CyberSeniors Computer Tips

08/13/08 System Restore Requires Space

Newk's Nook: System Restore is a handy tool. It's also a bit of a mystery. Here's how it works

There are several things System Restore requires to function. One of the most important is storage space. Restore points take up space on your hard drive. I'm guessing storage space is the root of your problem.

Generally, a restore point is created every day. That's as long as your computer is turned on. System Restore requires a minimum amount of free hard drive space.

With Windows XP, you need at least 200 megabytes of free space. Windows Vista requires at least 300MB. System Restore won't necessarily fill all that space. But it requires that space in order to function.

Many hard drives full

Most hard drives have 100GB or more of storage space. It may sound easy to keep a mere 200-300MB free. But many people fill their hard drives.

Without the minimum free space, System Restore won't work. It can stop working in a number of ways. Which one depends on exactly how little space is left. It can stop creating new restore points. Or it can delete old points when new ones are created. Or it will simply wipe out all of your restore points.

If you have multiple hard drives or partitions, things get more complicated. By default, System Restore monitors all drives and partitions. The free space requirement applies to all monitored drives and partitions. If any fall below the minimum, System Restore stops working on all drives or partitions.

Then, you run into problems like the one you have now. You won't be able to restore your system to a previous date. And you'll get various error messages.

What to do

Getting your System Restore to work again is pretty easy. You just need to free up the minimum required space. Delete unused files. Offload space-hogging files to an external drive. Install a larger hard drive.

Once fixed, System Restore will begin creating restore points. But it won't recover deleted points. Hopefully, it didn't delete the point you wanted to restore to. If it did, you're out of luck.

With luck, you can restore your system the way you wanted. But either way, you can prevent this from happening again. Just watch your disk space.

It's easy to check how much free space you have. In XP, click Start>>My Computer. Right-click any drive, and select Properties. In Vista, click Start>>Computer. Right-click any drive, and select Properties. You'll see information on space usage.

Try to keep a decent amount of free space on your drives. Consider keeping more than System Restore's required minimum. This will ensure that it keeps working. If you're running low, get additional storage. You can get a large external hard drive for around $100.