Windows 7 - System Protection - Change Disk Space Usage

   Information

By default, Windows 7 will allocate 10% of your total C: drive/partition size to be used to store system restore points in this allocated disk space. This allocated space will no longer be available as free space.

This will show you how to adjust the maximum disk space used for system protection in Windows 7.

   Note

It really depends on how many restore points you would like to have stored on your computer for what you should set the MAX storage size to be.

The size of each restore point will vary from system to system due to what you may have installed. As a rough guidline, I would give about 1.3GB of space for each restore point that you would like to keep. You can adjust the MAX size as needed if you are not getting the amount of restore points you would like though.

   Warning

As space fills up, older restore points will be deleted to make room for new ones.

1. Open the Control Panel (All Items View).

A) Click on the System icon.

B) Go to step 3.

OR

2. Open the Start Menu.

A) Right click on the Computer button and click on Properties.

3. Click on the System Protection link. (See screenshot below)

4. Close the System window. (See screenshot below)

5. Click on the available hard disk drive or partition, that you want to change the System Protection disk space usage for, to select it. (See screenshot below step 6)
NOTE: Windows 7 should be the C: disk with (System). System Protection will need to be turned on for the selected disk to be able to adjust it's disk space usage.

6. Click on the Configure button. (See screenshot below)

7. Adjust the Max Usage slider to how much disk space you want System Protection to use for restore points for the selected disk (step 5). (See screenshot below step 8)
NOTE: Slide left for less space, and slide right for more space.

8. Click on OK. (See screenshot below)

9. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 6)
NOTE: If you reduced the max size, then it may take a day for the "Current Usage" size to automatically shrink down to be within the set max size.

1. To See the Current Allocated System Restore Size

A) Open a elevated command prompt.

B) If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.

C) In the elevated command prompt, type in the command below and press Enter. (see screenshots below)
NOTE: This will give your the details on the Used, Allocated, and Maximum spaces of Shadow Copies for the available disks that you selected to have system restore turned on for. The left screenshot is for just one drive selected, and the right screenshot is for two drives (C & D ) selected.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Result	Description
Used	This is the amount currently used on the hard disk.
Allocated	This is the amount that is currently reserved from the hard disk.
Maximum	This is the maximum amount that could be allocated and used from the hard disk.

2. To Change the Maximum System Restore Size
NOTE: If you turn System Restore off for a selected drive, the original default values will be set back and the restore points will be deleted.

A) In the elevated command prompt window, type the command below for the drive letter and max size you want.
WARNING: If you change the MAX size to a smaller size than the current Used size shown in step 1 above, then the older restore points will be deleted to adjust to the new size. Nothing will happen to the restore points if you make the MAX size larger than the current Used size shown in step 1 above.

* For the listed C: drive, type the command below and press Enter.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=3GB

OR

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=5%

* For the listed D: drive, type the command below and press Enter.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=D: /On=D: /Maxsize=3GB

OR

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=D: /On=D: /Maxsize=5%

   Note

See the screenshots below step 5 in step 1 above under the Shadow Copy Storage association line for each drive listed.

Command	Description
/For=	The For volume: listed. (Ex: C or D above)
/On=	The Shadow Copy Storage volume: listed. (Ex: C or D above)
/Maxsize=	The % of HDD size or amount of KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, or EB you want to limit the maximum storage size of shadow copies and restore points to. This must be 300MB or larger.

B) You will get a Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association message.

C) If not, repeat step 2 checking for any mistakes that may have been made.

D) If yes, then check with step 1 above to confirm the change for the selected drive.

3. Close the elevated command prompt when done.
NOTE: If you reduced the max size, then it may take a day for the "Current Usage" size to automatically shrink down to be within the set max size.