Acquired 5 Gigabytes of Restore Points Over Several Years

Mike Maltby,
Thanks for those clarifying insights Mike.

As I described in my initial post, I did flush/reset
(disable & re-enable) System Restore and set the space
allocation slider to 200 Mb about 7 months ago when I first
realized that I had accumulated 5 Gigabytes of Restore
space.

Apparently it still didn't FIFO control the used space, at
least not at the 200 Mb setting. It now has accumulated
658 Mb of Restore space. What's the smallest Restore space
setting that you would recommend I use?

Being that I make no direct use of the Restore function
myself, what would be the consequences of disabling Restore
and leaving it disabled?

--
randau

Apparently it still didn't FIFO control the used space, at
least not at the 200 Mb setting. It now has accumulated
658 Mb of Restore space.

In which case it would appear that the control files were sufficiently
damaged to require the folder to be cleared from DOS (see later). Whether
the archive gets cleared down or not on a simple reset is something that
can be easily checked using Windows Explorer when it doesn't then more
extreme measures are required.

What's the smallest Restore space
setting that you would recommend I use?

Personally with Win Me I find 200MB more than adequate increasing this by
a notch or two prior to performing a large install such as MS Office,
returning to 200MB after a few days. I note that others have answered
this question and suggested a larger archive. I find that 200MB gives me
around two weeks of checkpoints on a stable Win Me system here with few
installs other than for patches and the like.

Being that I make no direct use of the Restore function
myself, what would be the consequences of disabling Restore
and leaving it disabled?

IMO reckless, foolish and short-sighted, but then again you do whatever
you want with your PC, it's yours and not for me to tell you what you
should do, just don't ask for help when/if something goes wrong. g

To clear the _RESTORE archive from DOS.
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
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.

It might now be a good time to test that system restore is working
correctly. You can do this by performing the following test.
a) Create a shortcut on your desktop to a file.
b) Create a manual checkpoint
Could you create a checkpoint?
c) Delete the shortcut
d) Restore your PC to the checkpoint you created.
Was the shortcut restored? Did you see any error messages?
e) Reboot your PC
Was the checkpoint retained?
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows [2001-2006]



randau wrote:

Mike Maltby,
Thanks for those clarifying insights Mike.

As I described in my initial post, I did flush/reset
(disable & re-enable) System Restore and set the space
allocation slider to 200 Mb about 7 months ago when I first
realized that I had accumulated 5 Gigabytes of Restore
space.

Apparently it still didn't FIFO control the used space, at
least not at the 200 Mb setting. It now has accumulated
658 Mb of Restore space. What's the smallest Restore space
setting that you would recommend I use?

Being that I make no direct use of the Restore function
myself, what would be the consequences of disabling Restore
and leaving it disabled?

Thanks Mike for your enlightening point by point reply.

randau wrote:
Apparently it still didn't FIFO control the used space, at
least not at the 200 Mb setting. It now has accumulated
658 Mb of Restore space.

Mike replied:
In which case it would appear that the control files were
sufficiently damaged to require the folder to be cleared
from DOS (see later). Whether the archive gets cleared down
or not on a simple reset is something that can be easily
checked using Windows Explorer when it doesn't then more
extreme measures are required.

But when I reset System Restore 7 months ago, I did use
Windows Explorer to check it. The Restore folder's used
space went from 5.7 Gb down to about 7 Mb after being reset.


What's the smallest Restore space
setting that you would recommend I use?

Personally with Win Me I find 200MB more than adequate
increasing this by a notch or two prior to performing a
large install such as MS Office, returning to 200MB after a
few days. I note that others have answered this question
and suggested a larger archive. I find that 200MB gives me
around two weeks of checkpoints on a stable Win Me system
here with few installs other than for patches and the like.

What about comments by some others saying that with the
larger capacity hard drives, it may not be able to control
at the smaller settings? I'm using a single partition 20 Gb
hard drive. What's the capacity of your hard drive and/or
the partition containing your Restore folder?


Being that I make no direct use of the Restore function
myself, what would be the consequences of disabling Restore
and leaving it disabled?

IMO reckless, foolish and short-sighted, but then again you
do whatever you want with your PC, it's yours and not for me
to tell you what you should do, just don't ask for help
when/if something goes wrong. g

Does Restore facilitate Windows in some way even though the
user has no direct interaction with Restore? If not, why
does Windows automatically generate its own Restore Points
periodically?

--
randau

randau wrote:

But when I reset System Restore 7 months ago, I did use
Windows Explorer to check it. The Restore folder's used
space went from 5.7 Gb down to about 7 Mb after being reset.

In which case the damage is likely to have occurred at some time in the
last seven months but given that the size of the folder is just 6 or 700
MB this might suggest in the last month or so.

What about comments by some others saying that with the
larger capacity hard drives, it may not be able to control
at the smaller settings?

This suggests the posters concerned don't have much of a clue as to what
they are talking about. I have seen no such postings in these newsgroups.

I'm using a single partition 20 Gb
hard drive. What's the capacity of your hard drive and/or
the partition containing your Restore folder?

What relevance does this question have to the price of eggs? None. My
comments and the space you might want to allocate to the archive remain
the same whether the user has a 4GB or 60GB drive. The size range is the
same for all systems 200MB to 12% regardless of the size of the partition
or the number of drives or partitions. However rather than 12% of the
partition the maximum is 400MB where the partition is less than 4GB.

Does Restore facilitate Windows in some way even though the
user has no direct interaction with Restore?

I don't understand this question. Win Me's state manager runs at all
times monitoring the system and protecting numerous system files against
being altered or deleted as well as creating periodic checkpoints.

If not, why does Windows automatically generate its own
Restore Points periodically?

May I recommend that you use Help & Support and read a little about the
purpose for and use of system restore. A good place to start would be MS
KB267951 - "Description of the System Restore Utility in Windows
Millennium Edition" (http://support.microsoft.com?kbid=267951).
--
Mike Maltby
MS-MVP Windows [2001-2006]

I'll no longer be watching this thread for replies. So, if
someone wants me to see their reply or wants to contact me,
please cleanup and use the Spam resistant Email address
below.

randau2...(at)...proaxis.com

--
randau
Oregon, USA