How to Delete System Protection Restore Points in Windows 7
Information
This will show you how to delete all, all but the most recent, or individual System Protection restore points for a selected hard disk in Windows 7.
Warning
If you delete all of the restore points, then you cannot restore the disk until System Protection is on and a restore point is created for the hard disk again.
It has been reported that some 3rd party disk defragmentation programs could also delete your restore points when used.
OPTION ONE
Through System Protection to Delete All Restore Points
WARNING:This will delete all restore points (system settings and previous versions of files) for the selected hard disk.
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 delete the System Protection restore points 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 delete the restore points.
6. Click on the Configure button. (See screenshot below)
7. Click on the Delete button. (See screenshot below)
8. Click on the Continue button to confirm the deletion. (See screenshot below)
9. Click on Close in the success prompt. (See screenshot below)
10. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 7)
11. Click on OK. (See screenshot below step 6)
OPTION TWO
Through Disk Cleanup to Delete All Restore Points
NOTE:This will help free up more disk space for the selected hard disk by removing all but the most recent restore point. This will also include deleting shadow copies (Previous Versions) that were created with a deleted restore point.
1. Open the Start Menu.
2. Click on All Programs, Accessories folder, System Tools folder, and the Disk Cleanup shortcut. (See screenshot below) NOTE: If you need to manually open Disk Cleanup, then the Disk Cleanup exe file is located at C:\Windows\System32\cleanmgr.exe.
3. Select the hard disk you want to use Disk Cleanup on and click on OK. (See screenshot below) NOTE:You will not see this window unless you have more than one drive or partition on your computer.
4. You will now see this scanning screenshot below for a few seconds.
5. Click on the Clean up system files button. (See screenshot below)
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 above.
7. Click on the More Options tab. (See screenshot below step 8)
8. Click on the Delete button under the System Restore and Shadow Copies section. (See screenshot below)
9. Click on the Delete button in the confirm deletion window. (See screenshot below)
10. Close the Disk Cleanup window. (See screenshot below step 8) WARNING:Do not click on OK unless you wanted to delete the checked files in the Disk Cleanup tab.
OPTION THREE
Using "CCleaner" to Delete Individual Restore Points
1. If you have not already, download and install the free program CCleaner and run it.
2. In CCleaner, click on the Tools icon, System Restore button, then select the restore points that you wish to delete and click on Remove. (see screenshot below) NOTE:You can press and hold the CTRL key while clicking on the restore points to be able to select random restore points.
3. Click on OK to confirm deleting them. (see screenshot below)
4. When finished, close CCleaner. The selected restore points have been deleted.
OPTION FOUR
Using "System Restore Explorer" to Delete Individual Restore Points
Note
You could also use the System Restore Explorer program to mount specific restore points to be able to browse and copy individual files and folders from a mounted restore point back into Windows 7 and Vista without having to use Previous Versions or to do a full System Restore.
1. If you have not already, download and install the free program System Restore Explorer and run it.
2. In System Restore Explorer, select a specific restore point that you would like to delete, and click on the Delete button. (see screenshot below) NOTE:If displayed, uncheck the Hide restore points created in last 5 days box to see all restore points.
3. Click on Yes to confirm the deletion. (see screenshot below)
4. When finished, close System Restore Explorer. The selected restore points have been deleted.
System Manufacturer/Model Number Airbot 2.0 OS Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 CPU Core i7 920 (D0) @ 4Ghz, *26c idle *65c full load on air Motherboard Asus P6X58D Premium - Sata 6Gb/s - USB 3.0 Memory 12GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator -CMD12GX3M6A1600C8 at 1600MHz Graphics Card EVGA GeForce GTX 480 -Aftermaket Accelero Xtreme Plus cooler Sound Card ASUS Xonar D2X Monitor(s) Displays 1 LG 24" Flatron W2453V-PF 1 Samsung 24" P2450H both 2ms RT Screen Resolution 1920x1080@60hz
Keyboard Logitech Wireless MK700 Mouse Logitech Wireless MK700 PSU Corsair HX1000W Case Cooler Master HAF 932 Cooling Case Fans *3 230mm, *1 140mm/CPU - *Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme Hard Drives 1 OCZ Vertex2 180GB SSD
1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200RPM 32MB cache
2 500GB WD Caviar Blacks 7200RPM 32MB cache (WD5001AALS)
Pioneer DVD Burner DVR-S18M Internet Speed DL 15 Mbps UL 0.98 Mbps Antivirus None Browser Firefox Nightly Other Info Processor-7.7 *RAM- 7.9 *Graphics-7.9 *Gaming Graphics- 7.9 *SSD- 7.8 W.E.I final score= 7.7
*Phone- Samsung Galaxy Nexus
You're welcome. SR was also turned off and the space was very low for my 50GB partition I have 7 on. I turned it on, raised the space, created two different restore points. I don't know why it was turned off.
