what is a reasonable size for system restore?

Hello @caffeine,

caffeine said:

This a generic question; so, the only relevant specs are:

• Windows 10 Pro x64 w/ 128GB SSD
• Windows Home x64 w/ 256GB SSD

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I am accustomed to much larger C drives where System Restore size is not relevant. If I did my research properly, an individual restore point requires roughly 1GB of disc space. Recommended storage allocation range was listed at 3-10% of total storage space.

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questions:

• Did I find correct information?
• What do you recommend (in GB) for each of the computers listed above?

This really depends on how much you use your computer, what you actually do on your computer, and the available disk space available. If you install/uninstall a lot of software for example, then you would probably want to have more restore points available in case of problems. You can of course, create a Restore Point at ANY time manually.

System Restore is not highly regarded in general as it seems to work when it wants to. You would be better off making regular System Images to an external HDD.

You can always adjust the System Protection Max Storage Size as per the Tutorial . . .

Change System Protection Max Storage Size for Drive in Windows 10

I hope this helps!

caffeine said:

@Paul Black


Thanks for the reply. I know the procedure, but it is better for you to instruct me than to assume I already know. I have had very few instances requiring System Restore. I did not realize System Restore is held in low esteem. With much larger hard drives, I never tinked with size allocation. I was thinking that the smaller SSDs might need space allocation because I regularly create large files/folders, do large downloads for experiments, etc.---and remove them when they are no longer of use to me.

regards,
caffeine

I think the main reason that System Restore is not used very much is that it "merges" w/e restore point you choose, with the current state of the C;\ drive.

A full OS backup, on the other hand, completely overwrites the C:\ drive and it's associated partitions.

So... there are many instances where System restore can not help the user, and a full OS image backup can.
Resorting from a backup will do things like...

Repairing any Windows corruption, even when you can't boot into Windows. It will remove all but the most advanced (and very rare) viruses and malware. It will handle any driver corruption as well.

Using System Restore however, really won't fix any of these problems, if it works at all.

caffeine said:

@Ghot

Thanks

I haven't used System Restore on XP, Win 7 or Win 10.
In my experience (and I'm really hard on Windows), backup software is the only way to fly.

My C;\ drive has about 30GB on it. The full OS image backups are about 12GB in size and take about 2 minutes to make. (SSD to HDD). With the backup software's bootable media, I can access the backups even when Windows won't boot.

I could even erase my C:\ drive and restore it from a backup in about one and a half minutes.
I use Macrium Reflect (free), as do most on here.

If you don't already have one, you can pick up an external HDD for about $50.
Choose External Storage - PCPartPicker

Full OS image backups also come in really handy if your C:\ drive dies. just replace the C:\ drive and use the bootable media to restore from a backup.

Ghot said:

Full OS image backups also come in really handy if your C:\ drive dies. just replace the C:\ drive and use the bootable media to restore from a backup.

I totally agree.

I actually use AOMEI. The full OS backup equates to about 38% of the full OS size.