Free your Vista Harddisk - Shadow Copies and System Restore
Shadow Copies and System RestoreReviewing Shadow Copy
Have you ever wondered why your computer appears to have its hard drive being "eaten away at" for no apparent reason? System Restore is a Windows Vista similar to creating recovery disks. In event of system failure, System Restore will have the ability to restore the system to factory settings. System Restore allocates up to 15% of hard disk space to a Shadow Copy, or Volume Snapshot Device. The following method involves reviewing the current allocation of disk space for the Shadow Copy on your Windows Vista computer. Information and instructions on how to reduce the Shadow Copy can be found here.
1. Click Start>All Programs>Accessories.
2. Right-click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
3. Type in: vssadmin list shadowstorage.
You can delete all shadow copies / system restore points (in the above example, delete the 390MB) by:
1. Download the Script Elevation PowerToy from http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues/2007/06/UtilitySpotlight/
2. Right-click on "ElevateWSHScript.inf" and click "Install".
3. Download the "Delete all shadow copies" script from http://bertk.mvps.org/Deletes_all_the_shadow_copies_stored_on_a_server.zip
4. Right-click on "Deletes all the shadow copies stored on a server.vbs" and click "Run as administrator."
5. Type "vssadmin list shadowstorage" and you should see no more disk space used.
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