System Restore - Enable or Disable

Brink said:

betaupsilon,

In your situation, I would recommend to keep system images. They are much more reliable than restore points, and won't be deleted when you defrag.

I would agree with you, except on one point that IMAGES take considerable disk space which makes them not ideal for small to intermediate changes in the system. I use images for significant events. I like to use RESTORE PTS to bridge the gap between my 2 most recent images. Once a new image is created I then delete the RESTORE PTS & start fresh.

So it is disappointing that DEFRAG ruins that approach. I do not view DEFRAG as a change in the system. It just rearranges the furniture on the deck so to speak.

By the way, I did an experiment with the DEFRAG utility. I expanded out the MAX disk space for SYS PROTECTION. I had 4 restore points that took 1.1 Gb of disk space. After DEFRAG the disk usage ballooned to 4.3 Gb. So are the SHADOW copies getting bigger or are there invisible SHADOW copies being created by the DEFRAG utility?

Brink said:

Defrag wouldn't create any shadow copies, so I'm not sure what that could be from either.

I can see defrag wiping restore points if it messes with its allocated space.

I'll run the experiment again & use the vssadmin cmd to ascertain if each SHADOW is actually growing & report back.

betaupsilon said:

Brink said:

Defrag wouldn't create any shadow copies, so I'm not sure what that could be from either.

I can see defrag wiping restore points if it messes with its allocated space.

I'll run the experiment again & use the vssadmin cmd to ascertain if each SHADOW is actually growing & report back.

I have a list of my SHADOW copies, but it does not report the size of each. I only get the VOLUME SHADOW storage info. Is there a way to get size info on individual copies?

betaupsilon said:

I have a list of my SHADOW copies, but it does not report the size of each. I only get the VOLUME SHADOW storage info. Is there a way to get size info on individual copies?

I actually booted into WinPE mode & accessed the SYS VOL INFO folder directly. I took a snapshot on my phone of the directory & I believe I have the sizes of the individual copies. I still have to do the DEFRAG & will upload the snapshots tomorrow.

Hi Shawn,
I got the snapshot of the SHADOW copy change on my phone. The last SHADOW went from 320 Mb to 4.6 Gb. So the DEFRAG operation is writing directly to the last SHADOW made by SYS PROTECTION. My understanding was that a SYS RESTORE PT is a SNAPSHOT. It should not be changing in time. This is not the case here. Is the last SHADOW associated with my RESTORE PT or is it something else? I have 4 RESTORE PTS as indicated in the 3rd snapshot.

Brink said:

What is the max storage size set to for system protection?

I expanded the MAX to be 15Gb.

Brink said:

If it's at least the same size or larger, then it would just be defrag having the max allocated space for system protection available now instead of growing to max as restore points are created.

I don't follow what you are trying to say.