Windows 7: System Restore using more than its fair share of disk space

My System Restore has been allocated 3% (10GB) of disk space that it can use, but it's using more than its allocated amount - 13.32GB.
Why does this happen?

Post a shot of disk management.

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It`s supposed to boot out older restore points to keep it at the required space you have allocated.

It's only a single drive but divided into two partitions

Bump

I've seen that too, so I take the "Max Usage" as a guide only. I can only guess that the algorithm for deleting old SR points does not always kick in when it should, or the oldest SR point is too big or too new to be removed yet or ....

Last time I saw it, on checking a week later it had sorted itself out.

Hmm, it's gone down to 4gb lol

It's your choice, of course, but as for me, I quit using System Restore years ago when I discovered that it did exactly what it was supposed to do -- restored the OPERATING SYSTEM to its previous state.

After that, I turned it off and have been using image backup utilities ever since. In 10 minutes, I can make a complete image backup -- and restore it in the same timeframe.

Plus, since I don't allow Automatic Updates, I don't have to worry about drivers changing on me without notice. I always know in advance and can make a quick backup before the update.

How the hell are you able to restore an image backup in less than 5 minutes??

I don't believe restore will do partial restores. So it might use a little more space to save a complete restore point. Watch it and see if it grows or gets smaller.