Resizing System Protection (System Restore) Storage in Windows Vista
April 20, 2007 6 Comments
Windows Vista does not have an user interface to resize the System Protection (System Restore) storage like Windows XP did. Windows Vista has a command line utility that can accomplish the resizing and moving of the System Protection storage. Resizing or moving the System Protection storage will also affect how many Previous Versions of a document or picture you have stored on your computer.
Resize System Protection (System Restore) in Windows Vista
- Open an Elevated Command Prompt windows, refer to "Opening an Elevated Command Prompt" if you need help.
- Determine what is the maximum size of System Protection. Type the following in the Elevated Command Prompt window.
vssadmin List ShadowStorage
You should see how much storage space System Protection is using, what the allocated space for System Protection, and what the maximum size for System Protection.
- Type the following in the Elevated Command Prompt window to resize the maximum size for System Protection.
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=1GB
NOTES
System Protection maximum size cannot be below 300MB. You can have the following suffixes for MaxSize, KB, MB, GB, TB, PB, and EB. If a suffix is not supplied then Windows Vista will use bytes as the suffix.
More Examples
If you want the System Protection to be resized to 400MB for Drive C but you want the System Protection storage for Drive C to be located on Drive D then you would type:
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=D: /MaxSize=400MB
If you want the System Protection to be resized to 1.5GB for Drive D and have System Protection for Drive D located on Drive D then you would type:
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=D: /On=D: /MaxSize=1.5GB
or
vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=D: /On=D: /MaxSize=1500MB
WARNING
Resizing or moving System Protection storage may result in loss of shadow copies and system restore point. I would recommend only to resize or move System Protection storage when your computer is operating without difficulties.
Related Articles
- How to Turn Off System Protection (System Restore) in Windows Vista
- How to Turn On System Protection (System Restore) in Windows Vista
- Opening an Elevated Command Prompt
Version 1.3
Edited: May 3, 2012
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