Windows 10: Never More Than 3 System Restore Points

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

:)

 

Windows 10 System Restore Show More Restore Points Box Missing and Restore Points Being Deleted or Missing

Recently my PC had a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) and went into "Windows 10 Automatic Repair couldn’t repair your PC” infinite loop death spiral after I let Windows automatically fix a driver problem. I had to reinstall Windows 10 from a Dell recovery image
and then run Windows Update through the Creator edition. As a result, my PC is in a very clean state right now.

All manual restore points that I create are gone in few days as are any that are automatically created by System Restore. "Turn on system protection" is checked and on for the C: drive. "Max Usage" is about 28 GB. The "Show more restore points" check box
is missing when I try to do a System Restore. On my laptop running Windows 10, the check box and restore points are not missing.

I have worked in Information Systems for over 28 years, and used Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, 7, and 10 and a few flavors of Unix and Linux. I would like to know how to fix this problem in Windows. It suggests either an unfixed Windows 10 bug or a not-well
documented Registry fix.

Thank you.

 

Windows 10 System Restore Show More Restore Points Box Missing and Restore Points Being Deleted or Missing

Hi Anne,

I apologize for the tone my earlier post. I will next post to the TechNet Windows 10 IT Pro Forum. I reviewed some of your other posts, and I see that you are in more of a "tier one" position. I will be carefully monitoring the deletion of restore points
over the next week. Yesterday and today, I noticed the following:

Created manual restore points, one each day for 3 days between 2018-02-06 and 2018-02-08.

Ran a Scheduled-Task Windows 10 Disk Cleanup on 2018-02-08 and all of the restore points were there after it completed.

Ran an Acronic Backup for PC incremental backup on 2018-02-08 and all of the restore points were delete after it completed.

The next Acronic Backup for PC incremental backup is on 2018-02-12. I will create a manual restore point each day until that time and see what happens. I have also posted to an Acronis forum. What is odd is that I have used Acronic Backup for PC for over
2 1/3 years and I have not seen the restore points being deleted, and as I originally posted, after reinstalling Windows 10 and the running Windows Update through the Creator edition, my PC is in a very clean state.

Thank you,

Steve

 

A few things...

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





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





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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

What he said ^ *Wink

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.

 

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.

 

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

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).

 

You are going to be extremely disappointed if you believe that because that is NOT the point (purpose) of a restore point.

I honestly suggest you research File History, and turn it on if you want previous versions of your files!!!

• File History in Windows
• Backup Strategies: File History

 

System restore points are deleted after 17 days (or older) automatically when the system performs maintenance and it will only do this while you are not actively using the computer. I looked into this when I set aside 10% of my drive for restore points and it was nowhere near that limit before older points were deleted.

Quite different from Windows 7!

 

You might find this informative and useful. There is a free utility called Restore Point Creator which as well as creating and deleting them displays storage usage and has other functions, ie. it is what I would call a general Restore Point Manager. Just search for it. If needed I will find the url.