system restore settings

What is an advisable amount of disk space to allot for this? 12% seems high but i don't know that's why I need a recommendation. Viruses like to hide in these restore points so I was thinking 4% might be reasonable. Thank you

You are right to be concerned about malware in restore points, but don't worry too much about it - good scanners look in saved points. And of course, for a virus to be there, it would have had to get past your other defenses in the first place. So if you are disciplined at practicing safe computing, you don't have to take any additional precautions for System Restore. And if disk space becomes tight, System Restore always yields space.

That said, you can reduce the number and then see if you have enough points for your needs. I personally, have never had the need to go back more than a week - usually, it is just back an hour or so.

You did not say how big your hard drive(s) is/are. But 4% of 100Gb is 4Gb and you can save a bunch (several weeks) of restore points in that.

You can also periodically:

Right click on your drive, select Properties > Disk Cleanup,
When calculation is complete, select More Options,
Under System Restore, select Clean up… to remove all but the most recent restore point.

My hard drive is only 40 GB and I have 33,000 free so space is not an issue. I have the slide set for 9% of the max 12% -sound ok to you? I once did uninstall all but the most recent point b/c I suspected a virus there and it was. mcafee could not find it. I like to keep about a months worth -just in case. Btw, on my installation disk I have 'restore to best configuration and after everything else failed including sytem restore, this did the trick. I just reformatted and reinstalled the o.s. sytems xp sp2 on both the desk top and lap and my fingers are worn out; it was worth it though after four years of old prorams and other clutter. Did all the good stuff but could not believe how long defrag took though it makes sense. Thanx for the info

A thump of rule is, that each restore point takes approximately 200-300mb (+ / - a few). So if you want 10 restore points, I would go for like 3-3,5Gb space. The minimum space it can operate with in XP is around 400mb.

Heres some more reading on Restore points.

Regards Abydos

"Thump of rule", huh? Well, I think (but I could be wrong) 200 - 300Mb is almost as far off! I have looked for any reference to the size of a single restore point and can find none - do you have a link to this rule?

FTR, I have SR set to 2% on my 100Gb boot drive. There are 28 points I can restore to. 2000/28 = <72Mb - that's with XP Pro. I checked 3 XP Home systems, and they work out from 56Mb per point, to 101MB.

And from your own link:

It requires a minimum of 200 MB of free space available on the system partition.

@ Grampy, I have mine all set from 2 to 3% and that works fine by me. If you are unsure, move it down to say 6% and see how many points you have, and adjust accordingly. Of course, if you give it more, you will have to wait for more points to be created to see if you have enough.

Thanx all for the info;I will set it to 6 % and see how it goes - if adjustments are necessary I'll tend to them as I check the points. Actually, if you leave it at max, after it is full i'm sure you know the older ones are removed so it is not an issue. Glad to chat with you.

"Thump of rule", huh? Well, I think (but I could be wrong) 200 - 300Mb is almost as far off! I have looked for any reference to the size of a single restore point and can find none - do you have a link to this rule?

FTR, I have SR set to 2% on my 100Gb boot drive. There are 28 points I can restore to. 2000/28 = <72Mb - that's with XP Pro. I checked 3 XP Home systems, and they work out from 56Mb per point, to 101MB.

And from your own link:

It requires a minimum of 200 MB of free space available on the system partition.

I have 1068mb space allocated for system restore points, and of those I have 4, thats ~267mb each.
(I only do system restore within the day or week, otherwise all is backed upped externally, hence no need for a large system restore space allocation)

And no, I have no link to present to you. The advice/info was given to me from a good friend whom I trust with this info to be fairly accurate. But if my info seems wrong, please disregard. I'll try see if I can dig something up on the matter, whether its right or not. At least so we have the correct info, and I might learn a thing or two in the process

Regards Abydos

But if my info seems wrong, please disregard.

I don't know if it wrong - and yours would seem to back you up - assuming you did not purge yours recently. If you find some links, I would be interested. How big is your drive?

Personally, I don't see the need for more than 4 or 5.

Actually, if you leave it at max, after it is full i'm sure you know the older ones are removed so it is not an issue.

That's right - the oldest is discarded. And even if set to max, if you start running low on disk space, it will start purging the older ones - and if necessary, disable itself too.