System Manufacturer/Model Number Airbot 2.0 OS Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 CPU Core i7 920 (D0) @ 4Ghz, *26c idle *65c full load on air Motherboard Asus P6X58D Premium - Sata 6Gb/s - USB 3.0 Memory 12GB DDR3 Corsair Dominator -CMD12GX3M6A1600C8 at 1600MHz Graphics Card EVGA GeForce GTX 480 -Aftermaket Accelero Xtreme Plus cooler Sound Card ASUS Xonar D2X Monitor(s) Displays 1 LG 24" Flatron W2453V-PF 1 Samsung 24" P2450H both 2ms RT Screen Resolution 1920x1080@60hz
Keyboard Logitech Wireless MK700 Mouse Logitech Wireless MK700 PSU Corsair HX1000W Case Cooler Master HAF 932 Cooling Case Fans *3 230mm, *1 140mm/CPU - *Tuniq Tower 120 Extreme Hard Drives 1 OCZ Vertex2 180GB SSD
1 TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 7200RPM 32MB cache
2 500GB WD Caviar Blacks 7200RPM 32MB cache (WD5001AALS)
Pioneer DVD Burner DVR-S18M Internet Speed DL 15 Mbps UL 0.98 Mbps Antivirus None Browser Firefox Nightly Other Info Processor-7.7 *RAM- 7.9 *Graphics-7.9 *Gaming Graphics- 7.9 *SSD- 7.8 W.E.I final score= 7.7
*Phone- Samsung Galaxy Nexus
System Protection Restore Point vs. System Image RP
As I mentioned in an earlier question, I recently got a new laptop with Win 7 Pro installed. I'm trying to get used to the differences between 7 Pro and XP Pro. I've created several System Images over the past week or so and each one has created its own System Image Restore Point. They will not delete through System Protection or Disk Cleanup. Are they destined to remain indefinitely or is there some other way to delete them?
Last edited by marsmimar; 05 Jan 2011 at 12:39 AM..
Computer type Laptop System Manufacturer/Model Number Sony Vaio VPCEB47GM Laptop OS Win 7 Pro 64-bit CPU Intel i5 2.4 Ghz Memory 8GB DDR3 Graphics Card Intel HD 3000 Sound Card IDT High Definition Monitor(s) Displays 15.6 WGXA Anti-Glare LED Screen Resolution 1280x800
Hard Drives 640Gb 7200rpm Antivirus MSE Browser Opera (primary) with IE9 backup
Hi Shawn -
Again, thanks for your quick response. I must be doing something wrong because I still can't get the system image restore points deleted. I got the prompt asking me if I wanted to turn off system protection. I clicked the "yes" button (11:44pm.) I confirmed that protection was turned off (11:45pm.) Then I restarted my computer, re-confirmed that system protection was still off, and I also noted that "current usage" = 0 bytes (11:50pm.) I turned system protection back on but the system image restore points were still there (11:53pm.) Note: screen shots are left to right, top to bottom, using times in the notification area.
Last edited by marsmimar; 05 Jan 2011 at 12:39 AM..
Computer type Laptop System Manufacturer/Model Number Sony Vaio VPCEB47GM Laptop OS Win 7 Pro 64-bit CPU Intel i5 2.4 Ghz Memory 8GB DDR3 Graphics Card Intel HD 3000 Sound Card IDT High Definition Monitor(s) Displays 15.6 WGXA Anti-Glare LED Screen Resolution 1280x800
Hard Drives 640Gb 7200rpm Antivirus MSE Browser Opera (primary) with IE9 backup
Oops... my bad! Must've been lack of sleep. Should have mentioned in my last post I already checked CCleaner. Nothing there to remove. Just for grins I used regedit look for "system image" and found two possible locations that might have system image data stored: HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. They each make reference to a Microsoft IMAPI2 File System Image Creator. Could I / should I manually edit the registry to clean out these restore points?
All system images were saved to an external hard drive (Drive E.) First system image was on 12/23. Each subsequent system image was an overwrite of the older previous image. Is it possible that each new system image created (by default) another restore point when in fact there was only one actual restore point (the latest system image)? Hope I'm explaining my thought process clearly. I just plugged in my external HD and it shows only one system image on it because all of the previous images were just overwritten. If I try to access a system image restore point from the external HD from 12/23 thru 12/30 11:59:38 AM it shows an error message that it can't be located. The only restore point available from the external HD is the last one made on 12/30 12:23:09 PM.
I even installed a copy of CCleaner in a new folder on the external HD and checked Tools > System Restore. There were no restore points for Drive E earlier than 12/30 12:23:09 PM. Weird stuff, no?
Last edited by marsmimar; 05 Jan 2011 at 12:39 AM..
Computer type Laptop System Manufacturer/Model Number Sony Vaio VPCEB47GM Laptop OS Win 7 Pro 64-bit CPU Intel i5 2.4 Ghz Memory 8GB DDR3 Graphics Card Intel HD 3000 Sound Card IDT High Definition Monitor(s) Displays 15.6 WGXA Anti-Glare LED Screen Resolution 1280x800
Hard Drives 640Gb 7200rpm Antivirus MSE Browser Opera (primary) with IE9 backup
Information
Warning
OPTION ONE 
WARNING: This will delete all restore points (system settings and previous versions of files) for the selected hard disk.
Note
