How to Delete the System Restore Points in Windows 7

Running out of hard disk space even after clearing out the temporary folder and other junk files? You may consider lowering the disk space allotted to System Restore, or delete the System Restore snapshots which includes previous versions of files. Upgrading the hard disk is the ultimate solution though.

Cleaning up the System Protection points may sometimes be necessary during malware removal.

Deleting all System Protection Points

1. Click Start, right-click (My) Computer and click Properties

2. Click System protection link in the left pane

3. In the System Protection options, select a drive-letter and click Configure

4. Click Delete, and click Continue when prompted.

5. Click OK, OK.

Deleting all but the most recent System Protection point

1. Click Start, type Cleanmgr.exe and press ENTER

2. Select the drive-letter from the list and click OK

3. Click Clean up system files

This restarts Disk Cleanup to run in elevated mode.

4. Select the drive-letter from the list and click OK

5. Click the More Options tab

6. Click the Clean up… button under System Restore and Shadow Copies.

7. Click OK.

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8 Comments

Mary

said this on Tuesday, August 31st 2010 4:56 pm

Perfect! Thanks much.
Paul_Bags

said this on Tuesday, June 22nd 2010 8:05 am

That won’t delete the files, how do I do it manually? Logged in as administrator with the right permissions it still won’t let me delete it.
Jeremy

said this on Wednesday, June 2nd 2010 9:14 am

Thanks, I just freed about 50 gigs on my hdd.
kampac

said this on Wednesday, May 26th 2010 11:19 pm

thanks that’s 4 gig freed
Broljo

said this on Friday, March 12th 2010 3:24 pm

Thanks, it freed 6 gig’s of my hard drive :)
yg

said this on Saturday, December 5th 2009 8:40 am

thanks i saved over 40 gig
LK

said this on Tuesday, September 1st 2009 8:07 pm

Thank, lots of help
Oliver

said this on Wednesday, April 29th 2009 4:37 pm

Thank you, I saved ~350 MiB :)