Cannot delete old restore points

[walter]

I use Windows Images and Windows Restore points, depending on the severity
of my problem.

When I restore the system I go to Control Panel > System > System
Protection, which opens the System Restore Panel.

In the Description Column of the Restore Panel, it shows "System Image
restore Point", in the Type column it shows either "Manual" or "system" or
"Backup".

The Restore Panel shows the current restore points, and these restore points
work fine. However, when I check the box "Show more restore points", the
Restore Panel produces a long list (hundreds) of restore points going back
to the date when I first installed Windows and showing the date for every
IMAGE I created over the past three years. They are all listed as Type
"Backup".

These old restore points do not work: "The selected backup could not be
found". Only the more recent restore points work.

I cannot get get rid of these old, inactive "Backup" restore points. I have
deleted all restore points, I have deleted all restore points except the
last one, I have inactivated/reactivated the restore system. Are these
imaginary restore points merely shadow copies that do not really exists and
therefore cannot be deleted? They serve no purpose, except to annoy me.


Thanks for any input.

Walter

 

[123Jim]

I use Windows Images and Windows Restore points, depending on the
severity of my problem.

When I restore the system I go to Control Panel > System > System
Protection, which opens the System Restore Panel.

In the Description Column of the Restore Panel, it shows "System Image
restore Point", in the Type column it shows either "Manual" or "system"
or "Backup".

The Restore Panel shows the current restore points, and these restore
points work fine. However, when I check the box "Show more restore
points", the Restore Panel produces a long list (hundreds) of restore
points going back to the date when I first installed Windows and showing
the date for every IMAGE I created over the past three years. They are
all listed as Type "Backup".

These old restore points do not work: "The selected backup could not be
found". Only the more recent restore points work.

I cannot get get rid of these old, inactive "Backup" restore points. I
have deleted all restore points, I have deleted all restore points
except the last one, I have inactivated/reactivated the restore system.
Are these imaginary restore points merely shadow copies that do not
really exists and therefore cannot be deleted? They serve no purpose,
except to annoy me.


Thanks for any input.

Walter

Sounds like they might be listed in the registry, while all the files
are long gone.

I would try using ccleaner to try to remove the restore points, it might
do a better job of cleaning up the registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

ccleaner > tools > system restore

If that does not work, you could run ccleaner's registry cleaner. Many
people caution against using a registry cleaner but I've never had any
problems after using ccleaner in that way.

If you don't want to do that you could manually remove the registry
entries if they exist using regedit.exe which is the windows utility.

 

[Paul]

Sounds like they might be listed in the registry, while all the files
are long gone.

I would try using ccleaner to try to remove the restore points, it might
do a better job of cleaning up the registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

ccleaner > tools > system restore

If that does not work, you could run ccleaner's registry cleaner. Many
people caution against using a registry cleaner but I've never had any
problems after using ccleaner in that way.

If you don't want to do that you could manually remove the registry
entries if they exist using regedit.exe which is the windows utility.

Another possibility, is the data is stored in one of the many XML
files associated with that stuff. It might not be in the registry.
I'm just going by the System Image folders I keep here, and they seem
to be littered with XML. So I'd probably sniff around for XML
(if the folder permissions would let me )

It's not really my computer after all - Microsoft owns it, so why
should I have permission to look in all the folders

Paul

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I use Windows Images and Windows Restore points, depending on the severity
of my problem.

When I restore the system I go to Control Panel > System > System
Protection, which opens the System Restore Panel.

In the Description Column of the Restore Panel, it shows "System Image
restore Point", in the Type column it shows either "Manual" or "system" or
"Backup".

The Restore Panel shows the current restore points, and these restore points
work fine. However, when I check the box "Show more restore points", the
Restore Panel produces a long list (hundreds) of restore points going back
to the date when I first installed Windows and showing the date for every
IMAGE I created over the past three years. They are all listed as Type
"Backup".

These old restore points do not work: "The selected backup could not be
found". Only the more recent restore points work.

I cannot get get rid of these old, inactive "Backup" restore points. I have
deleted all restore points, I have deleted all restore points except the
last one, I have inactivated/reactivated the restore system. Are these
imaginary restore points merely shadow copies that do not really exists and
therefore cannot be deleted? They serve no purpose, except to annoy me.

Thanks for any input.

Walter

I have a couple of restore points listed in the System Restore list
which are very old and are not listed in Shadow Explorer's list. They
are marked as type Backup. If I try to use them, I get "Backup drive can
not be found".

Maybe that's a clue. I don't know.

OTOH, look here:
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/11995-ccleaner-manage-system-restore-points

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I have a couple of restore points listed in the System Restore list
which are very old and are not listed in Shadow Explorer's list. They
are marked as type Backup. If I try to use them, I get "Backup drive can
not be found".

