the past few
weeks I have seen earlier restore points disappear.

How can I set the restore points to keep restoring? What could be
resetting it?

Thanks,

Greg

WinXP Pro SP1+ (not SP2).

 

[John Barnett MVP]

By default system restore allocates 12% of your disk drive for restore point
backups. Once this allocation has been reached older system restore points
are deleted to make room for new ones. This is perfectly normal. System
restore points are very large files, so your disk allocation can quickly be
reached.

 

[siriusbliss]

so is it advisable to delete the older files under the Windows folder
and/or getting rid of all the various Windows updates that I have going
back YEARS now?

Thanks,

Greg

*****

 

[Evadne Cake]

so is it advisable to delete the older files under the Windows folder
and/or getting rid of all the various Windows updates that I have going
back YEARS now?

Thanks,

Greg

*****

Nope. In addition to what John has said, restore points are also deleted
every 90 days. This is a system setting that *cannot* (TTBOMK) be changed.
Besides, restoring to a year-old point (if such a thing existed) would be
extremely ill-advised considering all the changes made to the system in that
time.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Greg,

How much disk space is System Restore using to hold restore points?
Right click on My Computer and select Properties. On the System Restore tab click on the
drive that Windows is installed on and click Settings.

On the same System Restore tab, are there any other drives being monitored by System
Restore?

Here are some tips on adjusting disk space used and keeping System Restore Healthy.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

Description of System Restore
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/description.html

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Evadne,

Actually the restore point life interval can be adjusted via the registry be editing the
following
Value: RPLifeInterval at the following key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore

There is also script to automate the process on the following page.
XPSystemRestoreLife.vbs
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/srscripts.html

I would not recommend changing this value, but rather adjust the amount of disk space SR
uses to hold the restore points. Rolling the system back more than a week or so can cause
more problems than it fixes.

Here are my recommendations on adjusting disk space.
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

 

[siriusbliss]

I have it cranked up to 4.577MB, which is the maximum setting on my
system - and I've never changed it.

I only see the C-drive listed.

Like I said, this is only a relatively recent occurance with the restore
points disappearing. I only need to, on rare occasion, go back to an
earlier setting - the most I think I've done is 3 days.

Thanks again for all the tips.

Greg

******

 

[siriusbliss]

thanks Bert. This is a big help.

Greg

*****