Space allotted to System Restore

[sharonf]

How much space should be allotted to system restore? PC Pitstop keeps
telling me that I have too much space allotted to System Restore. I
reduced it from 12% all the way down to 3% (3739 MB) and they are still
telling me that is too much. I don't want to reduce it too far and not
have a reasonable amount of restore points.

Sharon

 

[Gerry]

Sharon

How large is your hard disk or if the drive has been partitioned the
system
partition?

I am not sure I would use PC Pitstop but approaching 4 gb is a lot. A
single
gb should be enough to retain a number of restore points.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi Sharon,

I am not familiar with Pitstop, but in 3739 mb's is to much. A good number
to start with is 1 GB, or 1000 MB's. In most cased, restoring a system back
more than a week or two can cause more problems then it solves. All
monitored files of applications installed after the the restore point being
used will be gone, causing the application not to function. All registry
setting made after the restore point being used will be gone also. For best
results System Restore should be used immediately after a problem is recognized.

Here are some tips on adjusting disk space usage, an keeping System Restore
healthy:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

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

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

How much space should be allotted to system restore? PC Pitstop keeps
telling me that I have too much space allotted to System Restore. I
reduced it from 12% all the way down to 3% (3739 MB) and they are still
telling me that is too much. I don't want to reduce it too far and not
have a reasonable amount of restore points.

Using any percentage of the drive is a poor way to calculate an
appropriate size. If you try to use System Restore to go back more
than a week or two, you will almost certainly create all kinds of
out-of-synch conditions, and make the situation *worse*, not better.
A week or two is about the longest time you can effectively go back.

For that reason, the default 12% of the drive that Windows uses for SR
is way too much for almost everyone, and should be lowered to give you
at most two weeks. For most people, that's probably somewhere in the
1-2GB range, but you can check to see how many restore points you have
after making any change.

By the way, although they may be right in this case, I would *not*
rely on any tuneup program like PC Pitstop. These things are generally
more likely to create problems than to solve them.

 

[Poprivet]

How much space should be allotted to system restore? PC Pitstop keeps
telling me that I have too much space allotted to System Restore. I
reduced it from 12% all the way down to 3% (3739 MB) and they are
still telling me that is too much. I don't want to reduce it too far
and not have a reasonable amount of restore points.

Sharon

On what drive letter?

If it's not your boot drive, you don't need any setting; turn them off.

 

[sharonf]

Hi Sharon,

I am not familiar with Pitstop, but in 3739 mb's is to much. A good
number to start with is 1 GB, or 1000 MB's. In most cased, restoring a
system back more than a week or two can cause more problems then it
solves. All monitored files of applications installed after the the
restore point being used will be gone, causing the application not to
function. All registry setting made after the restore point being used
will be gone also. For best results System Restore should be used
immediately after a problem is recognized.

Here are some tips on adjusting disk space usage, an keeping System
Restore healthy:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/healthy.html

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

Thanks for the advice. I had no idea that the default setting was too
high until I took the PC Pitstop test and started looking into it.

 

[sharonf]

Using any percentage of the drive is a poor way to calculate an
appropriate size. If you try to use System Restore to go back more
than a week or two, you will almost certainly create all kinds of
out-of-synch conditions, and make the situation *worse*, not better.
A week or two is about the longest time you can effectively go back.

For that reason, the default 12% of the drive that Windows uses for SR
is way too much for almost everyone, and should be lowered to give you
at most two weeks. For most people, that's probably somewhere in the
1-2GB range, but you can check to see how many restore points you have
after making any change.

By the way, although they may be right in this case, I would *not*
rely on any tuneup program like PC Pitstop. These things are generally
more likely to create problems than to solve them.

I am learning not to rely too much on the PC Pitstop tests although they
have alerted me to a couple of things that needed to be changed. I have
discovered that they sometimes report incorrect information though, so I
always try to research things before I make changes.

Sharon

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I am learning not to rely too much on the PC Pitstop tests although they
have alerted me to a couple of things that needed to be changed. I have
discovered that they sometimes report incorrect information though, so I
always try to research things before I make changes.

Good. Personally, I wouldn't use a program like it at all, but at
least you are using it prudently.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Thanks for the advice. I had no idea that the default setting was too
high until I took the PC Pitstop test and started looking into it.

You're welcome Sharon.

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

 

[Bert Kinney]

I am learning not to rely too much on the PC Pitstop tests although they
have alerted me to a couple of things that needed to be changed. I have
discovered that they sometimes report incorrect information though, so I
always try to research things before I make changes.

Sharon

Hi Sharon,

If you're not absolutely sure about advise from Pitstop, just ask here.

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