_RESTORE in windows ME

Lately, my computer has been acting really poorly and my system preformance has been on a downward spiral. The other day i was looking around on my C drive and found a hidden foldre called _RESTORE which is taking up 16.6 GB of space. When i go inside the folder, there are only four visible files that combined take up less than 1 MB of space yet when i right click on _RESTORE and click properties, it says there are 46197 files. I really want to get rid of this but am not sure how or if it would be a wise thing to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Your best solution is to ditch ME altogether. :D That was my first OS and I loathe it with a deep seething passion, it's the worst version of Windows ever incarnated as far as I've experienced.

Anway, given the name and size of that, it sounds like a system backup folder. Do you use any backup software?

I agree, ME is a horrible operating system but unfortunately i'm only 14 and don't have much say as to what type of computer we get and what os it runs. As far as i know we are not running any backup software....

NO! It would not be a wise thing to do. RESTORE (or System Restore) is probably one of the only GOOD thing's about WinMe which allow's you to go back to another set point and restore your system and it's component's to that time. Do NOT delete any of the content's in that folder. I suggest you defrag your system, use Disk CleanUp, scan for viruses, etc etc if you are trying to better the performance of you system.

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my computer has been acting really poorly and my system preformance has been on a downward spiral.

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That is very common with WinMe user's, so you know (I myself being one). I suggest upgrading to Win2k or XP.

I've heard that _RESTORE can be a good thing for ME but is it supposed to be that big? 16.6 GB is more than all the other stuff on my hard drive put together.

Indeed, got work with what's stuck on ya. Urgh, I feel for ya!

Are you the only one that uses this machine? If not, you probably want to find out if someone has created that as a backup before you delete. If someone has, the next thing you shoul do is tell them to put on removable media as opposed to the hard drive! Kinda negates the purpose of backup...I don't know how it culd be that large and not be a system backup of some sort.

Beyond that, you'll have to wait till one of the more experienced AOers hops on this thread to throw something in...

/edit -- Geez Spyd, you beat me to it! :)

The rest of my family uses this comp but none of them are smart enough to have made that kind of backup. Also, as far as i can tell this folder is growing. Last time i checked it was only 14 GB

Hmm...well, this one's all yours Amazing Spyder32man. ;)

It's supposed to grow. Everyday in fact. So you know, WinMe come's with System Restore as it's "backup data" resource. So yes, you do have it. And thank you AngelicKnight ;)

But 14+ GBs? That seems to be pretty pointless if having the restore takes up that much space. Is there a way to compress it?

My advice is keep it until after you've scanned everything, deleted what's not needed, etc that way you won't have any backup to resort to. After you've done all that, you can delete the certain point's you can jump to which would clear space and continue going from there. However I do recommend you keep a point in time after you've scanned/etc to refer back to in the event of a problem.

Again, it's quite possibly the only good thing about WinMe (sorta) :D

I believe that there is a way of turning it off. Something like right click on My Computer then preformance, file system, trouble shooting, disable system restore .........

You can disable it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

i'd like to try anyways and if it doesn't work out could i not jus reenable it?

of course, but if you screw up things in the meantime you cannot restore.
You can always format your drive and do a fresh install....

how do i do that

From command prompt: Format C:/

alright thanks i'll get right on it

Uhh no!? Format C:/ will format/delete everything and anything on your hard drive! Only do that if you have backup (i.e the system restore?). Oi..

what does el-half mean by a fresh install, to completely reinstall my OS?

oh yikes
that was close i went to do the format and said yes but it said my c drive was already in use so i decided to do it another time
guess i'm lucky cause i'm not sure if the _RESTORE really is a system backup

Well,

I am using ME on this box and have disabled system restore and deleted the bloat that it was filling my hard drive with.

I would suggest deleting all but your latest restore point. It creates a new one each time you boot your computer, which explains why it is taking up so much space.

I would guess that you need to change your system settings to "see" the files...............open Windows Explorer

<tools>
<folder options>
<view>

and check the box to view hidden files and folders

Cheers

I don't think there's any way a restore directory can grow to 16 gigs. By default system restore only takes 12% of the drive. It might be a good idea to disable system restore, delete the directory and enable system restore again. Also, running an antivirus program and perhaps installing a firewall might be a good idea.

Cheers,
cgkanchi

Takk your parents into getting a second HDD. (40GB = approx £40 /$70)
Hang this one onto the IDE cable going to the original HDD, label it, and copy the restore to there.
Let it grow, and learn about this property, THEN follow the advice from nihil:

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I would suggest deleting all but your latest restore point. It creates a new one each time you boot your computer, which explains why it is taking up so much space.

I would guess that you need to change your system settings to "see" the files...............open Windows Explorer

<tools>
<folder options>
<view>

and check the box to view hidden files and folders

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Now you SHOULD have a restore set up that is as big as required. You will also have that second HDD to play with..........................

cgkanchi,

I have heard of a WinME restore folder taking 20Gb out of a 40Gb HDD. I don't know why this happens, but it just seems to grow? ME was the first OS to have system restore so I guess it is a little crude.

