System Protection - Turn On or Off

How to Turn System Protection On or Off in Windows 7​

   Information

System Restore regularly tracks changes to your computer's system files, and uses a feature called System Protection to create restore points of selected hard disks in your computer. System Protection is turned on by default for the Windows 7 hard disk or partition on your computer.

This will show you how to turn System Protection On or Off for creating System Restore Points for system settings and previous versions (shadow copies) of files in Windows 7. You could also use previous versions (shadow copies) to restore older copies of files and folders.

You can select which disks have System Protection turned on for.

   Note

It is not recommended to turn off system protection for your C: system drive (Windows 7) since it is a great tool to easily undo a mistake, for example one that may have crippled Windows 7, by just doing a system restore to go back to a previous restore point of your system dated before the mistake.

   Warning

• System Restore doesn't protect FAT32 and other FAT disks because FAT disks don't support the use of shadow copies. Shadow copies contain information about changes to documents and system files. Shadow copies require the NTFS file system. Windows 7 uses the NTFS file system.
• Turning off System Protection for a disk deletes all restore points for that disk. You cannot restore the disk until you turn on System Protection again and a restore point is created for that disk.

Here's How: 1. Open the Control Panel (Icons 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. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes if administrator or type in the adminstrator's password if standard user.

5. Click on the available hard disk drive or partition, that you want to turn System Protection on or off for, to select it. (see screenshot below step 6)
NOTE: Windows 7 should be the C: drive with (System). Under the Protection column, you will see if System Protection is turned On or Off for the available disk.

6. Click on the Configure button. (see screenshot below)
7. To Turn On System Protection for System Settings and Previous Versions of Files A) Dot Restore system settings and previous versions of files. (see screenshot below step 10)
NOTE: This turns on creating restore points and Previous Versions for the selected drive in step 5.

B) Move the Max Usage slider to set the maximum disk space usage you want to be used by system protection on the selected drive letter.

C) Go to step 10.

8. To Turn On System Protection for Only Previous Versions of Files A) Dot Only restore previous versions of files. (see screenshot below step 10)
NOTE: This turns on only Previous Versions for the selected drive in step 5.

B) Move the Max Usage slider to set the maximum disk space usage you want to be used by system protection on the selected drive letter.

C) Go to step 10.
9. To Turn Off System Protection for the Selected Disk A) Dot Turn off system protection. (see screenshot below step 10)
NOTE: This turns off both creating restore points and Previous Versions for the selected drive in step 5.

B) Go to step 10.
10. Click on OK. (see screenshot below)
11. Repeat steps 5 to 10 if you wanted to turn System Protection on or off for another listed drive.

12. When finished, click on OK. (see screenshot below step 6)
That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 System Restore
• How to Change the System Protection Disk Space Usage in Window 7
• How to Delete System Protection Restore Points 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 Enable or Disable Windows 7 System Restore Configuration
• How to Restore Files and Folders in Windows 7 with Previous Versions
• 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 Enable or Disable Automatic System Restore Point Creation in Windows

 

[Brink]

Hello Robert, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you dual booting with another OS?

Do you have all Windows Updates installed to have Windows 7 fully up to date?


In addition, check: System Restore points are deleted after you restart your Windows 7-based computer

....and if you have enough max space set for restore points.

System Protection - Change Disk Space Usage

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

 

[Scoop]

Shawn,

I'm running Win 7x64 OEM version on a built Desktop PC w/Asus MoBo. My C HDD is a 1 Tb size with about 115 Gb used space at present.

I've been seeing a strange issue with my "C" OS drive where the Protection is getting switched to "off" mode. I just started to track the problem to see what may be happening but here's what I've seen recently.

When I installed this month's Windows "Patch Tuesday" updates, all went ok. I saw the normal "Creating a Restore Point" dialog appear before the updates began installing. I'm assuming at that time that my "C" HDD Protection State was in an "on" state. Perhaps that's not accurate to assume that but since the Restore Points appeared to be created by the WU process, I'm thinking that this was the case at that time.

Yesterday, Sat 02/21 U.S. time, I encountered an unrelated issue with Norton AV where my IE11 was inaccessible (this made a lot of "buzz" news around the 'net since Fri 02/20 evening U.S. time; Norton has since fixed the issue). The issue with Norton prompted me to look at my Restore Point selection dialog but to my surprise, there were no Restore Points present. I saw the "error" dialog that's been mentioned earlier in this thread.

When I checked my "Protection" tab, my C HDD Protection was "off". I changed it to "on" and manually created a Restore Point without issue but I've seen this happen several times over the last 2-3 years where it seems that my C HDD Protection State is being toggled off for some reason. I never think to check the Protection state on my C drive until I'm looking at the Restore Points selection dialog.

Have you heard of this issue occurring with other Win 7 users?

I am a frequent HDD Cloner so I wonder if that's causing this issue? That wouldn't be my first guess but I'm probably Cloning and Imaging more frequently than some other Win 7 users.

 

[Brink]

Hey Scoop,

Norton has been known to cause several issues at time with Windows. You might completely uninstall Norton as a test to see if your system protection continues to get turned off.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us

 

[Scoop]

Shawn, thanks for the suggestion. I've been thinking about that, installing another AV to use as a troubleshooting tool to eliminate Norton when questions like this one arise.

 

[newbegin]

Thanks for your sharing.

 

[paulandjean]

Keeps turning back on

I turn if off and disable, fine. But come back half an hour later, and it's ON again. Have got to disable the damn thing five or six times a day. Is there a way to just "remove" it?

 

[Brink]

I turn if off and disable, fine. But come back half an hour later, and it's ON again. Have got to disable the damn thing five or six times a day. Is there a way to just "remove" it?

Hello Paul, and welcome.

Did you disable using an option below?

System Restore - Enable or Disable

 

[paulandjean]

Yes, you are right. Was able, using the "registry shortcut" download, to turn it off. That's excellent, thanks and rgds.

 

[Brink]

Yes, you are right. Was able, using the "registry shortcut" download, to turn it off. That's excellent, thanks and rgds.

You're most welcome.