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Free disk space by deleting System Restore Points

31 March 2008 9 Comments

Windows XP system restore is a great feature to get your system back on track after you have made some changes and the changes have caused some problem in your system. Normally 12% of the space is reserved on your drives for System Restore. So if you keep installing a lot of applications, Restore points will get created and will start occupying large space. So it is better to delete your restore points if you want to free up some disk space.

  1. Go to Start Menu - >Programs ->Accessories ->System Tools and run “Disk Cleanup”
  2. When the Disk Cleanup window opens, select ‘More Options”

Disk cleanup 


  1. Click on the Clean Up button under the System Restore option. This will delete all but the most recent restore point.

Though it is not something new, but most of us usually forget to do it and it takes some precious space.

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    • 9 Comments »

    • Jawwad @ Inspired Geek said:

      Actually I don’t use System Restore feature because I rely on third party system image backup applications. But still useful for people that have this feature enabled.

      # 1 April 2008 at 4:42 am
    • wad said:

      @Jawwad @ Inspired Geek– And why do you feel the need to tell us that? Thumb down stumble.

      # 1 April 2008 at 7:25 am
    • Nirmal said:

      Well I jus turned off my system restore and got around 30GB in Vista.

      # 2 April 2008 at 1:48 am
    • Joel said:

      I just checked it out as its been a long time I deleted anything and found out I had 3.55GB of temperory files!!!! Just deleted everything…

      # 2 April 2008 at 4:16 am
    • Jacklin said:

      It is new knowledge for me…I’ll do it to get spme free space.

      # 3 April 2008 at 7:21 am
    • Shashank said:

      Thanks for reminding just did some cleanup :)
      also one more tip :
      type %temp% in your file browser and hit enter
      just delete all the files there and free up some more space.

      # 3 April 2008 at 6:57 pm
    • Syahid A. said:

      @Nirmal: Wow, regaining 30GB from your hard disk is quite a personal achievement!

      # 7 April 2008 at 6:05 am
    • Pretty Lady said:

      Okay so I get this whole thing… but I used system restore and put in an old restore point and now if I clean it up, I can never get back my other restore points which I need to bring back my computer again. Any advice?

      # 18 August 2009 at 4:34 am
    • O M G said:

      help me!!!!!!!!! the entire dic cleanup window did not show up only a small box showed up that said clean and i clicked it. so this cleans up everything but the most recent restore point right?

      # 18 August 2009 at 4:51 am

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