Resizing and relocating system restore (Vista):

[Guest]

I have three questions:

1) It seems that I can use system restore for my OS (C drive and my
RECOVERY (D drive. My OS drive saves restore points by default. If I turn
this off and turn on system restore for my RECOVERY drive instead, will it
still cover everything in my PC or will it just cover the D: drive?

2) I want to re-size the max space for system restore. My PC has 160 GB of
storage and saves 20 GB for system restore. What do you suggest will be a
good re-size value? How many restore points would say 1 GB cover? How much GB
will say 3 restore points take up?

3) Vista creates restore points automatically. How can I prevent it from
doing that w/o deleting restore points? I want to be the one who'll decide
when my PC should create a restore point.

Please help me out and answer my questions. Thank you.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi JP,

I have three questions:

Ok. But I think it's more than three....

1) It seems that I can use system restore for my OS (C drive and my
RECOVERY (D drive. My OS drive saves restore points by default. If I
turn
this off and turn on system restore for my RECOVERY drive instead, will it
still cover everything in my PC or will it just cover the D: drive?

There is no need for SR to monitor the system's recovery partition.
"Everything" for the user is on the system drive. D: is there in case you
need to restore the system to it's preinstalled, factory condition.

2) I want to re-size the max space for system restore. My PC has 160 GB of
storage and saves 20 GB for system restore. What do you suggest will be a
good re-size value?

The default is 12% of the drive space. You can alter the amount using the
vssadmin command as described here:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/decrease_storage_space-allocated_to_system_restore.htm

I would generally "suggest" that you not alter the size without sufficient
reason to.

How many restore points would say 1 GB cover?

That is a variable that would depend on your individual user habits.

How much GB will say 3 restore points take up?

Same answer as the last question. It varies by user depending on how a
system is used, how many programs are installed, and how much data is stored
on the system. There is no standard size per restore point.

3) Vista creates restore points automatically. How can I prevent it from
doing that w/o deleting restore points? I want to be the one who'll decide
when my PC should create a restore point.

Change the parameters of it in task scheduler, or disable it completely. I
don't recommend it though, as you may not be able to create a point when you
most critically need one. Plus, there is the issue of shadow copies of data
files.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi JP,

Also keep in mind that the Shadow Copy Storage Area used to hold restore
point is also used to store Previous Versions.

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