System Restore won't stay OFF on my backup disk

[David Arnstein]

I use an external disk drive as a backup medium. It is simply an ordinary
EIDE disk drive mounted in an Adaptec USB2 housing.

For this disk drive, I use Windows Control Panel to turn off Widnows
System Restore. But somehow, this setting gets reversed. I don't know
when. The fact that I frequently disconnect and reconnect the drive may
have something to do with it. Yes, I always use the Windows GUI to
properly shut down the device before powering it off.

This causes me no end of trouble. Windows System Restore uses 12% of
disk capacity by default. My backup software fails because the disk is
too full to write more data onto it. The disk is too full because Windows
System Restore has written a load of crap onto it.

I have also tried to set the amount of space used to a small number,
like 2%. But once again, this setting gets reverted to the default 12%,
and I don't know when it happens.

I have not tried disabling Windows System Restore for all disks but I
might have to.

Ideally, I would like to understand why this setting is reverting to
default and fix the problem. If this is not possible, I would like to
find a "command line" program that could turn off System Restore for a
specific disk. I could then run this program from my backup software
automatically, before it starts its job.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi David,

By design, System Restore automatically monitors external drives, and
some flash drives.

A possible work around is to assign a permanent drive letter to the
external drive via Disk Management. To access Disk Management, go to
Start - Run and type diskmgmt.msc then press enter.

Right-click a partition, logical drive, or volume, and then click Change
Drive Letter and Paths.

Do one of the following:

1. To assign a drive letter, click Add, click the drive letter you want
to use, and then click OK.

2. To modify a drive letter, click it, click Change, click the drive
letter you want to use, and then click OK.

Reboot the system. Open System Restore and stop monitoring that drive.
This should keep System Restore from monitoring that drive, but not
always.