Best way to delete System Restore Points in XP?

[Kelemvor]

Howdy,

I know of 3 ways to delete restore points and am wondering if there's a reason to do it one way over the other.

1) Using Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr) you can go to More Options and click the 3rd button to delete all but the most recent restore point.

2) Going into Computer Properties, you can check (or un/recheck) the box for Disabling System Restore.

3) You can manually go into the System Volume Information folder and delete everything in there.

I would think 1 or 2 would be the best option since you're at least letting Windows do the deleting but is there really any benefit to doing it one way over the other? And is there any way to automate one of those via a batch file or anything?

We have PCs that were setup 3+ years ago and the restore folders gets huge with all our software updates and things. Even though we have System Restore turned off, it still fills and we have to un/recheck the box or do something to clear them out to save disk space.

 

[Phynaz]

ccleaner

But restore points only use up small configurable section of disk. 10% i believe is the default, so it shouldn't be filling your disks.

You also mention you have system restore restore turned off, so therefore Windows will not be creating any restore points. Maybe something else is going on?

 

[Kelemvor]

We have them turned off but when our company pushes out updates, they turn it on via the registry, apply the updates, and then turn it back off again. We've had people with older PCs with 10-15 gigs of space being used up which we'd rather not have taken up since we can't generally use restore them anyway.

 

[Nothinman]

Then why not just leave it on and let it prune the older ones as necessary? You're just causing extra work for yourself currently.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

Agreed, i would just lower the limit on space taken for restore points.

 

[Kelemvor]

The reason we want to delete it is because virus files hide in there and it takes up a ton of space.

We can't set the size down because when it gets turned off and back on during our updates, it seems to reset the size. We've had people with disk space errors and have found 20 gigs of stuff in there so we're just looking for the faster/easiest/best way to clear it out when we need to.

 

[Nothinman]

The reason we want to delete it is because virus files hide in there and it takes up a ton of space.

We can't set the size down because when it gets turned off and back on during our updates, it seems to reset the size. We've had people with disk space errors and have found 20 gigs of stuff in there so we're just looking for the faster/easiest/best way to clear it out when we need to.

The point is to not turn it back off, just turn it on with a small enough percentage of space and let it do it's thing.

If you've got people getting viruses just fix that problem directly, not the side effects of it.

 

[Kelemvor]

If we were in control of the system settings, we would do it that way but we aren't. Just looking for an answer to my original question. Not looking to change corporate policy since that will never happen.

 

[RebateMonger]

The reason we want to delete it is because virus files hide in there and it takes up a ton of space.

Windows System Restore is one of the most effective ways to RECOVER from a malware infection. Best practice is to ALLOW System Restore to do its thing. In case of a malware infection try a System Restore. If the System Restore doesn't help, THEN you can delete the System Restore files.

Yes, a piece of malware can end up in the System Restore files. But if you do a Restore from a previous Restore Point from before the infection occurred, there's a decent chance of getting your computer back, at least to the point where you run other anti-malware programs and continue the clean up. In any case, it's not going to make things worse than they already are.

 

[Kelemvor]

Guys, I know exactly how System Restore Works. This is a corporate setting where we've been told to never run it because of how our system handles software updates and other things like that which only get pushed out once.

I'm not interested in using system restore. I'm just interested in deleting the restore points, since we can't use them anyway, and since they take up extra space.

 

[zetsway]

Guys, I know exactly how System Restore Works. This is a corporate setting where we've been told to never run it because of how our system handles software updates and other things like that which only get pushed out once.

I'm not interested in using system restore. I'm just interested in deleting the restore points, since we can't use them anyway, and since they take up extra space.

Write a script to check to see if it is on. If it is on than turn it off. Check to see if folder is empty if it is than exit if not delete all contents.

Do a google search on turn off system restore vbscript or turn off system restore batch script.

Than do an event trigger. Otherwise just use ccleaner and put it on a schedule.

As for the other comments.....system restore is not the most effective way to restore your comptuer. There are tons of software that do not work when you do a system restore.


System restore corp environment= sucks
system restore on home pc =

If you want to restore your system clone or image it. Restoring just screw things up.

 

[RebateMonger]

There are tons of software that do not work when you do a system restore.

I certainly agree that system image backups are the right way to fix a messed-up system.

But I've never seen anything unexpected come from successful Windows System Restores in XP. Is there specific software that you've seen not work after a System Restore? That'd be helpful so I can look for it if I'm forced into doing a Restore.

 

[zetsway]

Is there specific software that you've seen not work after a System Restore? That'd be helpful so I can look for it if I'm forced into doing a Restore.

The entire Adobe suite has not worked in our corporate environment. MS office always seems to work. For me it seems like user’s documents are restored from the recycle bin.

Windows seems to be a lot slower. I can successfully do at least one restore without any hiccups. However, it seems if you do more than that your whole seems clutters with systems errors.

Now I’m speaking in reference to XP service pack 3.

We are not using Windows 7 yet. I never used the restore in 7 personally. I used vista at worked and when a few of my friends systems were slow I restored them and I ended up wiping it clean anyway.

We have no idea if our custom apps we made here at work will work on 7 so we are still in the stone ages