System Restore Points - How Much Space Is Enough ?

[Al Dykes]

In ControlPanel/System/..../SystemRestore/Stttings there is a slider
that controls the amount of space that System Restore can use. There
is now advice as to how much I need, and what happens if it is set too
low.

Right now mine is set to 536MB (out of a 7GB partition). That's a big
slice.

I assume that the system state snapshots are in the System Volume
Information folder, and some time or other I saw the contents of this
folder many small (maybe 4MB) files. Were these the restore points ?

What do I loose if I turn off restore points on a second partition ?

 

[Nick]

bit tight....

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Al,

I use 200MB on my 6GB system partition. It allows for around 5 restore
points (around 70% of the drive is in use). Too little allows for fewer
restore points. The max you can use is 12%.

If you dig into the \svi\_restore folder, you will find the restore points
listed in here. You should not tinker with them, as it can corrupt the index
if you remove or change things (which makes the SR function useless,
necessitating a restart of the service and flushing existing points).

I do not use SR on any of the data partitions, but rather just do periodic
backups of the data stored on them. If the partition becomes corrupt, SR is
not going to help.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers aka "Nutcase" MS-MVP - Win9x
Windows isn't rocket science! That's my other hobby!

Associate Expert - WinXP - Expert Zone

 

[Alex Nichol]

In ControlPanel/System/..../SystemRestore/Stttings there is a slider
that controls the amount of space that System Restore can use. There
is now advice as to how much I need, and what happens if it is set too
low.

Right now mine is set to 536MB (out of a 7GB partition). That's a big
slice.

I assume that the system state snapshots are in the System Volume
Information folder, and some time or other I saw the contents of this
folder many small (maybe 4MB) files. Were these the restore points ?

Each point is a folder RPnnn in that SVI in a \restore. . . .
subfolder. There are also a few modest size log files. Initially the
RP folders contain individual files; these then get compressed into a
..cab in due course. The minimum setting for SR is 200 MB, you could
probably get satisfactory results at 300, I have used 400. That will
keep a week or so of points, which is enough for most purposes - it is
not intended to provide a long term retreat into the past