System Protection Restore Points - Delete

How to Delete System Protection Restore Points in Windows 7 and Windows 8​

   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 and Windows 8.

System Restore isn't available for Windows RT.

   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

Use System Protection Properties to Delete Restore Points

:warn:WARNING: This will delete all restore points (system settings and previous versions of files) for the selected hard disk.
1. Open the Control Panel (icons view) in Windows 7 or Windows 8, and click/tap on the System icon.

2. In the left side of System, click/tap on the System Protection link. (See screenshot below)

3. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

4. Close the System window. (See screenshot below)

5. Click/tap 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 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/tap on the Configure button. (See screenshot below)

7. Click/tap on the Delete button. (See screenshot below)

8. Click/tap on the Continue button to confirm the deletion. (See screenshot below)

9. Click/tap on Close in the success prompt. (See screenshot below)

10. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below step 7)

11. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below step 6)

OPTION TWO

Use Disk Cleanup to Delete 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. Press the Windows + R keys to open the Run dialog, type cleanmgr, and press Enter.

2. Select the hard disk you want to use Disk Cleanup on, and click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You will not see this window unless you have more than one drive or partition on your computer.

3. You will now see this scanning screenshot below for a few seconds.

4. Click/tap on the Clean up system files button. (See screenshot below)

5. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

6. Select the hard disk you want to use Disk Cleanup on, and click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below step 2)
NOTE: You will not see this window unless you have more than one drive or partition on your computer.

7. Click/tap on the More Options tab, and click/tap on the Clean up button under the System Restore and Shadow Copies section. (See screenshot below)

8. Click/tap on the Delete button in the confirm deletion window. (See screenshot below)

9. Close the Disk Cleanup window. (See screenshot below step 7)
WARNING: Do not click on OK unless you wanted to delete the checked files in the Disk Cleanup tab.

OPTION THREE

Use 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

Use "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 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)
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.

OPTION FIVE

Use "Manage Windows Backup disk space" to Delete System Image Restore Points

   Note

This option is good to delete the System Image Restore Point "Backup" type restore points like below.

1. Use step 5 in OPTION ONE of the tutorial below to select the Keep only the latest system image and minimum space used by backup option, and click/tap on OK.
How to Delete Windows 7 User Data and System Image Backup Files







That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Change the System Protection Disk Space Usage in Window 7
• How to Turn System Protection On or Off in Windows 7
• How to Make a "Create System Restore Point" Shortcut in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Add "Create Restore Point" to Context Menu in XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Create a System Restore Point in Windows 7
• How to Do a System Restore in Windows 7
• How to Create a Windows 7 System Protection Properties Shortcut
• How to Automatically Create A System Restore Point at Startup
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 System Restore Configuration
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 System Restore
• How to Free Up and Recover Hard Drive Space in Windows 7
• How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista and Windows 7 when Dual Booting with XP
• How to Delete Shadow Copies in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Extract Files and Folders from System Restore Points in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Use File History Cleanup to Delete Older Versions of Files in Windows 8

 

[Airbot]

Hey Shawn,

I don't have the More Options Tab with Disk Cleanup.

 

[Brink]

Hi Aaron,

It looks like MS made a change. I updated METHOD TWO to correct this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

Shawn

 

[Airbot]

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. :sarc:

 

[Brink]

Not sure why either. System Protection (SR) is turned on by default.

Happy to hear that you got it sorted though.

 

[marsmimar]

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?

 

[Brink]

Hello Marsmimar,

If you wanted to delete all of them, then the quickest way is to turn system protection off for that drive, then turn it back on.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[marsmimar]

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.

 

[Brink]

Strange,

Give CCleaner a try to see if it can remove them for you.

 

[marsmimar]

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?

 

[Brink]

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.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/632-backup-user-system-files-reset-default-configuration.html

 

[marsmimar]

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.

 

[maranello]

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

 

[Brink]

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.

 

[maranello]

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

 

[marsmimar]

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...

View attachment 75272

View 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? :mad2:

 

[Brink]

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?

 

[marsmimar]

"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:

View 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?

 

[Brink]

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.

 

[pacinitaly]

I'm missing some