Windows 7: System Protection Restore Points - Delete

Marsmimar,

The ones in the post above look like they are backups from "Backup and Restore" in the Control Panel instead. It doesn't appear that you have any system restore points listed and available. You might see if doing the tutorial below to reset you backup settings may be able to also clear this.

Backup User and System Files - Reset to Default Configuration

Hi Shawn -

Tried to reset the backup files configuration as suggested. Still didn't clear out the System Image Restore Point "backups". I formatted my external hard drive and nuked everything on it thinking that would delete those "backup" pointers. Didn't work. Tried accessing each of the "backup" restore points after formatting the ext HD and got an error message that the backup drive could not be found. Made sense since formatting erased everything.



I'm guessing now that this is some kind of glitch within Win 7.... that whenever a system image is created it creates a primary restore point on the computer's hard drive and a backup restore point on the drive or partition where the system image is stored. Deleting the primary system image and its restore point does nothing to delete the backup restore point. The backup restore points aren't using any hard drive space, they're just empty pointers that go nowhere. Just seems like there should be an easy way to delete them if they're not linking to anything usable.

'preciate your time and effort on this and hope you had a good New Year's Eve.

can i delete a specific System Restore Point, not all of them, just the ones i don't need ?

Hello Maranello,

Sorry, but by default, it deletes all but the most recent restore point. It's not possible to delete random specific restore points.

thanks Brink,
i will just set a lower limit for the hdd space dedicated to System Restore, because i don't need more than 2 or 3

Hi Shawn -

Just an update on my system restore points problem/question. Nothing here or any other suggestions I found on other forums erased them. A few days ago I finally decided to reformat my HD and reinstall the OS. I first used the Dell Backup and Recovery Manager installed on my machine at the factory. Once everything was finished I checked my restore points. The "Show more restore points" dialog box STILL had the go-nowhere-do-nothing-restore-points listed from back in Dec '09.

No biggie. I figured maybe something corrupted the Dell Recovery partition and messed up their system image. On to Plan B... reformat the HD, erase everything including the Dell Recovery, reinstall the 7 Pro from the official Microsoft disk. Problem solved. All restore points from Dec '09 forward were erased. BUT...

Attachment 75272

Attachment 75273

The original problem still exists. I can erase all restore points by turning System Protection off. The go-nowhere-do-nothing-restore-points in the "Show more restore points" dialog box have returned, starting with the first restore point I created on May 25 after reinstalling from the MS disk. Windows Backup is NOT set up so I don't think these can be "backup" restore points.

I think my machine is possessed. What other explanation is there?

Hello Marsmimar,

The May 25th "backup" entries were from a system image that you created instead of Windows Backup. The only way to remove them is to delete the system image WindowsImageBackup folder along with it's MediaID.bin file. However, you will not have your system image if you do.

Does clicking on Delete (step 7) after you turn off System Restore help to delete these?

"Does clicking on Delete (step 7) after you turn off System Restore help to delete these?"

No, it doesn't help. I use an external E: Drive to store my System Images. After I created the first SysImg (at 2:57:57 PM) and before creating the second SysImg, I formatted the external drive and erased everything. The only thing on the E: Drive right now is WindowsImageBackup 5/25/2010 7:57:57 PM. (It was absolute coincidence that the time of the second SysImg matches minutes and seconds to the first.) That's why it's so confusing to me why this restore point (2:57:57 PM) remains when the actual SysImg is deleted. With the external E: Drive connected to my laptop, if I try to access that restore point I get this dialog box:

Attachment 75465

Not being able to find the backup drive makes sense because the actual SysImg was deleted from the drive. Am I understanding correctly that a separate WindowsImageBackup folder along with it's MediaID.bin file may also be created on my C: Drive and this is what might be preventing those restore points from being deleted?

Marsmimar,

System images cannot be created on the C: drive since it is included in the image, but you might see if using CCleaner may allow you to remove these entries instead. It has a System Restore option in the Tools section.

I'm missing some