Can i delete selective system restore points ?

[Nikki]

Hello, i have too many system restore points on my Vista home premium. Can i do a selective delete of some restore points only ? And if yes---how ???

[HappyAndyK]

No you cannot delete selective System Restore Points, as they are threaded and each is connected to the other Point. Success of any Restore Point restoration depends on the integrity & the intact existence of the other/s in the chain.

However you can use Disk Cleanup utility of Vista to delete all but the latest restore point.

How to Customize Windows Vista System Restore Options and How To Free Up Lost Disk Space in Windows Vista may interest you.

[ravi_9793]

Not sure, it will work on vista or not.. but it works on XP.


start -->> My Computer -> right click on any drive and select properties -->> General -->> Disk Cleanup -->> More Options -->> System restore -->> Clean Up

Repeat this process for all drives.

This will delete all the System Restore points except the recent one.

I don't think there is any method to delete specific restore points, because files are stored on separate drives.

You can delete all restore points by disabling and enabling system restore feature.

[tweakwindows]

It's almost impossilble as you can't delete any restore point files from the System Volume Information folder untill you turn off restore point.And when you turn off this feature Vista automatically deletes the restore point files.

[whs]

Nikki, one never has "too many restore points". You never know what is going to happen and when and from which point in time you'll have to recover your system or be it only a file or folder (which you can do with Shadow Explorer).

[alsiladka]

Yes you can!

With Tune-Up Utilities' Rescue Center, you can delete individual System Restores.

I don't have a single restore point on my computer right now, HD is near 95% filled, but i remember deleting individual points.

[HappyAndyK]

Thanks for pointing out alsiladka. Yes there does appear to be an option in Tune-Up to delete selective restore points.

See, in Vista, when a restore point is created, a shadow copy of a file / folder is created. A shadow copy is nothing but a previous version of the file at a particular point. And restore points are special types of shadow copies because they store specific information required during a System Restore.

System Restore is a change base tracking tool, not an imaging or backup tool. Each restore point stores only those changes to the system since the creation of the earlier restore point, to minimize space usage.

Afaik, while there may be such a method for deleting selective system recovery points, it may cause inconsistencies in the restore points database & may prevent you from using other restore points successfully. Restoring the computer from the current state to a previous state requires the availability of all restore points in between.

Therefore, restoring the computer from the current state to a previous state requires the availability of all restore points. For example, if a user wants to restore the computer from point F to point A, System Restore will evaluate the system change logs for points B, C, D, E, as well along the way.

Nevertheless, if anyone has tried TuneUp option successfully several times or if anyone has more light to throw, pls do share... I am all ears.

[whs]

Here is an article how shadowstorage works ( How Volume Shadow Copy Service Works: Data Recovery ), My conclusion is also that recovery will not work if you break the chain.

[Nikki]

that means in short i can delete these points with tune-up only at the risk of jeopardizing the ability to restore back !!!! Best not to delete them, I think then. thanks for all your replies.

[Ramesh Kumar MVP]

Originally Posted by alsiladka

Yes you can!

With Tune-Up Utilities' Rescue Center, you can delete individual System Restores.

Generally I use Tuneup's Rescue center !! to trash individual system restore points.