XP System Restore 7.5G was used.

I've just rejigged my system to move all non essential stuff off the system partition drive to allow me to add a long overdue system drive backup strategy.

I was left with 18G on the system partition (C: drive) split between the windows directory, program files, documents and settings and some other small folders created before the system was delivered. I couldn't work out why 18G was being used.

By turning off system restore then turning it back on again I've found that it was using 7.5G of disk space! I've had the machine for 3 years now (drive is 73G in size).

Just thought I'd let you know as my drive backups now run faster as it's not backing up old junk (who wants to do a system restore to 6 months ago?).

It's obvious once I've looked into it but I bet there are a few other people out there who don't realise how much junk is being kept in system restore. It seems to default to 12% of the entire drive which seems OTT to me.

 

The amount of partition space used by SR can be adjusted:

Right click My Computer > Properties > SR tab and click on the drive/partition being monitored > settings > adjust the slider.

 

I know that now.

I posted the original message incase anyone else, like me, had not realised how much SR was using by default.

I think it's crazy to default to 12%. Surely, you only ever restore to something that has happened in the last few days or weeks.

I was shocked to find that 7.5G was effectively, being wasted on my drive.

 

Microsoft is pretty well know for having adopted some strange default settings. People like to say that fragmentation cases system performance degradation, but probably build up of unnecessary files is even a bigger factor for most people. I mainly just wanted to throw in that I remember years ago how big the default size that internet explorer had allocated for cookies. If I remember right, the default was 2 GB (and my drive was 8 GB) Throw in default recycle bin sizes, system restore, hard drive indexing, and a few others, you might have 50 percent of your hard drive used up. Your point is a good one though!

-HandsOff

 

System Restore is one of the first things removed when I build a new system.
Far better to use a dedicated imaging system - like Acronis, Ghost. Even by Microsoft standards the Xp version is a bit of a joke and doesn't even work properly much of the time. Better than nothing perhaps but users would be better advised to take the time and trouble to find out how to image properly.

 

I agree Long View.

After many years of not doing any system backups I now use Acronis True Image to do a system backup regularly and have limited system restore to 200M incase an install goes wrong.

As I have two XP partitions (2nd a one to play with) I have reduced the amount of data backup up by 15G!

 

Hello,

Other areas where you can trim:

Pagefile, recycle bin, IE cache

On most of my comps, with generous installs of software, images are 1.6-3GB for the Windows system partition, Linux root + home usually ~ 2.5-3GB.

Mrk

 

The recycle bin is the first thing I disable.

Unfortunately, almost all the programs I've installed over the last three years are in C:\Program Files. So, my system partition is about 11G (and I don't have THAT MANY programs installed).

I now try to ensure that music etc. is NOT stored in Documents and Setting and I regard that folder as a container for volatile data and I want to back it up regularly (emails, valuable documents etc). When I first started to do backups I found that it contained about 6G of WMA files! A crazy place to place these files in my opinion as they were almost all ripped off CDs so I have a backup anyway.

 

Mrkvonic,

My C:\Windows folders itself is:

Size: 3.87G.
22,558 files.
1,640 folders.

This is XP Professional SP2 with all latest updates applied. I do have .NET installed which takes up 450M.

How do you manage to keep the system partition below 3G?

I previously deleted most of the $NtUninstall folders as they were taking up 700M.

Pagefile is on drive D:. Hibernate is disabled and my IE cache is about 30M.

 

Hello,
I said the image is of that size... the partition is a bit bigger....
Well, what's important it fits onto a single DVD...
Mrk

 

Operating system + Program Partition size = 30 gig
Used space = 6.29 gig
Image size = 3.1 gig

Xp System restore removed, recycle bin minimal, IE cache very small, Uninstall files removed.

what other large waste of space files could safely be removed ?

 

Can c:\windows\ServicePackFiles be removed safely? On my system it takes 497M. SP2 has been on since it came out and I won't be uninstalling it.

 

Just deleted the folder to see what would happen. Nothing bad so far. Was able to reboot and am now running with 446 meg less clutter.

 

You're a bolder man than me

Have you tried running various apps? You might find in a week or two that some no longer work!

I might try it tomorrow and see what happens. I have a long term backup image that I can use to do a restore if need be.

 

I think you better look at this topic I just found:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,112039-page,1/article.html

 

I make a Full Acronis image every day. 5.23 gig now compresses to an image of
3.21

If anything stops working I will just restore.

 

This is confirmed in another topic:

http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=5814

I wish I'd never suggested removing it!!!

 

Do you do this while windows is running? I always do my image backups from the CD after a reboot.

 

It seems that you SHOULD NOT delete this folder as it is used by system restore to retore protected files in the windows directory. However, MS describes how you can move this folder to another drive here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290402 (haven't done it myself yet though).

EDIT: Come to think of it. I would not move it as it is part of the OS so should stay on the same partition as windows. If it were moved I can see it getting out of step and causing problems further down the line.

My system partition is 9.94G.

Document and Settings = 795M
Program Files = 4.61G
Windows = 3.59G

 

Thanks BUT Windows System Restore is the first thing I remove on any new system. It really is a piece of junk. I much prefer to rely on Acronis to restore my operating system. For a few days I have been playing with FD-ISR and this is also preferable to Windows system restore -- so look like I don't need the folder ?

 

From what I've read in the articles I posted links to there is a problem when you come to add/remove components from windows. Windows looks at this folder to find things it is going to add.

It seems to be also used for windows protection (not system restore) when some 3rd party software overwrites an essential system file a copy is restored from this folder. I remember reading a few days ago that windows monitors c:\windows and all sub folders and is notified when an important file is overwritten. It then reloads a good copy (I now know where from!!) to protect the essential files. Typical MS rubbish. Allow important files to be overwritten then repair them afterwards. Why didn't the OS stop people from doing this in the first place?

 

LOL - And windows file protection is the first thing I remove from windows! Seriously, if you are bound and determined to let XP decide what is added and deleted and restored or not restored, then go for it. Admittedly I did not look at the articles, but I really do remove the file protection, the restore, the recycle bins like the others (except no one mentioned wps but me).

On the other hand you shouldn't remove something unless you are sure you can live without it.

Don't know where the copies come from. DllCache maybe. You guessed it, that is the 2nd thing I delete....

take it easy!


-HandsOff.