Solved where on the drive I can find those restore points

[writhziden]

I recently did a system image recovery using a system image I created a couple days ago. I encountered a strange problem associated with the recovery. My hard drive showed that more space was being used than was actually being used, and this extra space I am almost positive was due to my system restore points before creating the image. I could not delete any of my old restore points as they were not saved by the recovery image, only the space being used by the restore points seems to have been saved.

Does anyone know where on the drive I can find those restore points to manually delete the space? Or if anyone else has had the problem, how can it be solved?

 

[Brink]

Hello Writhziden, and welcome to Seven Forums.

The tutorial below can help show you how to delete specific restore points that are currently on the drive.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/336-system-protection-restore-points-delete.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[writhziden]

I tried all four methods. None worked. However, when I went into organize, folder/search options, view, unchecked the option to hide protected operating system files and checked the option to show hidden files, tried to open the system volume information folder, the used space vanished. I then set the options back to not show hidden files and to hide protected operating system files. I'm not sure exactly why this worked since I was unable to open the system volume information folder, but at least it solved the problem.

I now have a different problem associated with the recovery using the recovery image. My backup settings now fail due to Server Application Failed with error code 0x0080005. It was working fine before the image was created, and it was working fine after the image was created. After restoring from the image, however, I now get this error repeatedly. I tried resetting my backups back to defaults using http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/632-backup-user-system-files-reset-default-configuration.html, but it still fails with the same error. sfc /scannow also finds no issues.

 

[Brink]

When you turn off system protection, it automatically deletes all restore points and shadow copies on the drive. That would be OPTION ONE in the tutorial. I'm happy to hear that you got it sorted though.

I'd recommend to create a new thread for the different issue though to get the best help with it.

 

[writhziden]

It turns out these are related, actually. I went back to my system image. My backup works until I turn off the option to hide protected operating system files and access the system volume information folder to delete restore points. Only this time, I cannot delete the restore points, and I am now also getting the Server Application Failed with error code 0x0080005. I guess there is a good reason why Windows does not recommend accessing protected operating system files.

My problem was not solved, unfortunately. I am still unable to delete system restore points safely. I am in the process at the moment of restoring from the system image a third time to try to resolve this in a safe manner. Thank you for your help, Brink.

 

[whs]

You can use the vssadmin delete shadows command.

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin delete shadows /?
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line to
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Delete Shadows /For=ForVolumeSpec [/Oldest] [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /Shadow=ShadowId [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /All
- For the given ForVolumeSpec deletes all matching shadow copies.
If /Oldest is given, the oldest shadow copy on the volume is deleted
If /All is given, then all shadow copies on all volumes that can be
deleted will be deleted. If /Shadow=ShadowId is given, the shadow c
with that Shadow Copy ID will be deleted. Only shadow copies that h
the ClientAccessible type can be deleted.
- The Shadow Copy ID can be obtained by using the List Shadows comma
When entering a Shadow Copy ID, it must be in the following format:
{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}
where the X's are hexadecimal characters. This ID can be obtained
through the List Shadows command.
Example Usage: vssadmin Delete Shadows /For=C: /Oldest

 

[writhziden]

You can use the vssadmin delete shadows command.

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin delete shadows /?
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line to
(C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
Delete Shadows /For=ForVolumeSpec [/Oldest] [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /Shadow=ShadowId [/Quiet]
Delete Shadows /All
- For the given ForVolumeSpec deletes all matching shadow copies.
If /Oldest is given, the oldest shadow copy on the volume is deleted
If /All is given, then all shadow copies on all volumes that can be
deleted will be deleted. If /Shadow=ShadowId is given, the shadow c
with that Shadow Copy ID will be deleted. Only shadow copies that h
the ClientAccessible type can be deleted.
- The Shadow Copy ID can be obtained by using the List Shadows comma
When entering a Shadow Copy ID, it must be in the following format:
{XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}
where the X's are hexadecimal characters. This ID can be obtained
through the List Shadows command.
Example Usage: vssadmin Delete Shadows /For=C: /Oldest

Thank you, I will try this. Hopefully this time the shadowstorage will be seen by windows. The shadowstorage did not appear to be seen by Windows after recovery from the system image the previous two times. I will let you know in ~25 minutes when the recovery finishes for the third time.

 

[writhziden]

vssadmin did not allow me to delete the restore points. The message "No items found that satisfy the query." appeared after running vssadmin delete shadows /for=c: /all

 

[whs]

You apparently have no restore points left. Check that with vssadmin list shadows

 

[writhziden]

I have 118 GB of restore points. List shadowstorage does not show them. Goiing into the system volume information folder lists them all, but causes the Windows 7 backup/restore feature to have issues.

 

[whs]

Are you shure you have 118GB of restore points. Sounds not right. Run this command vssadmin list shadowstorage - that will show you how much shadowstorage is currently allocated.

 

[writhziden]

Are you shure you have 118GB of restore points. Sounds not right. Run this command vssadmin list shadowstorage - that will show you how much shadowstorage is currently allocated.

Ok, it is only 86 GB that were in use. My hard drive has 310 GB free out of 455 GB, but Windows, users, program files, etc. only use 59 GB total. TuneUp Utilities 2012 fixed the problem. None of the Windows 7 methods worked, and CCleaner could not find the problems either.

I am going to restore my computer from its image a fourth time. I would like to find a solution that does not require an outside piece of software as I feel the Windows 7 community would benefit from not having to purchase additional software to get a recovery to work.

 

[whs]

So what did vssadmin list shadowstorage say ??

 

[writhziden]

It listed my C: drive and my external H: drive where my recovery image is stored. It said that 0 Bytes were used by the C: drive and 2.985 GB were used by the H: drive for shadowstorage.

 

[whs]

That all looks normal - doesn't it.

 

[writhziden]

It does not. I know that I had 118 GB allocated for the system restore before creating the image. I also know that much of that space was taken up by updates/program installations since I first implemented the system restore points. I believe those restore points stayed on the disk after doing the recovery from the system image, but Windows is unaware of them for some reason.

 

[whs]

Maybe you should reformat the drive and then put the image back on. It is somewhat mysterious.

 

[writhziden]

After doing reformat and recovery, I tried going into system protection, c: configure, and deleting the restore points. I then turned off system restore, applied, and turned it back on and hit ok. I made a new restore point. My drive still shows only 307 GB free. It should show 393 GB based on shadowstorage saying 2.93 GB were allocated for that one restore point.

 

[Brink]

You might also use the tutorial below to see if something else may be using up the HDD space.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/129976-hard-disk-space-free-up-recover.html

 

[writhziden]

Alright, I found a solution. sfc /scannow fixes the issue when a recovery image is used to restore windows and restore points created previous to the image continue to take up space on the hard drive even after following the usual steps to remove restore points in Windows 7.