How to Delete and Turn Off System Restore?

Hello All,

I'm hoping you would be kind enough to help me with my problem/question
regarding Windows Me and System Restore.

First, some basics. I have a very old PC that I am trying to limp along
with for another 9 months until I buy a new one at the end of the year.
Basic specs a

Pentium II processor at 266 mghz, upgraded to 256 MB of RAM (from 48 MB
original), only a 4 GB hard drive (original). PC had Windows 95 installed
on it out of the box but I've upgraded it to Windows ME. (Yeah, I know I
need to buy a new PC...heh heh!).

Again, I just want to get by with this PC for a little while longer but am
running out of hard disk space with only 200 MB free. This is after I have
uninstalled every possible application and file that I could. I need to
free up disk space to install two other needed programs but need to get at
least above 750 MB free.

I looked in the System Restore folder (C:\_Restore) and found a huge amount
of disk space taken up here as follows. In the Archive folder, 163 MB
taken. In the Temp folder, 650 MB taken. This total of 813 MB is far more
than the 18% of the hard drive that Windows ME is supposed to allocate for
System Restore files (should be about 480 MB).

Anyway, I've never used System Restore and I don't care about it, so I
certainly don't want it taking almost a quarter of my hard disk space and
giving me no useful benefit in return. I know that I will never use this
feature.

So my question is:

Can I somehow free up all this disk space currently occupied by files in the
C:\_Restore folder and then "Turn Off" System Restore so no future files are
accumulated in there? And is there a safe way to do this without risking
screwing up my computer?

Basically, I would like to be able to regain all or most of the disk space
currently being occupied by System Restore and then disable this feature so
no future files are accumulated, taking up precious space on my hard drive.

I would appreciate any feedback and thank you in advance for your help.

-- Bob

Rather than trying to totally disable system restore it would be much
better IMO to fix what is clearly broke, quite possibly as a result of at
sometime having installed malware sold by Symantec. System Restore
together with System File Protection is an integral part of Win Me and if
you don't want to have this part of the operating system it would probably
be in your interests to run Win 98SE.

To repair system restore.
This requires you to clear down the entire folder structure from DOS.

Delete the folder as follows:
a) Boot to DOS using a floppy. Do NOT choose "Minimal Boot" from the menu
when booting from a floppy but rather choose "Start computer with (or
without) CD-ROM support" otherwise the ATTRIB command will not be
available.
b) At the DOS A:\ prompt, type:

ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\_RESTORE
and then
REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST

c) Remove the floppy
d) Reboot your PC
e) Delete the folder C:\OLDREST
f) Check that an automatic system restore checkpoint was created.
g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder: System |
Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider to
your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more than adequate
for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to be available
although increasing this to perhaps 400MB for a few days during periods of
large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.

Finally you may want to give system restore the once over by carrying out
the following quick test.
a) Create a shortcut on your desktop to a file.
b) Create a manual checkpoint
c) Delete the shortcut
d) Restore you PC to the checkpoint you created.
Was the shortcut restored? Did you see any error messages?
--
Mike Maltby



Bob Anfinson wrote:

Hello All,

I'm hoping you would be kind enough to help me with my
problem/question regarding Windows Me and System Restore.

First, some basics. I have a very old PC that I am trying to limp
along with for another 9 months until I buy a new one at the end of
the year. Basic specs a

Pentium II processor at 266 mghz, upgraded to 256 MB of RAM (from 48
MB original), only a 4 GB hard drive (original). PC had Windows 95
installed on it out of the box but I've upgraded it to Windows ME.
(Yeah, I know I need to buy a new PC...heh heh!).

Again, I just want to get by with this PC for a little while longer
but am running out of hard disk space with only 200 MB free. This is
after I have uninstalled every possible application and file that I
could. I need to free up disk space to install two other needed
programs but need to get at least above 750 MB free.

I looked in the System Restore folder (C:\_Restore) and found a huge
amount of disk space taken up here as follows. In the Archive
folder, 163 MB taken. In the Temp folder, 650 MB taken. This total
of 813 MB is far more than the 18% of the hard drive that Windows ME
is supposed to allocate for System Restore files (should be about 480
MB).

Anyway, I've never used System Restore and I don't care about it, so I
certainly don't want it taking almost a quarter of my hard disk space
and giving me no useful benefit in return. I know that I will never
use this feature.

