Disable and Turn Off System Restore (Shadow Copy) in Windows Vista
Whenever users install software program, drivers, updates, hotfixes and other system changing files, Windows Vista will create Restore Point by using System Restore, part of System Protection feature, where a snapshot and stored state of important system files are backed up and copied using Shadow Copy service. It anything goes wrong such as driver not working or program causes instability to the system, users can easily rollback to the previous state.
If you pretty sure that you practice safe computing and can handle all disaster yourself, you can turn off and disable System Restore in Windows Vista to release and reclaim space used by System Restore. But be warned that System Restore actually dependent on Volume Shadow Copy service as explained during the guide to change System Restore disk size limit. When you disable System Restore on a particular drive in Vista, all disk space allocated to Volume Shadow Copy will be released, so not only System Restore is disabled, but the useful Previous Versions will also not functioning.
Disable and Turn Off System Restore in Vista
- Right click on Computer then select Properties from contextual menu. Alternatively click on Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System.
- In the left pane, click System Protection. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
- You will see a list of hard disk drives installed on your system, with checkboxes to the left. The check boxes with tick indicate that System Restore is on for that particular volume. So to to turn off System Protection for a hard disk, clear (untick) the check box next to the disk.
- Once you uncheck the checkbox, a System Protection dialog box will appear. Click on Turn System Restore Off button.
- Click OK and System Restore is now off.
- To revert and enable or turn on System Protection for a hard disk, simply select (tick) the check box next to the disk, and then click OK.
Related Articles
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- Change and Set Vista Shadow Copy or System Restore Disk Space Limit in Explorer GUI
- Vista Hard Disk Space Shrinking and Reducing Anomaly
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- Recover Files with Previous Versions (Volume Shadow Copy) in Vista Home Basic and Premium with ShadowExplorer
- How to Change and Limit System Restore Storage Space Usage Size in Vista with VSSAdmin
- Vista: Reclaim and Release Disk Space from System Restore and Shadow Copies
- How to Fix Shrinking Disk Space in Vista
- How to Change Windows 7 System Restore (System Protection) Disk Space Usage Size Limit
Entries (RSS)
May 14th, 2009 04:18
Actually it is wise to set limit, instead turn it off. And this site have already a good article how to do it: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/06/26/how-to-change-and-limit-system-restore-storage-space-usage-size-in-vista-with-vssadmin/
June 27th, 2008 02:42
[...] volume shadow copies cannot be managed. If this service is disabled, such as when you disable Shadow Copy manually, any services that explicitly depend on it will fail to [...]
July 9th, 2007 16:45
[...] For permanent solution, it’s best to set the limit for Shadow Copies space usage, or you can turn off System Restore (and Shadow Copies and hence Previous Versions) all [...]
July 3rd, 2007 04:21
[...] Full Article [...]
July 1st, 2007 04:41
You can also change the frequency between automatic restore points in order to save some space without disabling the service.
All you have to do is to try out a free tool called CSRF. You can find it here:
http://www.vista4beginners.com/CSRF