Never More Than 3 System Restore Points

larrymcg · 26 Mar 2017

Using Win 10 Pro AU 64bit. It seems to me that since installing Win 10 Pro on this system I never have more than 3 System Restore Points. I have over 700GB of free space on the system disk. System restore is set to use up to about 100GB. System Restore claims it is currently using about 13.5GB. Whenever a new restore point is made the oldest one is deleted. CCleaner agrees that there are only 3 restore points. I think I should be able to have a lot of restore points.

Suggestions on how to make it work correctly?

-- Larry

sygnus21 · 28 Mar 2017

A few things...

1) - Have you ticked the box that says show more restore points?...

Never More Than 3 System Restore Points-restore-point.jpg

2) - Have you configured your system to use more disk storage for restore points?...

Never More Than 3 System Restore Points-configure-restore-point-usage.jpg

3) - As the allotted space fills up older restore points will be deleted (removed).

As to how much space an actual restore point takes up, I've not looked into it so I can't answer that one.

Hope this helps.

larrymcg · 28 Mar 2017

sygnus21,

1. Yes, then it shows 3. Same as CCleaner shows.
2. From my original post " I have over 700GB of free space on the system disk. System restore is set to use up to about 100GB. System Restore claims it is currently using about 13.5GB." Disk space is not the issue.
3. Yes, I know that the older ones get deleted to make space for new ones. However, I have lots of space allocated and available. Currently the 3 restore points are taking only 13.5GB. They date back only to 3/7/17.

My other Win10 system has 5 restore points using about 10GB of over a 100GB allocation. They date back only to 3/1/17. Seems like there should be more there too. Maybe some update is clearing them out. I will be on the lookout for that.

-- Larry

Xilnik · 28 Mar 2017

Have you tried turning System Restore off and then back on again? I've had issues with System Restore in the past that were reset when System Restore was reset.

Make sure you hit OK after disabling System Restore. Then configure System Restore again and enable it before again hitting OK.

larrymcg · 28 Mar 2017

Xlink, I might give resetting System Restore a try as you suggest. I believe this will delete all but one of the restore points but that should be OK (I hope!). If I try it I will report back.

-- Larry

Bree · 28 Mar 2017

larrymcg said:

Xlink, I might give resetting System Restore a try as you suggest. I believe this will delete all but one of the restore points...

No, turning System Restore off and back on again deletes all restore points.

sygnus21 · 28 Mar 2017

Bree said:

No, turning System Restore off and back on again deletes all restore points.

What he said ^

Anyway I honestly don't think there's an issue to be concern with. And you can create a manual restore point anytime you need.

Here's a Microsoft article on restore points but is doesn't mention how many or how long the last - Restore Points

Again, I see this as a non issue and personally wouldn't use a restore point older than two weeks, and even that's too long. If I need to go back that far, I may as well use an image restore. That's me.

larrymcg · 30 Mar 2017

Well, I guess it is time to reset System Restore. I've been checking the restore points and today there are only 2 - the oldest one disappeared and no new one was created. Quite mysterious.

sygnus21 · 30 Mar 2017

larrymcg said:

Well, I guess it is time to reset System Restore. I've been checking the restore points and today there are only 2 - the oldest one disappeared and no new one was created. Quite mysterious.

I'm quite sure there's a time period these hang around. I just looked at mine and compared it to the earlier image I posted and all but one was gone. However, when I clicked show more, one was removed - In fact it was the Adobe Lens Profile I manually set. So yeah, I'm pretty sure this is a timed event.

Again, I think this is much to do about nothing, but... And as noted, resetting the System Restore IS going to erase the ones you have I'm not sure what you're going to learn.

That said, If you really want to know if RS will save more than 3 restore points you could manually create them. And with that, you could also see how long they save (stay).

Good luck.

larrymcg · 01 Apr 2017

After resetting System Restore I created 4 restore points. Still there after 2 days. What a thrill! :)

I rediscovered a reason to have a bunch of restore points going back over a few months: When you right-click a file or folder, there is an option to "restore a previous version". It looks in your File History and in your restore points. I don't use File History for backups so restore points are nice to have so I don't have to mount my external backup disk and look for the file there (I only mount the backup disk when doing backups or restores).