So my question is:

Can I somehow free up all this disk space currently occupied by files
in the C:\_Restore folder and then "Turn Off" System Restore so no
future files are accumulated in there? And is there a safe way to do
this without risking screwing up my computer?

Basically, I would like to be able to regain all or most of the disk
space currently being occupied by System Restore and then disable
this feature so no future files are accumulated, taking up precious
space on my hard drive.

I would appreciate any feedback and thank you in advance for your
help.

-- Bob

"Mike M" wrote:

Rather than trying to totally disable system restore it would be much
better IMO to fix what is clearly broke, quite possibly as a result of at
sometime having installed malware sold by Symantec.

Malware sold by Symantec? What exactly is this all about? To my knowledge,
I have never installed any Symantec product on this PC. I also have been
very diligent about updating and running regular scans with both anti-virus
and anti-spyware
software (NOT Symantec products).

g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder: System |
Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider to
your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more than adequate
for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to be available
although increasing this to perhaps 400MB for a few days during periods of
large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.

I adjusted the slider down from maximum (458 MB) to minimum (200 MB) but
that has not shown any increase to my hard disk free space as of yet, even
after a re-boot. Do I need to wait a while for this to take effect?

Will try the other stuff you recommended later when I have more time. Would
prefer to do the quick and easy stuff first to at least free up some space
right now. I do not have a floppy to boot from.

Thanks for your help, Mike!

Malware sold by Symantec? What exactly is this all about? To my
knowledge, I have never installed any Symantec product on this PC

If that's the case then you have nothing to worry about then. No Symantec
software runs properly on Win Me and often causes major problems including
breaking system restore. Other factors can also cause problems with
system restore but probably 80+% are due to the user having Symantec
products installed especially LiveUpdate.

I adjusted the slider down from maximum (458 MB) to minimum (200 MB)
but that has not shown any increase to my hard disk free space as of
yet, even after a re-boot. Do I need to wait a while for this to
take effect?

As I mentioned earlier system restore on your system is broken otherwise
you wouldn't be seeing 813MB in the _RESTORE folder when you have it set
for a maximum of 480MB (your original post) or 650MB in the TEMP
sub-folder. The way to clear this is to try and follow the steps I set
out in my earlier post.


I do not have a floppy to boot from.

If you don't have a Win Me boot floppy you can download the image of a Win
Me OEM boot disk from www.bootdisk.com. Download to your desktop, double
click to run and follow the prompts to transfer the image to a floppy. Do
NOT copy the downloaded file to a floppy - that won't make a bootable
floppy but instead a floppy disk containing the file you downloaded.

This can be done on any PC and then the floppy used with the PC having
problems.

Best of luck.
--
Mike Maltby



Bob Anfinson wrote:

"Mike M" wrote:

Rather than trying to totally disable system restore it would be much
better IMO to fix what is clearly broke, quite possibly as a result
of at sometime having installed malware sold by Symantec.

Malware sold by Symantec? What exactly is this all about? To my
knowledge, I have never installed any Symantec product on this PC. I
also have been very diligent about updating and running regular scans
with both anti-virus and anti-spyware
software (NOT Symantec products).

g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder: System |
Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore slider to
your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more than
adequate for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to
be available although increasing this to perhaps 400MB for a few days
during periods of large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.

I adjusted the slider down from maximum (458 MB) to minimum (200 MB)
but that has not shown any increase to my hard disk free space as of
yet, even after a re-boot. Do I need to wait a while for this to
take effect?

Will try the other stuff you recommended later when I have more time.
Would prefer to do the quick and easy stuff first to at least free up
some space right now. I do not have a floppy to boot from.

Thanks for your help, Mike!

"Mike M" wrote:

I do not have a floppy to boot from.

If you don't have a Win Me boot floppy you can . . .

Maybe I DO have the floppy you speak of. Would it be the Windows Me Startup
Disk that was created when I upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME a few
years ago? I do indeed have this floppy disk which I made at the time of
upgrade.

When you say "boot from a floppy", I assume this just means insert the
Windows ME Startup floppy disk into A:/ drive when the PC is shut down and
then turn on the PC, correct?

I apologize if my questions are real simple and basic but as you can
probably tell I haven't done something like this before. Thanks again!

While I have the greatest respect for Professor Maltby's views, I would like
to present, contrary to his, a two views of my own.

