Turn off or reduce system restore to save hard drive space in XP

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Windows XP includes a system restore utility which is capable of rolling your computer back to a pre-defined point in time, removing all changes made to the system since that point. This can be an extremely useful feature for rescuing your PC from viruses or faulty software problems, but it also eats up a large amount of hard drive space.

By default, system restore reserves a whopping 12% of each logical drive for itself. You can considerably reduce the amount of space system restore uses by cutting back on the number of restore points the utility sets for itself, or you can turn the feature off altogether.

To adjust system restore settings follow this procedure

Right click on ‘my computer’ and select ‘properties.’ Choose the ’system restore’ tab.

If you want to turn off system restore simply check the ‘turn off system restore on all drives’ box but this is not recommended.

If you want to reduce the size of system restore highlight a drive you want to change and click settings now you need to see similar to the following screen

Now you want to reduce the size move the arrow how much you want to use click ok twice