How to delete inactive System Image Restore Points in System Restore

topgundcp · 19 Oct 2019

Bree said:

There are a lot of other files, besides restore points, kept in System Volume Information. I wouldn't want to delete them, or cause the OP to loose theirs. There's a Chkdsk folder for example, about the only place to find Chkdsk reports if you ran Chkdsk at boot. I have some reports that date back to 2014 in that folder.

As I said, you could delete individual file(s) and I do understand what info in this folder, ie.
- System Restore points.
- Distributed Link Tracking Service databases for repairing your shortcuts and linked documents.
- Content Indexing Service databases for fast file searches.
- Information used by the Volume Snapshot Service (Volume Shadow Copy) so you can back up files on a live
- system.chkdsk log file.

Anyway, what's the reason to keep all the old chkdsk log file(s) ? That I don't understand.

Bree · 19 Oct 2019

In my case, I have one reallocated sector on my HDD that I'm keeping an eye on. If I hadn't kept the chkdsk reports I wouldn't know when it occurred (April 2017).

SIW2 · 19 Oct 2019

Because it is an image. It can be restored using wbadmin command or the bmrui.

When you make a new windows system image, the older blocks are moved into shadow storage.
That is why when you restore a system image can restore either the most recent or older images.

That function remains after an upgrade.
You might want to restore one of those images - for the same reasons you might want to restore a 3rd party image.

Would you expect an upgrade to remove third party images from a different partition where they are stored?

zbook said:

What purpose if any are they kept after the upgrade?
Are they consuming drive space as fill?

There is a frequent misunderstanding. System restore is a program that uses shadow copies. But shadow copies and system restore are not the same thing. Shadow copies are created and used for several other things.

SIW2 · 19 Oct 2019

For the purposes of the OP, I have already shown in post 12 how to remove shadow copies created by windows system image using a 3rd party program called z-vsscopy.

Bree · 19 Oct 2019

SIW2 said:

For the purposes of the OP, I have already shown in post 12 how to remove shadow copies created by windows system image using a 3rd party program called z-vsscopy.

Have you actually tested it on a System Image Restore Point?

I have.

It can delete everything BUT a System Image Restore Point. That's because they are NOT shadow copies, but entries in the WindowsImageBackup folder's catalog.

There are three restore points here....

How to delete inactive System Image Restore Points in System Restore-system-image-restore-point.png

...Z-VSSCopy can find and delete the two shadow copies...

How to delete inactive System Image Restore Points in System Restore-system-image-restore-point-z-vsscopy.png

...leaving the System Image Backup Restore Point still there. Not much use to the OP then...

How to delete inactive System Image Restore Points in System Restore-system-image-restore-point-z-vsscopy-deleted.png

I repeat, the only known way to remove a System Image Restore Point is to delete the contents of System Volume Information\WindowsdImageBackup.

SIW2 · 19 Oct 2019

They show as green on mine - yours are yellow. Mine are on the backup drive - letter X:
Yours are on C:

Bree · 19 Oct 2019

SIW2 said:

They show as green on mine - yours are yellow

That's beside the point. Yellow or green, they could be deleted and were successfully removed from the list of available restore points.

The point is that the System Image Restore Point didn't show up in Z-VSSCopy at all (because it is NOT a shadow copy) so it cannot be removed by Z-VSSCopy.

SIW2 · 19 Oct 2019

Something different about your system from mine. I don't have it showing on C - the windows system image and the related shadow shadow copies are on Z.

Assuming C is your windows partition, how did you save a windows system image on there?

Bree · 20 Oct 2019

SIW2 said:

Assuming C is your windows partition, how did you save a windows system image on there?

I didn't, I saved it to an external drive. I've now reconnected the external drive (E:) and deleted all its (green) shadow copies too....

How to delete inactive System Image Restore Points in System Restore-system-image-z-vsscopy-e-drive.png

It made no difference, the System Image Restore Point is still there.

The System Image Restore Points are NOT shadow copies, they are a record that a System Image was made and are stored in a database that is read by System Restore to include in its list of restore points, in addition to any shadow copies. These records persist long after the System Image has been deleted, which is the problem the OP wants resolved: how to get rid of these restore points when the are no longer of any use.

Clicking on one of these long-dead but seemingly un-deletable restore points get this error message, asking for the System Image that was deleted ages ago!

How to delete inactive System Image Restore Points in System Restore-system-image-restore-point-fail.png

SIW2 · 20 Oct 2019

See what you are getting at. zvsscopy will delete the shadows. There is metadata on your system drive that still contains the info .