Deleting System Restore Points Selectively - disk usage


  1. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #1

    Deleting System Restore Points Selectively - disk usage


    Hi,

    Thank you for WindowsSeven forums. I have just registered but during the last 6 months or so I have used the resources provided here - particularly the tutorials - to set up my Wndows Home Premium x64 system.

    Looking at one of the tutorials: System Protection Restore Points - Delete
    I have a couple of questions I hope someone can help me with.

    Options 3 and 4 of the tutorial cover deleting system restore points selectively with CCleaner or System Restore Explorer.

    My questions about doing such selective deletions of restore points with these utilities are:
    1. Does it actually save any disk space; or is it simply cleaning up a list so that after the deletion of unneeded ones only the restore points considered useful are presented in the list - whereas system restore disk usage is left unaffected.
    2. Is there any risk in deleting restore points at various arbitrary points; are they interdependent? Will deleting some cause a risk of others not working?

    Essentially, if it is possible, I would like to keep restore points done at the begiining (after drivers, windows updates and installation of programs etc.) and delete the remaining ones except the most recent one - but I only want to do this to save significant disk space by the selective deletion.

    Thank you.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 5,092
    Windows 7 32 bit
       #2

    Deleting the points does recover disk space. You can see it with
    WinDirStat - Windows Directory Statistics

    You can use this shortcut to make restore points with your comment

    System Restore Point Shortcut

    Makes it easier to know what happened. For instance before installing a program I may use it and comment "before installing zappos untried newsreader" or whatever.

    I would not only rely on restore points. I've heard a thorough disk defrag can mess them up. It's good to also image your system to an external drive. You can find free imaging programs.
    There's a list here:

    Free Hard Disk Backup and Restore, Hard Disk Image and Cloning Utilities (thefreecountry.com)

    But you may find some additional if you search the Software sub-forum on thiis forum.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 71,978
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
       #3

    Hello Discs, and welcome to Seven Forums.

    In addition to MilesAhead post above, restore points are not interdependent on other restore points. Each restore point is a full and separate restore point. :)
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 5
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Thank you MilesAhead and Brink.

    Between you, you have answered both my questions:

    - so I will recover disk space - and
    - each restore point is full and separate. This is a surprise, since creating a restore point is so incredibly fast - I therefore felt they must be differential/cumulative in some way!

    MilesAhead, yes, you are of course right that I should also rely on system images. I have posted a separate question about this (System Restore vs System Image Restore) because I would like to properly understand how to use these different backups (system restore points and image backups) when I do need to do a rollback.
      My Computer


 

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