Restore Points Being Deleted

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Something is deleting all of my restore points,  and I cannot track down the culprit.

Any suggestions with respect to where to look will be appreciated.

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By default, Windows allocated 3% to 5% of your hard drive space for restore points, up to a maximum of 10 GB. If you want to increase the number of restore points, you need to allocate more space for them.

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System Protection, Disk Space Usage, Max Usage is set at 100% (448.67 GB).

Even the most recent restore point is removed leaving me with no restore points and Current Usage, naturally, shows zero GB.

Thank you for the reply.

 

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Also see:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/restore-points-being-deleted-automatically/

but this is an experience on Windows 10.

Windows 10 22H2 desktops & laptops on Dell, HP, ASUS; No servers, no domain.

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Microfix

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Long shot but any chance you have saved files in your main users file directory?

I know that restore points backup that folder and, if files in that folder exceed the usage allotment, it will automatically delete previous restore points first and not be able to create new ones due to size limit.

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Thank you for the reply,  but I do not know what (or where) my “main users file directory” is.

 

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For example.  C:\Users\ and then whatever your admin or account name is.

Now I think it through, same thing probably happens whenever the restore point size would exceed max usage though.  So it was probably a dumb idea given your Max Usage set to 100% but it is the only thing I could think of.

 

 

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C:\Users\Me\Properties\General tab shows Size 4.18 GB and Size on disk 4.23 GB.

Hey,  but you taught me something,  thank you.

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Do you have any third-party software that deletes restore points?

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Maybe this Microsoft link below on this problem will help. It lists the event error IDs to help you track it down as well as know issues that can cause this.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/system-restore-points-are-deleted-after-you-restart-your-windows-7-based-computer-14e74133-2941-1d2a-5c08-315510e5f986

HTH, Dana:))

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SueW

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Why do you want to save a bunch of restore points? You only need one or two at best and use image backups for real recovery.

cheers, Paul

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I do not want to save a bunch of restore points. 

George1 wrote:

Something is deleting all of my restore points

with the emphasis on all.  Even the latest one is deleted,  something not even CCleaner will let you remove.  Having one or two would be nice.

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Silly questions – have you checked:

Is System Restore turned ON? You can designate 20%, but if it’s not ON, it won’t save Restore Points.
Also, if you run Disk Cleanup (as Administrator), there is a tab that (if I remember right) lets you clean up Restore Points and Shadow copies.

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Do you mean an Image Backup through Backup and Restore in Control Panel?

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Not a stupid question,  but yes System Restore is turned on.

Right now I have five restore points.  Three type install from Windows Module Installers,  dotNetFx4 and W7ESUI,  and two type Critical Update from Windows Update.

I believe they will be deleted,  but I cannot catch the culprit.  No matter how closely I monitor System Restore when I think I have found the site/program and don’t go there again they still are deleted.

Regarding Disk Cleanup.  I see none of what you mention about them.

Quote from #2642400

George1 wrote:

Running Start>Computer>OS (C:) right click>Properties>Disk Cleanup does not offer an option to run as administrator. But it comes back with a button to Cleanup System Files. Running Start>All Programs>accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup right click does give the option to run as administrator. The only difference I see is running as administrator does not return with the option to Cleanup System Files.

 

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This is from Win11 (but it is the same in Win10), running Cleanmgr as Administrator. On the “More Options” tab.

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This does not apply on Win7.

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@George1: here’s how I run Disk Cleanup as Administrator in Windows 7:

Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > right-click on Disk Cleanup and left-click on ‘run as Administrator’

After Disk Cleanup has completed (it may take a while), you’ll get a popup page with a list of files to delete (at your option). It is at the top of this page that you’ll see the tab for “More Options” — it is identical to PKCano’s screenshot. Good luck!

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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George1, Cybertooth, Bob99, PKCano

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Thank you,  SueW,  for pointing out what I was missing.

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SueW

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Further to @SueW comment — After disk cleanup has completed its initial scan…

And this is what you should see on Win 7

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SueW wrote:

it is identical to PKCano’s screenshot

Indeed . . .

Win 7 SP1 Home Premium 64-bit; Office 2010; Group B (SaS); Former 'Tech Weenie'

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Microfix

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Sorry about my previous reply.  As pointed out by SueW it does apply on Win7.

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Thinking about the events of @George1 in this thread..
If newer SSU’s are implemented, would System Restore
allow saving/ restoration of ‘older’ SSU restore points when using
W7ESUI/ dotNetFX?
As I’ve never used SR since 2015 or thereabouts in Win7, preferred to image prior to any major system changes, IDK.
Just curious..

@George1,
As for SR points being removed, I’d check all 3rd party cleaners/ tweaker settings as they may have changed longevity and frequency of SR points.

An internal thing to also check is within MS Diskclean itself,
as both SYSTEM LEVEL (Admin) and at USER LEVEL to ensure restore point removal is not ticked..

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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SueW

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Good explainer…

https://blog.szynalski.com/2009/11/volume-shadow-copy-system-restore/

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windbg, George1

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I am getting lots of information about Disk Cleanup.  I do not need more free space,  I have 380GB free space.  I am not losing old Restore Points off of the end.  All of my Restore Points are being deleted,  including the most recent,  leaving me with none.

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George1 wrote:

I do not need more free space, I have 380GB free space.

VSS space is not the same thing.

From the “explainer” posted above…
<h3>What happens when VSC runs out of space?</h3>
Most of the time, most of the data on your disk stays unchanged. However, suppose you uninstall a 5 GB game and then install another 5 GB game in its place. This means that 5 GB worth of blocks got overwritten and had to be backed up by VSC.

In such “high-churn” scenarios, VSC can run out of space pretty quickly. What happens then? VSC deletes as many previous shadow copies as necessary, starting from the oldest, until it has enough space for the latest copy. In the rare event that there isn’t enough space even for the one most recent copy, all the shadow copies will be deleted. There are no partial copies.

 

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