System Restore indicates: Not enough free space to restore the Disk?

W

Windey

Member
I use System Restore often when downloading new programs, after running security scans, etc. and set a good point to go back to. I have also turned System Restore off and back on again to remove old points that may have had a problem in them and also to save space on System Restore.

Recently went to do a System Restore and received a screen after clicking "next" to restore it to a specific point, that I've never seen before and have been using this computer for 3 years (Vista Home Basic 32 Bit).

View attachment 27769

Question 1:
My computer is 1 TB - how can I not have enough free space to restore the disk? Is this telling me that if I have a problem with my computer that I will not be able to Recover my system? How/Why did this change and what do I need to do?

Question 2:
Local Disk C: (System) says "Ready to restore" ... but it grayed out. I don't recall it being grayed out in the past, but perhaps I just didn't notice because I've never had the big CAUTION "!" show up before. Am I able to go ahead with a System Restore even though it is grayed out?

Thanks for any help/advice.
 

My Computer

System One

Hello Windey,

That error means that the "RECOVERY" partition doesn't have enough free space left on it to use as working space to do the system restore on.

You should turn off system protection for the "RECOVERY" partition since it saves the shadow copy of that partition on that partition. This will delete all restore points on the "RECOVERY" partition.

You should never save anything to the "RECOVERY" partition since this is your Vista factory recovery partition. If anything should happen to the "RECOVERY" partition, you would no longer have any way to reinstall Vista unless you created a set of factory recovery discs as a backup.

Hope this helps, :)
Shawn
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Brink said:
Hello Windey,

That error means that the "RECOVERY" partition doesn't have enough free space left on it to use as working space to do the system restore on.

You should turn off system protection for the "RECOVERY" partition since it saves the shadow copy of that partition on that partition. This will delete all restore points on the "RECOVERY" partition.

You should never save anything to the "RECOVERY" partition since this is your Vista factory recovery partition. If anything should happen to the "RECOVERY" partition, you would no longer have any way to reinstall Vista unless you created a set of factory recovery discs as a backup.

Hope this helps, :)
Shawn
Click to expand...
Thank you, Shawn. I'm a little confused (as I'm sure you've guessed :rolleyes:). When I go to create a restore point, all 3 disks are automatically checked (see picture). So, I've always just created a Restore Point with all 3 boxes checked. I wonder why it's "automatically" checked if that's something we shouldn't do? To confuse people like me, I suppose.

Are you saying that I should now uncheck the "Recovery" box which will turn off System Restore and delete all restore points in the Recovery Section and by doing that, it will free up the space there, and this will allow me to use the Recovery Disk if my system should crash? If my system crashed right now, since it is saying there's not enough free space to restore the disk ... does that mean that it is unusable at this time? I believe when I uncheck it, it tells me that I will no longer be able to restore points in that area - but from what you've told me, I shouldn't be doing that anyway.

Also - What is the ImageBackup Drive D: ?? Sad to say, I guess I've never understood these partitions or how they're actually used.

View attachment 27770

Thanks so much - appreciate your help!

Windey
 

My Computer

System One

It's most like something that ASUS had set at the factory. Not sure why they did since it will cause the issue you are having now.

Yep, you would want to turn off System Restore for only the "RECOVERY" partition by unchecking it's box in System Protection like in the tutorial below.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Brink said:
It's most like something that ASUS had set at the factory. Not sure why they did since it will cause the issue you are having now.

Yep, you would want to turn off System Restore for only the "RECOVERY" partition by unchecking it's box in System Protection like in the tutorial below.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html
Click to expand...

Thank you. After doing this, will I be able to use the "Recovery" partition for it's designed purpose? If I am understanding the Recovery partition, that allows me to "make" a Recovery Disk to put my computer back to its' original state? I also do have a Recovery Disk that I received when I bought my computer.

Also, what is Image Backup (D:) and should I continue to apply created restore points there as well as to my hard drive C:?

Thank you again!
Windey
 

My Computer

System One

You're welcome Windey.

Yes, you'll still be able to use the recovery partition to do a factory recovery if needed. Turning off System Protection for it will only turn off having restore points created for the recovery partition with them saved on the recovery partition. Since nothing changes on the recovery partition, you really do not need to have restore points for it.

A system image backup is a complete backup of the selected volumes/partitions (drives). By default, all system drives required for Vista to run are selected by default and cannot be unselected. An image backup will take up quite a bit of space on whatever drive you save it to.

You certainly could and would be recommended to continue having restore points created for at least the C: (Vista) drive.

Restore points can be handy for quick undo of a mistake made to the system. While a system image is used to restore drives to how they were when the image was created.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2, 4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2, 8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system, Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam, HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn, APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI, Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
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