Windows 7: where on the drive I can find those restore points

I recently did a system image recovery using a system image I created a couple days ago. I encountered a strange problem associated with the recovery. My hard drive showed that more space was being used than was actually being used, and this extra space I am almost positive was due to my system restore points before creating the image. I could not delete any of my old restore points as they were not saved by the recovery image, only the space being used by the restore points seems to have been saved.

Does anyone know where on the drive I can find those restore points to manually delete the space? Or if anyone else has had the problem, how can it be solved?

Hello Writhziden, and welcome to Seven Forums.

The tutorial below can help show you how to delete specific restore points that are currently on the drive.

System Protection Restore Points - Delete

Hope this helps,
Shawn

I tried all four methods. None worked. However, when I went into organize, folder/search options, view, unchecked the option to hide protected operating system files and checked the option to show hidden files, tried to open the system volume information folder, the used space vanished. I then set the options back to not show hidden files and to hide protected operating system files. I'm not sure exactly why this worked since I was unable to open the system volume information folder, but at least it solved the problem.

I now have a different problem associated with the recovery using the recovery image. My backup settings now fail due to Server Application Failed with error code 0x0080005. It was working fine before the image was created, and it was working fine after the image was created. After restoring from the image, however, I now get this error repeatedly. I tried resetting my backups back to defaults using Backup User and System Files - Reset to Default Configuration, but it still fails with the same error. sfc /scannow also finds no issues.

When you turn off system protection, it automatically deletes all restore points and shadow copies on the drive. That would be OPTION ONE in the tutorial. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted though.

I'd recommend to create a new thread for the different issue though to get the best help with it.

It turns out these are related, actually. I went back to my system image. My backup works until I turn off the option to hide protected operating system files and access the system volume information folder to delete restore points. Only this time, I cannot delete the restore points, and I am now also getting the Server Application Failed with error code 0x0080005. I guess there is a good reason why Windows does not recommend accessing protected operating system files.

My problem was not solved, unfortunately. I am still unable to delete system restore points safely. I am in the process at the moment of restoring from the system image a third time to try to resolve this in a safe manner. Thank you for your help, Brink.

You can use the vssadmin delete shadows command.

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin delete shadows /?
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line to
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Delete Shadows /For=ForVolumeSpec [/Oldest] [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /Shadow=ShadowId [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /All
- For the given ForVolumeSpec deletes all matching shadow copies.
If /Oldest is given, the oldest shadow copy on the volume is deleted
If /All is given, then all shadow copies on all volumes that can be
deleted will be deleted. If /Shadow=ShadowId is given, the shadow c
with that Shadow Copy ID will be deleted. Only shadow copies that h
the ClientAccessible type can be deleted.
- The Shadow Copy ID can be obtained by using the List Shadows comma
When entering a Shadow Copy ID, it must be in the following format:
{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}
where the X's are hexadecimal characters. This ID can be obtained
through the List Shadows command.
Example Usage: vssadmin Delete Shadows /For=C: /Oldest

Thank you, I will try this. Hopefully this time the shadowstorage will be seen by windows. The shadowstorage did not appear to be seen by Windows after recovery from the system image the previous two times. I will let you know in ~25 minutes when the recovery finishes for the third time.

vssadmin did not allow me to delete the restore points. The message "No items found that satisfy the query." appeared after running vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all

You apparently have no restore points left. Check that with vssadmin list shadows

I have 118 GB of restore points. List shadowstorage does not show them. Goiing into the system volume information folder lists them all, but causes the Windows 7 backup/restore feature to have issues.