Windows 7 - System Protection Restore Points - Delete

   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.

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 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)

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.

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.

   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.

For more on this, see:
How to Extract Files and Folders from System Restore Points in Windows 7 and Vista

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)

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.