How To Make Restore Points Use Less Disk Space In Windows 10

The traditional system restore point is turned off by default in Windows 10 for reasons best known to Microsoft. The feature is turned off probably because it’s easier to reset Windows settings to their defaults or could be because of the ease with which you can reinstall Windows 10.

While turning on the system restore feature, you can specify the maximum size of the disk space (in %) that the system restore functionality can use on a particular drive. For instance, if you turn on the system restore feature for the “C” drive, you can configure Windows 10 to use less than n% of the disk space allocated to the “C” drive to create restore points.

When the space allocated to system restore feature is not sufficient to create new restore points, Windows will automatically delete the oldest restore point first before creating a new restore point.

If your Windows 10 drive is running low on disk space and you’re not sure how to reduce the space used by system restore feature, here is how to reallocate the space allocated to system restore feature in Windows 10.

Warning: Reallocating disk space allocated to system restore might delete previously created restore points, especially if you’re going to reduce the space allocated to system restore. So if you have some crucial system restore points, please create a system image backup before proceeding further.

Tip: There are over 16 ways to free up drive space in Windows 10.

Reallocate disk space to system restore feature

Step 1: Type Sysdm.cpl in Start menu search box or Run command box, and then press Enter key to open the System Properties dialog.

Step 2: Once System Properties dialog is opened, click on the System Protection tab.

Step 3: Under the System Protection tab, under the Protection settings section, select the drive, and then click the Configure button.

Step 4: Make sure that the option labeled Turn on system protection is selected. Under the Disk space usage section, move the slider to the right or left to increase or reduce the disk space allocated to system restore feature. Once done, click the Apply button.

If you often create a system restore point before installing programs, editing Registry, or system files, we recommend you punt aside at least 5 GB of the total disk space to system restore feature.

Reallocate disk space used by system restore using Command Prompt

WARNING: When you reallocate disk space previously allocated to system restore, Windows might delete old restore points.

Those of you who prefer to reallocate the space allocated to system restore feature via Command Prompt, please follow the given below instructions.

Step 1: Run Command Prompt as administrator. To do so, right-click on the Start button to open the power user menu and then click Command Prompt (admin), and then click Yes button when you see the User Account Control prompt.

Step 2: In the elevated Command Prompt, type the following command and then press Enter key to view space allocated and used by system restore feature.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

Step 3: Execute the following command to allocate disk space to system restore feature.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=X: /On=X: /MaxSize=NGB

In the above command, replace “X” with the drive letter of the drive where Windows 10 is installed, and replace “N” with the number of GBs that you want to allocate for the system restore feature. For instance, if Windows 10 is installed on “C” drive and you want to allocate 20 GB to system restore feature, then type the following command:

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=20GB

And if you want to allocate some % of disk space to system restore, execute the following command instead of the above one.

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=20%

In the above command, replace “C” with the drive letter of your Windows 10 drive, and replace 20% that the number that you would like to put aside for system restore feature.

Our how-to reduce hibernation (hiberfil.sys) file size in Windows 10/7 guide might also interest you.

And if you’re looking for a sophisticated free program to create and manage restore points, check no other program than Restore Point Creator.