Foxy~ WinME will create a restore folder on each and EVERY HDD that you have installed. That said, given that this is obviously a fairly old machine, a second HDD to back up particularly personal data files would be a good idea..............or at least regulatly backing up to CD.

Cheers

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Originally posted here by nihil
Well,


I would guess that you need to change your system settings to "see" the files...............open Windows Explorer

<tools>
<folder options>
<view>

and check the box to view hidden files and folders

Cheers

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I know how to view hidden files and folders and already have that option enabled. _RESTORE itself is a hidden file so i had to turn on the view hidden files and folders option to view it. Even so, there are still only 4 files inside the folder and together they don't add up to even 1 MB. There are no other files or anything in the folder hidden or otherwise as far as i can tell.....

Try this:

<start>
<run>
winfile
<OK>

From the menubar:

<view>
<by file type>

Then check ALL the boxes and go and look at your _restore folder

Let me know what files you find

Also go into system restore and see how many recovery points you have.

Nihil, i did what you told me to but _RESTORE still only shows the same 4 files (diskcfg.dat, srdiskid.dat, VxDMon.cfg, VxDMon.dat) When I run my spysweeper program, it goes through all the files on my comp and it shows which files it is sweeping and i'll get tens of thousands of files with a source of C:\_restore\temp\a(followed by a long number).cpy Does this mean anything?

Well, not really.

I would certainly boot into safe mode (F8) and first run Scandisk with auto fix enabled. Then run defrag in standard mode. Then check your _restore file size.

I am guessing that the files were deleted when recovery was disabled, but the space has not been released for some reason. AV and antispy software can frequently find stuff or parts of it that you cannot see.

Try XEN from Paul Brown as well..............I posted a link in your other thread.

Let me know how you get on :)

EDIT: Forgot to mention, the.cpy files are part of system restore. Make sure that you have unchecked the don't show extensions of known filetypes box in the <view> option where you told the system to show protected system files.

Whilst you are in sfae mode run winfile and delete the "Temp" subfolder that is in the _restore folder.

Thanks everyone especially Nihil. You've all been very helpful. After much deliberation i finally decided to just delete the file. Its my parents comp and i don't see they ever having to use the system restore. If we ever run into a real problem and the comp no longer works properly and they want to restore to an earlier date and were unable to, it would most likely be the last straw and they would buy a new box. Seeing as this is such a crappy comp, it makes me wonder sometimes why i don't just *accidently* (cough cough) run a very large magnet over this comp.....

A habit I started in my Win98 days.. I carry a spare HDD (currently a 40G) .. and A norton Ghost Boot disk.. Before any major stuffing around I image the drive.. stuff around with the image.. and when the machine is working like a well oiled mechenical device.. I image back to the customers drive.. If I totaly stuff up.. I create a new image from the customers drive..
This idea maeans I can disable completly the system restore..

My advice is very much a rewording of waht has been given..

1/ back up the drive
2/ Scan disk & defrag the drive..(btw how much free space have you got if less than 10% that is your speed problem)
3/ run the usual HDD clean stuf.. empty tem internet/cookies/windows temp/recycle bin/remove un wanted progs/remove super sized files no longer needed..if you didnt do step one leave system restore where it is..for now)
4/ run adware/spyware tools.. adaware/spybot s&d/the Cleaner/check the show with HJT
5/ defrag again..is the machine running smooth? yes.. jump ahead
6/ update the Anti virus
7/ restart in safemode.. and run all the tools mentioned, ie steps 3 & 4 and then run the anti virus (I know that AVG and I have had NAV scan in safe mode)and do a HJT check..clean any crud found in any part of this step..
8/ restart in normal mode.. Defrag.. Now is it running ok..
9/ disable System restore.. restart machine
10/ renable system restore and set the space used to less than 10% of the drive.. my prefered is 7% (just because it is less than 10 but more than 5..ok)
11/ Defrag once more.. and if it has never been done a scan disk


Scan disk (I use HDD regenerator) is used on the customers HDD.. and is normaly done just before restoring the image to their original drive..

Normaly disabling the system restore deletes all the files in the restore folder.. if not clean the folder while System restore is disabled


Cheers

I wonder what Undies does for a living :D

shadowkingjesse

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Seeing as this is such a crappy comp, it makes me wonder sometimes why i don't just *accidently* (cough cough) run a very large magnet over this comp.....

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I happen to be into old kit as a hobby, so if you let me know your machine specifications, I might be able to help you tune it up a bit..............

I have managed to get a PI/133MHz to benchmark within 12% of a PII/266MHz and 50% of a PIII/533..............so it can be done.............from independent user tests, they do not notice a difference between the three machines!!! (OK we are only using DOS based games here, and I have put "modern" graphics cards in them)

If you PM me with your system specs, we can talk about tuning and upgrading an old machine.

This might be a good "project"???...........Then you will have to post an account of what you did, and what results you obtained, so other people can learn from it.

There are a lot of people on this site who I am sure will help out, and you might learn a lot?

just a thought :)