Maybe that's a clue. I don't know.

OTOH, look here:
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/11995-ccleaner-manage-system-restore-points

Maybe not. CCleaner doesn't show the two oddball entries.

Here's a better link for CCleaner:
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

 

[walter]

I have a couple of restore points listed in the System Restore list
which are very old and are not listed in Shadow Explorer's list. They
are marked as type Backup. If I try to use them, I get "Backup drive can
not be found".

Maybe that's a clue. I don't know.

OTOH, look here:
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/11995-ccleaner-manage-system-restore-points

Thanks, but CC Cleaner only shows current (active) restore points. Otherwise
blank. I guess, these phantom files reside in my Windows subconscious.
Windows is dreaming.

 

[walter]

Sounds like they might be listed in the registry, while all the files are
long gone.

I would try using ccleaner to try to remove the restore points, it might
do a better job of cleaning up the registry entries.
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/download

ccleaner > tools > system restore

If that does not work, you could run ccleaner's registry cleaner. Many
people caution against using a registry cleaner but I've never had any
problems after using ccleaner in that way.

If you don't want to do that you could manually remove the registry
entries if they exist using regedit.exe which is the windows utility.

cc Cleaner ran a registry scan but shows a clean registry, except for a few
niggles. I did a find for "restore" in the registry but nothing pertinent
showed up. Don't really know exactly what to look for in the registry.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Thanks, but CC Cleaner only shows current (active) restore points. Otherwise
blank. I guess, these phantom files reside in my Windows subconscious.
Windows is dreaming.

We need Sigmund Freud to help us. And I like your view of this...

I did a bit of Googling. Nothing of interest (or at least nothing I
understood) showed up. Maybe I just didn't find an appropriate search
term. Maybe I could try Restorophrenia or something.

It did lead me on an OT tangent about slow boot up times (a problem of
mine). No joy there either.

 

[Rob]

I use Windows Images and Windows Restore points, depending on the
severity of my problem.

snip
I cannot get get rid of these old, inactive "Backup" restore points. I
have deleted all restore points, I have deleted all restore points
except the last one, I have inactivated/reactivated the restore system.
Are these imaginary restore points merely shadow copies that do not
really exists and therefore cannot be deleted? They serve no purpose,
except to annoy me.


Thanks for any input.

Walter

You can use Disk Cleanup to delete restore points and free hard disk
space on your computer.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/delete-a-restore-point

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

You can use Disk Cleanup to delete restore points and free hard disk
space on your computer.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-vista/delete-a-restore-point

I suggest you read the OP.

 

[Rob]

I suggest you read the OP.

Wanker

 

[Ed Cryer]

Wanker

Gene read the OP. Apparently you didn't. And so you've wasted time with
a useless response; and then secondly you've started throwing insults
around like a baby, which makes things even worse.
Have a serious look at your attitude. It's in dire need of repair.

Ed

 

[Ed Cryer]

I use Windows Images and Windows Restore points, depending on the
severity of my problem.

When I restore the system I go to Control Panel > System > System
Protection, which opens the System Restore Panel.

In the Description Column of the Restore Panel, it shows "System Image
restore Point", in the Type column it shows either "Manual" or "system"
or "Backup".

The Restore Panel shows the current restore points, and these restore
points work fine. However, when I check the box "Show more restore
points", the Restore Panel produces a long list (hundreds) of restore
points going back to the date when I first installed Windows and showing
the date for every IMAGE I created over the past three years. They are
all listed as Type "Backup".

These old restore points do not work: "The selected backup could not be
found". Only the more recent restore points work.

I cannot get get rid of these old, inactive "Backup" restore points. I
have deleted all restore points, I have deleted all restore points
except the last one, I have inactivated/reactivated the restore system.
Are these imaginary restore points merely shadow copies that do not
really exists and therefore cannot be deleted? They serve no purpose,
except to annoy me.


Thanks for any input.

Walter

I have a part of this problem. Mine shows system images (about 12) going
back to when I started taking them every month or so. Everything else
(restore points included) is ok. When I try a restore with one of the
images, it says not found.

What I do every month is take a system image to an external HD. But
because they overwrite the previous file (and they're only allowed into
the root of the disk) I cut and paste the previous one into a subfolder.

Ed

 

[walter]

I suggest you read the OP.

I tried Disk Cleanup. No luck. Thanks

 

[123Jim]

I tried Disk Cleanup. No luck. Thanks

Did you have restore turned off at the time?

 

[Dave-UK]

I tried Disk Cleanup. No luck. Thanks

I too have a series of restore points, ( only 10), of type Backup. They seem to have been
created about once a month and they don't show up in CCleaners list of restore points.
They go from 8/2/13 back to 25/6/12 (UK date format dd/mm/yy).

