Over the last two months, for no apparent reason, the SVI grew 44 GB, eating up precious HD space. For what I can see the system is creating Restore Points at a pace exceeding one each 7 days or each time a system update is made.
I need to a) eliminate about 32 GB of restore points (averaging 3.5 GB each) since Nov 2014 and b) set restore point pace back to normal.
Thanks in advance
Some people are having a problem where Avast sets the Restore Point max space to 50%.
There are several threads about this, here is one.
Losing A Lot Of Space
It's normal for Windows 7 set at default to create a restore point every 7 days or after some updates.
I don't stop restore points but I do limit them to 5 % space. Some set it to 10%. I depends of how much data you have to restore.
If you want to know exactly what your restore points (shadow) are. In the cmp prompt with admin privileges type in or copy and past this.
VSSADMIN LIST SHADOWS
DavidE is correct Avast is raising hell with restore points in Windows 7. If I used Avast it would change my setting of 5% and change it to 50% without my permission.
Now Windows 7 will keep saving restore points until that 50 % space is used. Then get rid of the oldest one.
Set at 5% Windows 7 will kick out the oldest restore point and add a new one when the 5% space is used. That is about 10 to 15 restore points on my systems.
Restore points do not replace a proper backup plan but can be used in conjunction with each other.
Thank you Callender, Layback Bear and DavidE. I followed Callender's thread and set disk usage for protection back to 10% (it had gone to 50%!). I will keep an eye on that for a while and see if it resets itself to 50%. My Avast should not be setting it automatically; it doesn't have the Sandbox. But I will monitor it anyway. I will also check on the system auto-deleting restore points already existing in C.
All the best!
I have system protection turned off. I rely on regular system images and other backup strategies. I've found restore points flaky but then each to their own.
This Tutorial by Brink could be helpful to get a fresh start with Restore Points.
System Protection Restore Points - Delete
CCleaner can list all the existing restore points and allow you to delete those you want to. I often delete old ones with CCleaner.
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