Re: Can't reduce size of Restore/Archive by Mike
Mike
Tue Aug 17 04:46:03 CDT 2004
Terry,
Despite your reluctance to do so, if the size of the restore archive is
unresponsive to changes made to the allocated space using the slider, this
indicates that the control files are damaged and this gives rise to the
possibility that none of the contents is usable. Whilst a size of 1.87GB
isn't particularly large, although IMO way more than enough), it is if the
windows partition is less than 16GB since the restore archive should never
exceed 12% of the size of the drive containing the windows folder or 400MB
where the drive is <4GB. You mention having contents that dates back to
January, this may not be the case since the dates of files in the restore
archive are often those of the original file and not when they were
archived with the notable exception, naturally, of the cab files in the
_RESTORE\ARCHIVE folder where the RG*.cab files each represents a check
point.
So, my first suggestion is to reset System Restore:
To reset System Restore:
System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and check "Disable
System Restore", Apply and IMMEDIATELY reboot. This will flush you
restore folder and erase all checkpoints, then,
System | Performance | File System | Troubleshooting and uncheck "Disable
System Restore", Apply and again IMMEDIATELY reboot. This should now
automatically create a new checkpoint immediately following the restart.
g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder:
System | Performance | File System | Hard Disk and adjust the restore
slider to your preferred setting. A figure of 200MB is normally more
than adequate for day to day use allowing perhaps a week of checkpoints to
be available although increasing this to perhaps 400MB for a few days
during periods of large installs such Microsoft Office is advisable.
If this doesn't clear down the _restore archive (and it doesn't always
when users have experienced similar problems) the next suggestion is to
boot to DOS using a floppy and delete the entire _RESTORE folder structure
from there:
a) Boot to DOS using a floppy. Do NOT choose "Minimal Boot" from the menu
when booting from a floppy but rather choose "Start computer with (or
without) CD-ROM support" otherwise the ATTRIB command will not be
available.
b) At the DOS A:\> prompt, type:
ATTRIB -H -S -R C:\_RESTORE
REN C:\_RESTORE OLDREST
c) Remove the floppy
d) Reboot your PC
e) Delete the folder C:\OLDREST
f) Check that an automatic system restore checkpoint was created.
g) Finally adjust the space allocated to the restore folder:
Finally you may want to give system restore the once over by carrying out
the following quick test.
a) Create a shortcut on your desktop to a file.
b) Create a manual checkpoint
c) Delete the shortcut
d) Restore you PC to the checkpoint you created.
Was the shortcut restored? Did you see any error messages?
--
Mike Maltby MS-MVP
mcmaltby@hotmail.com
Terrycymru <me@privacy.net> wrote:
> Whilst doing a virus check on my wife's machine I realised that the
> contents of C:_Restore/Archive has grown to 1.87gb with data going
> back to January! I changed the setting in Control
> Panel>System>Performance>File System to 414mb and restarted the
> system (several times) but the archive is stuck at 1.87gb.
>
> What can I do? The system is somewhat temperamental so I would be
> reluctant to delete all restore points and start again.