I've found a group of files, 12, that have the same dates as the Backup restore points,
they're about 60-80K in size and they have random names in the GUID format, like:
{a39bb8f0-9d31-4a32-8b34-f35110142302}

When I look at them with a hex editor there's stuff listed like updates, software info,
hardware info and registry settings.

They are listed in a hidden folder:

C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\SPPMetadataCache

The dates of the Backup restore points are also referenced in a couple of files:

C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\Catalog\GlobalCatalog
C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\Catalog\BackupGlobalCatalog

To get access to these files and folders you'll need to take ownership etc.
I haven't got a clue if it's safe to delete any of this stuff!
I haven't tried deleting anything from my folders as I don't want to mess
my system up.
Good luck.

 

[walter]

Did you have restore turned off at the time?

I tried it both on and off. No luck. I guess I will have to live with this
nuisance. It's really no big deal.

 

[walter]

I too have a series of restore points, ( only 10), of type Backup. They
seem to have been created about once a month and they don't show up in
CCleaners list of restore points.
They go from 8/2/13 back to 25/6/12 (UK date format dd/mm/yy).

I've found a group of files, 12, that have the same dates as the Backup
restore points, they're about 60-80K in size and they have random names in
the GUID format, like:
{a39bb8f0-9d31-4a32-8b34-f35110142302}

When I look at them with a hex editor there's stuff listed like updates,
software info,
hardware info and registry settings.

They are listed in a hidden folder:

C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\SPPMetadataCache

The dates of the Backup restore points are also referenced in a couple of
files:

C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\Catalog\GlobalCatalog
C:\System Volume
Information\WindowsImageBackup\Catalog\BackupGlobalCatalog

To get access to these files and folders you'll need to take ownership
etc.
I haven't got a clue if it's safe to delete any of this stuff!
I haven't tried deleting anything from my folders as I don't want to mess
my system up.
Good luck.

Thanks for the input. Intriguing but I don't want to mess around with the
image backup files, either. Everything is working fine. If it ain't broke,
don't fix it.

 

[Paul]

I too have a series of restore points, ( only 10), of type Backup. They
seem to have been created about once a month and they don't show up in
CCleaners list of restore points.
They go from 8/2/13 back to 25/6/12 (UK date format dd/mm/yy).

I've found a group of files, 12, that have the same dates as the Backup
restore points, they're about 60-80K in size and they have random names
in the GUID format, like:
{a39bb8f0-9d31-4a32-8b34-f35110142302}

When I look at them with a hex editor there's stuff listed like updates,
software info,
hardware info and registry settings.

They are listed in a hidden folder:

C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\SPPMetadataCache

The dates of the Backup restore points are also referenced in a couple
of files:

C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\Catalog\GlobalCatalog
C:\System Volume Information\WindowsImageBackup\Catalog\BackupGlobalCatalog

To get access to these files and folders you'll need to take ownership etc.
I haven't got a clue if it's safe to delete any of this stuff!
I haven't tried deleting anything from my folders as I don't want to mess
my system up.
Good luck.

They could be XML format. That's what I would have expected
as a storage method for the information. It's not always in
the registry now. My suspicion was based on seeing XML used
in my System Image folder. And the same can apply to
System Volume Information contents.

I don't have a problem with working inside SVI... as long as you
have a complete backup of C:. I had one accident already, and
needed that backup. And it was while playing inside SVI, from Linux.

If I had to guess, how to "make SVI safe", it would be to
disable the VSS service, so no open VSS files are present
in SVI. Then, there should be no "special files" inside SVI,
making it marginally safer for experimentation. But, only
with that backup handy... Um, have fun.

Paul

 

[Ed Cryer]

They could be XML format. That's what I would have expected
as a storage method for the information. It's not always in
the registry now. My suspicion was based on seeing XML used
in my System Image folder. And the same can apply to
System Volume Information contents.

I don't have a problem with working inside SVI... as long as you
have a complete backup of C:. I had one accident already, and
needed that backup. And it was while playing inside SVI, from Linux.

If I had to guess, how to "make SVI safe", it would be to
disable the VSS service, so no open VSS files are present
in SVI. Then, there should be no "special files" inside SVI,
making it marginally safer for experimentation. But, only
with that backup handy... Um, have fun.

Paul

I wouldn't.
We have a situation here wherein the System Restore facility wrongly
keeps entries for non-existent points. Even when you select one and it
tells you that it doesn't exist, it doesn't give you the option to
remove it from the list.
I wouldn't feel at all safe trying to get a workaround for that. Any
slight mistake could ruin the whole system; and then you'd have to
reinstall the OS to repair it.

This is definitely a "letter to MS situation".

Ed