System Restore is an useful utility provided by windows which enables the user to undo certain system action like system_restore_logosystem updates, driver installations etc. It allows user to shift back to a system state corresponding to a particular date and time. User can choose which restore he may want to shift back to. But if not configured properly System Restore may occupy huge chunks of memory which might be needed by the user for other purposes.

Here is how Windows System Restore works and how to prevent it using up your a lot of space of your hard disk using a command line tool.

Windows Vista System Restore is designed to take snapshots of system state before you initiate certain kinds of operations as updates etc. These checkpoints or restore points can be used by the users to revert back to system state before installation in case something goes wrong after the installation.The snapshots or restore points are created by Volume Shadow Copy Service in Windows Vista.

In Windows XP you could you can vary the amount of hard disk space used by System Restore utility but in Vista there is no GUI option to alter the amount of space occupied by System Restore. But you can use VSSAdmin command-line tool to manage the Volume Shadow Copy Service and by extension System Restore.

1. Right Click on Command Prompt and run it as administrator.

2. Command :

  • vssadmin list shadows : Gives list of all restore points currently saved
  • vssadmin list volumes : Gives volumes that are available for shadow copies
  • vssadmin list shadowstorage : Shows amount of space is allocated and how much is currently being used for shadow copies

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3. Usually Vista automatically allocates 15 percent of a drive’s total space or 30 percent of a drive’s available space (whichever is less) for Shadow Copy storage but in certain cases it might be set to unbound resulting in System Restore occupying tremendously large amounts of space. You can reset the maximum value with the VSSAdmin tool with the following command :

vssadmin resize shadowstorage

You need to follow this command by a number of switches :

  • /for= followed by a drive letter (this specifies the volume for which the maximum amount of storage space is to be resized)
  • /on= again followed by a drive letter (this specifies the storage volume)
  • /maxsize= followed by a value (this specifies the maximum amount of space that can be used for storing shadow copies).The size is to be entered as value as a digit or series of digits followed by a unit indicator.

For example if YOu wish to limit Shadow storage in C: drive to 10 GB ,

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /for=c: /on=c: /maxsize=10GB

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4. Restart you computer and see the changes come into effect as the freed space available for your own use.

[via : techrepublic]