Just in case anyone else is thinking of responding, the issue is now
understood* and further data is not required.

Thank you Mark for your input.

*"One line" summary: Behaviour by design; System Restore relies on Shadow
Storage but shadows of all files are kept in all versions of Vista, but
unavailable as "previous versions" in Home Premium/Basic. The space used by
file shadow copies limits restore point history. There does not seem to be
any way to have only System Restore.

"Mark" <jmhonzell@nospam.insightbb.com> wrote in message
news:%23kTV$iteIHA.3368@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Side note on the prior thread:
>
> The "tool" provided (shadowexplorer) is basic in it's use, but I only
> pointed to it because it does the one thing you needed:
> What file(s) are eating up so much space that my Restore Points are
> being deleted beyond the most current?
> With that info you could exclude only that file from shadow copies. It
> would be pointless to chase every file in the exclusion list and I never
> intended that.
>
> Since then, I've learned that this may also be a fruitless endeavor as
> Shadow Copy would still make the backup, erase you other Restore Points
> for
> any space needed, and THEN delete the file from the restore point (during
> optimization) that was supposed to be excluded in the first place.
>
> At my work, we disable shadow copies. Kind of pointless to have backups
> of backups especially when you are paying for the maintenance of that
> storage capability. We test the backup, extraction and restoration
> features
> weekly. This makes me more prone to use backups as my means of
> restoration.
>
> At home, I find System Restore points beyond one or two to be
> worthless.
> If you go beyond one or two, you just don't know what you will end up with
> for working applications if you are changing them frequently as I do. The
> function Restore Previous Version, available by right-clicking a file or
> folder is equally pointless except on the very rare occassion where you
> just
> can't undo your editing of a picture or database any other way. (Imagine
> restoring a single file within a driver to a previous version that makes
> use
> of 50 files. What will it do now? Instead, you use the roll back function
> to
> get all associated files to revert at the same time.) That said, I limit
> my
> restore point area to 3GB. This lets me go back one or two iterations
> should
> I ever need to and recover from a sudden disaster. (I haven't done this in
> the years that the function has been available.) Instead, I accept that
> going back beyond two iterations means a restoration of a backup. This is
> apparently not an option in Home Premium unless you use third party
> software.
>
> Good luck!
>
> "Julian" <msforums@tiger2.notthisbit.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:O4tgRxseIHA.5996@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...[color=green]
>> Thanks for the input Rick..
>>
>> Re how VSS works - Doh! I see I confused myself <g> Clearly differential
>> backups w.r.t some nominal "full backup" in ShadowStorage wouldn't work
>> as
>> the reference backup would eventually disappear (on a FIFO basis) and[/color]
> render[color=green]
>> the subsequent "backups" useless.... I had a momentary vision of
>> "differential" backups being relative to the current systems state...
>> pity[/color]
> I[color=green]
>> didn't think a moment longer and realise that would be equally
>> pointless -
>> I've acknowledged your point and amended my comments in the blog!
>>
>> My Windows folder alone seems to be 9.79GB (!) (45k files in 8k folders),[/color]
> so[color=green]
>> I can't help wondering how Vista works out what needs to be "copied"
>>
>> "Rick Rogers" <rick@mvps.org> wrote in message
>> news:uvaLkkseIHA.4260@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...[color=darkred]
>> > FWIW
>> >
>> >> Size of C drive in GB...................................111GB (74GB[/color][/color]
> free)[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >> Current Number of Restore Points...............18
>> >> Date of Oldest Restore Point (optional)........Feb 2, 2008
>> >> How old is your system (months) (optional)..14 months
>> >
>> > System Restore set to default size of 15% of drive space. List
>> > ShadowStorage shows 15.7GB used of 16.8 maximum space available, so a
>> > quick calculation shows an average point is just under 1GB.
>> >
>> > Keep in mind that if the volume approaches less than 15% free space,
>> > the
>> > system will actively work to maintain this by reducing alloted space
>> > for
>> > non-critical processes. Each point contains not only the system file
>> > shadows, but also those of a user's files. If you have a lot of files,
>> > then the corresponding restore points will be larger.
>> >
>> > From your blog:
>> >
>> > "Why should a Restore Point be much less than 2GB? Because restore[/color][/color]
> points[color=green][color=darkred]
>> > ought to be only differences from the current system state, and if not
>> > much is being installed, uninstalled, updated etc. the changes should
>> > be
>> > relatively small."
>> >
>> > That's not how vss works. It doesn't record only changes, that would be[/color][/color]
> a[color=green][color=darkred]
>> > differential backup. System Restore is more akin to a "copy" of the[/color][/color]
> system[color=green][color=darkred]
>> > at a point in time that can be replaced on demand. Each restore point
>> > is[/color][/color]
> a[color=green][color=darkred]
>> > copy unto itself, and is not reliant on any other point, so each would[/color][/color]
> be[color=green][color=darkred]
>> > expected to be appropriately sized.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Best of Luck,
>> >
>> > Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
>> > [url]http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/[/url]
>> > Windows help - [url]www.rickrogers.org[/url]
>> > My thoughts [url]http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com[/url]
>> >
>> > "Julian" <msforums@tiger2.notthisbit.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
>> > news:Oz2OaUseIHA.1208@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
>> >> Thanks to Windows Mail for messing with the formatting... so much for[/color][/color]
> the[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >> "columns" - I've rearranged the text
>> >>
>> >> And if you are interested in more about what the problem to be solved[/color][/color]
> is[color=green][color=darkred]
>> >> see [url]http://berossus.blogspot.com/search/label/System%20Restore[/url]
>> >>
>> >>
>> >[/color]
>>
>> --
>> Julian I-Do-Stuff
>>
>> Some Vista stuff, but mostly just Stuff at [url]http://berossus,blogspot.com[/url]
>>[/color]
>
>[/color]

--
Julian I-Do-Stuff

Some Vista stuff, but mostly just Stuff at [url]http://berossus,blogspot.com[/url]