I. I do not use or need System Restore, and have disabled it completely,
with no consequences other than more disk space.

II. I run Windows ME on a dual boot (Win 2000 Pro) system. My computer is
custom built, and its hardware, although only the normal modem, video card,
etc., cannot install on Win 98 SE. Therefore, if I attempted to follow MM's
suggestion, I would lose Win ME and would not be able to install Win 98 SE.

To entirely disable System Restore (I am in Win 2000 as I write this, so the
details are not exact):

1. Search the Win ME Help for "System Restore." It will give you a way to
turn it on or off (I forget which).

2. Turn it off.

3. Reboot to DOS with your DOS floppy disk.

4. Delete the folder C:\_RESTORE. If it whines, change its Attributes.

Bob Anfinson wrote:

"Mike M" wrote:


I do not have a floppy to boot from.


If you don't have a Win Me boot floppy you can . . .


Maybe I DO have the floppy you speak of. Would it be the Windows Me Startup
Disk that was created when I upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows ME a few
years ago?

That be the one :-)

I do indeed have this floppy disk which I made at the time of
upgrade.

You're ready to roll.

When you say "boot from a floppy", I assume this just means insert the
Windows ME Startup floppy disk into A:/ drive when the PC is shut down and
then turn on the PC, correct?

Or just stick it in when the computer is on and reboot.

Alias

Use the Reply to Sender feature of your news reader program to email me.
Utiliza Responder al Remitente para mandarme un mail.

Sadly what you suggest will not totally disable system restore and the
_RESTORE folder will be recreated on rebooting and continue to be
populated. System Restore can be turned off, yes, System | Performance |
File System | Troubleshooting and check "Disable System Restore" but this
does not disable system restore but instead still causes the _RESTORE
folder to be created and populated and files will continue to accumulate
there albeit at a slower rate.
--
Mike Maltby



Walterius wrote:

While I have the greatest respect for Professor Maltby's views, I
would like to present, contrary to his, a two views of my own.

I. I do not use or need System Restore, and have disabled it
completely, with no consequences other than more disk space.

II. I run Windows ME on a dual boot (Win 2000 Pro) system. My
computer is custom built, and its hardware, although only the normal
modem, video card, etc., cannot install on Win 98 SE. Therefore, if I
attempted to follow MM's suggestion, I would lose Win ME and would
not be able to install Win 98 SE.

To entirely disable System Restore (I am in Win 2000 as I write this,
so the details are not exact):

1. Search the Win ME Help for "System Restore." It will give you a
way to turn it on or off (I forget which).

2. Turn it off.

3. Reboot to DOS with your DOS floppy disk.

4. Delete the folder C:\_RESTORE. If it whines, change its Attributes.

While _RESTORE folders and files are indeed (sadly) recreated, System
Restore cannot run (there are no more restore points) and there are far
fewer files. Given WME's extreme quirks, that's good enough for me. Just
whack the _RESTORE folder once in a while to free up that space, like
whacking IE temporary files.

"Walterius" wrote:

I. I do not use or need System Restore, and have disabled it completely,
with no consequences other than more disk space.

In case you all are interested, I'll update you on what I did and my
successful result. For some reason, my PC would not read my Windows Me
Startup Disk when I tried to boot from that (I tried from both a warm and a
cold boot) so I could not follow Mike's instructions. Interestingly, my PC
did read this Startup Floppy when I accessed it using "My Computer" and
"Windows Explorer".

So what I did was go to System, Performance, File System, Troubleshooting
tab, and checked the box next to "Disable System Restore". Hit "Apply",
"OK", and was prompted to restart the PC so Windows could accept the new
settings.

Upon restart, noticed Windows seemed to be deleting alot of files. Checked
C:\_Restore Archive and Temp sub-folders and sure enough they had been
cleared completely, freeing up about 830MB and bringing me from 200MB free
to over 1GB free. So far, files have not re-populated in these folders but
even if they do would not be difficult to clear them out from time to time.

All I care about is that I now have sufficient disk space to install other
needed programs. It looks like I was able to make it work to at least
accomplish my overall goal of freeing needed disk space. Again, don't care
about System Restore. . . haven't used it in 5 years.

Thanks to you all for your help and advice! It's nice to be able to come to
a newsgroup and get good, immediate help with problems like this.

-- Bob