I don't know if it wrong - and yours would seem to back you up - assuming you did not purge yours recently. If you find some links, I would be interested. How big is your drive?

My drive is a 400Gb WD Sata2. The partitions are: 11,72Gb for system (only using ~5GB including SR), 352,54, and a 8,34 swap-file partition. The sums don't add up, but they rarely do on any drive. Some goes to various drive-systems which is OT here.

I also have two WD Raptors on my other PC, 36 and 72GB, the info regarding SR are the same there, altho slightly less, system-restore points "only" 234mb.

I haven't yet got to the search with info. But will be doing it at some time today. Being located 1000's of miles apart does "screw" some times and dates up

Regards Abydos

Hmmm, I wonder why the difference. Perhaps it has to do with the number of drives and partitions - although 72Mb point is on a system with a single C drive, and mirrored RAID D drive and two opticals.

I only do system restore within the day or week

Not sure what you mean here. Unless you have changed the default settings, SR should be creating daily points - either a "Checkpoint", if there were no system changes, or a point before a system update, driver update, or significant program changes. Some anti-malware scanners create points before making changes too.

Hmmm, I wonder why the difference. Perhaps it has to do with the number of drives and partitions - although 72Mb point is on a system with a single C drive, and mirrored RAID D drive and two opticals.

I only do system restore within the day or week

Not sure what you mean here. Unless you have changed the default settings, SR should be creating daily points - either a "Checkpoint", if there were no system changes, or a point before a system update, driver update, or significant program changes. Some anti-malware scanners create points before making changes too.

A guess at the difference might be that the 400GB HD is running with WinHome version, Raptor's on Pro.
Raptor machine have a single DVD drive+floppy, the other machine have 2 DVD's+floppy and a single CD-ROM Philips burner(Dunno if it matters with regards to RS?) All DVD's are capable of burning, +LiteOn

And yes, I have "tampered" with the reg.key's for when they should do Restore points. On the Raptor's once dayily(Used in my work), 400GB its once a week(surfing machine, Raptor's rarely connect directly to net)
Alternatively I can use guaranteed Restore points with Flashback, returning everything back to the point set, if things really got screwed up. Never had use for it, yet. But I like to be on the safe side, especially with my working machine.

Regards Abydos

The difference I was referring to was between your systems and mine.

Never had use for it, yet. But I like to be on the safe side, especially with my working machine.

I have used it a couple times when I was not happy with some driver updates. I also used it when I was trying out new firewalls and anti-spyware scanners when I switched from ZA Pro - Sadly, many programs do a lousy job of totally removing all traces of their installations from Registries (or drives :() when uninstalled. I try to remember to always set a restore point before installing any new program, or major upgrade. Then if I don't like the new program/upgrade, an uninstall and roll-back ensures the Registry is cleared - the drive is another matter.

Well, Grampy (though as an experienced quinquagenarian and 7 grandkids myself, I wonder who should be calling who Gramps!), kinda didn't let your thread die, but drove it OT a bit instead. Got me interested in restore point sizes though - I sure can find anything "official" about it, other than the "settings" options. I understand much depends on the computer, but it would be nice to see a sample of 2 or 3 machines, lightweight to fully loaded - with XP and Vista.

Hey Digerati Can't seem to find any info on the actual size of a Restore Point. So, I dunno, the conclusion might be that its very system dependandt, I dunno. (dependandt? seems mispelled, I dunno) Anyways, I'm thinking of submitting a letter to MS, and hear their "story" on the subject, I'll let you know when I get some first-on hand info. Unless you got some reliable info on the subject. Regards Abydos

Sadly, many programs do a lousy job of totally removing all traces of their installations from Registries (or drives :() when uninstalled.

For that, I use Revo Uninstaller, works wonder if you ask me, with regards to remove traces…….

Not all utilities are useful, but the remove programs are very useful.

I'll stir the pot a bit here too. I always set SR space to as close to 500MB as I can get, or 1% if that's the minimum. On my HP 750C running XP Pro, I currently have 7 restore points (I clean all mine out monthly and start over) that occupy 346MB so that's around 50MB per restore point. Sounds like it varies widely based on the computer hardware and software mix.