How to reduce disk space used by Windows Vista system restore

by Brad Linder Apr 20th 2007

So you just bought a new notebook with Windows Vista and a roomy 120GB hard drive. But after using it for just a couple of days, you notice that you've only got about 90GB free. You could swear there was more room available when you brought it home, so it can't be that Windows takes up 30GB. And you hadn't installed too many programs yet, or added your entire music and video collection yet. So what gives?

Well, it turns out Windows Vista handles system restore a little differently than Windows XP. Whereas with XP, you could adjust how much memory system restore took up with a little slider bar, there's no visible way to adjust your system restore memory settings on Vista. And by default, Windows sets aside a hefty 15% of your hard drive.

In principal, this is great, because not only is Windows backing up your system settings, but there's a new feature that copies your files as well, making it easy to restore your system in the event of an emergency. But while Windows Vista Home Premium will backup those files for you, it turns out that you need to upgrade to Vista Ultimate if you actually want to restore from that backup. If you have no intention of doing that, here's how you can adjust the amount of memory your computer allocates for system restore:

First, let's see how much storage space is currently allocated.

Click the start menu
Click on All Programs, and then Accessories
From the accessories menu, right click on Command Prompt and select "run as administrator"
Type "vssadmin list shadowstorage" into the command prompt
The results should tell you the amount of storage used and the maximum amount alloted

If you're not happy with those numbers, here's how to resize them. Keep in mind, you will lose some older system restore points when you do this.

Repeat steps 1-3 to get bring up the Command Prompt
Type "vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=[your hard disk]: /On=[your hard disk]: /MaxSize=[how much space you want to allocate]"
For example: "vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=2GB"
You should get a message saying Successfully resized the shadow copy storage association, and you should have more free space on your hard drive.

Tags: system restore, SystemRestore, vista, windows vista, WindowsVista

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

pipe912 said 9:46PM on 4-20-2007

upgrade to vista ultimate to restore from a backup???
u have to be kidding!!!! they don't know any more decent ways to get people's money...

Mysterius said 10:12PM on 4-20-2007

Yeah, WTF? Vista Home Premium will backup your computer, but hold you hostage for your files if it crashes, until you upgrade to Vista Ultimate?

I don't like Microsoft-basehers, but this is clearly inane, if not insane.

Richard said 10:57PM on 4-20-2007

Wrong, You can restore backups in Home Pro, you just can't do incremental backups, incremental backups require either business, enterprise or ultimate

RP said 7:16AM on 4-21-2007

So on XP, you could easily adjust the system restore percentage via disk properties. Why is it now burried in some obscure vssadmin UNIX-like command prompt utility? I thought Vista was all about polished UIs... bizarre.

nizzy1115 said 7:16AM on 4-21-2007

ummm you can do this nearly the same way as in xp...

guys seriously give vista a break. try it out for yourself before you go bashing it. 90% of the few issues it does have are from other vendors not having their new software compatible yet. they are the ones that need to get their butts in gear, not microsoft.

jessie said 7:16AM on 4-21-2007

I was just thinking about "How to reduce disk space used by not using Windows Vista system"

seriously, xp does everything better than vista

Steve Shickles said 7:59AM on 4-21-2007

Good Tip... Wish it was as easy as it way on XP.

hazard said 10:31AM on 4-21-2007

forgive me but I don't use Macs [yet] .. so how does OSX compare for native backup support?

Matt S. said 8:53PM on 4-21-2007

Come on Jessie.. XP certainly does not do everything better than Vista. After using Vista since January 2005, I can say that Vista is far better than XP in more ways then I care to mention. I have yet to have any programs just not work. Ive had very little driver problems and the ones I did have arent MS's fault.

I will never be touching XP again if I can help it. Plus believe it or not Vista is alot more secure than XP will ever be.

Just try it for yourself and dont rely on what the Media says.

jessie said 8:55PM on 4-21-2007

how about this, my machine runs xp for past 3 years, with a pentium ultra low voltage 733, 512mb ram, 80gb hd space. It runs smoothly through the years, burning cds, watching dvds, processing documents and all that, very easily. Then I tried the VISTA, where after I boot up it jacked up 500MB of RAM, giving me the suggestion add on more memory. My hard drive after clean installation lost 8GB of hd space, now I can open documents, not able to burn CDs because software won't work with vista, and can't watch dvd because limited resources.

What would you prefer? A blingbling operating sytem does nothing but blings, hog up on system resources; or a versitle system lets me do all I want it to do ? and by the way I haven't add the overall cost yet.

Mark said 8:56PM on 4-21-2007

Well said Jessie. There is NO reason that any OS has to consume so much memory and disk space, other than bloated sloppy code. Vista was made to look preeetty. The security updates and other new features could have been easily added onto XP making a much smaller and less resource intensive OS. I tried Vista and it sucks. Sorry to those who paid good money for it and now have to defend it but it's true.

danny said 2:00AM on 4-22-2007

i juste found a nice software : microsoft private folder

http://mininova.wordpress.com/2007/04/22/microsoft-private-folder-10/

lt said 2:02AM on 4-22-2007

i just discover a microsoft program called microsoft private folder, if you want to keep private things, you must download it
http://mininova.wordpress.com/2007/04/22/microsoft-private-folder-10/

Kip said 4:22PM on 5-27-2007

My experience is precisely what you describe- haven't put anything on the computer yet and it's already using 30GB. I followed your steps and found that my max is 16GB for restore and I want to lower it. So, how much is enough? You used 2 as your example but I'm afraid that I'll essentially be eliminating the resore altogether, so what would be a good size assuming that I don't regularly crash my computer. (Before someone says it, I know that it's up to me and I can decide how much protection I want, I'm just looking for an opinion more informed than my own.)
Kip

Kip said 4:24PM on 5-27-2007

P.S. And given that 15GB are being used by restore, where are the other 15 that have been consumed before I ever start working with my new pc?
As ever,
Kip

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