11. Turn Off System Restore

While System restore is a God send when problems strike, it can also have a downside. That downside is, quite simply, Disk Space. Every restore point takes up ever more valuable disk space, thus reducing available space required for other files/applications.

System restore is clever enough to realise that, once its space allocation (usually 12% of available disk space) has been reached it needs to start deleting some of its restore points and replacing them with later ones. However, there comes a time, assuming your PC is working satisfactorily, that it is much simpler to delete all restore points and start from scratch. Alternatively you may be the type of person that keeps an incremental backup image of your hard drive and are therefore not in need of system restore.

If you need to clear all system restore points (for whatever reason) or you simply don't want to use system restore (not a good idea unless you have an up to date backup image of your hard drive), you need to turn system restore off. To do this proceed as follows:

1/ Click the Start Button.

2/ From the Start menu click Control panel.

3/ In Control Panel click the System Icon.

4/ On the Left of the System properties window you will see a list of Tasks, click on the System protection link.

5/ In the System Protection window remove the 'Tick' mark from beside the drive you want to disable system restore on.

6/ A message will now appear asking: 'Are you sure you want to turn System restore off.'

7/ Press the Turn System Restore Off button.

8/ System Restore will now be turned off permanently on that particular drive.

9/ To re-enable system restore just click your mouse in the box next to the drive you require system restore to monitor ( a tick will appear in the box), then click the Apply button and system restore will resume monitoring the drive.