CCleaner's System Restore tool

[ady4um]

I have questions about CCleaner's System Restore tool.

 

First, some background.

 

Reading about it here:

 

http://docs.piriform.com/ccleaner/using-cc...-restore-points

 

I noted this:

 

"Note: CCleaner removes references to the System Restore points, but may not actually remove all files related to each point."

 

 

I know Windows System Restore takes HDD space until it gets to some predefined percentage. Above this percentage, older Restore Points are deleted automatically while creating the new ones.

 

So, the reason to use CCleaner's System Restore tool is to temporarily gain some HDD free space.

 

Additional info:

 

Windows Vista Home Basic 32 bits x86.

CCleaner portable 2.22.968.

Windows User with administrative rights, and running everything with "Run As Administrator" option.

UAC enabled.

My system is working ok.

 

 

So now, about my questions.

 

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Maybe someone could explain about my first question/issue:

 

A_ What is the meaning of removing "references"? If all related files are still there (according to the above note), but the Restore Point is already deleted, what can Windows do with those files? Does these "leftover" files are just talking free space from the HDD, or there are useful or essential to Windows?

 

 

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The second question/issue is:

 

B_ If I disable Windows System Restore at all, are those "leftover" files indeed deleted by windows? Or in this case will those files still be there?

 

 

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The last issue is about the relation between CCleaner's System Restore tool, and Windows Device Manager.

 

Using devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices environment variable, I displayed old devices in Windows Device Manager. By showing also hidden devices, I displayed old "Generic volume shadow copy" (grayed) items. I managed to delete those items, leaving only the active (not grayed) shadow copies.

 

Then, I realized that when I delete Restore Points using CCleaner's System Restore tool, then Windows Device Manager shows them as old (grayed) "Generic volume shadow copy" items.

 

Of couse, when I deleted those Restore Points using CCleaner, I knew 100% that I will not need them.

 

So, the third question/issue is:

 

C_ Is it safe to delete those old items in Windows Device Manager? What's the relation in this case between those "leftovers" files and the deleted items in Windows Device Manager?

 

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I just want to understand all this about System Restore so to use it the best way I can.

 

Thank you in advance.

[metalj]

Note: CCleaner removes references to the System Restore points, but may not actually remove all files related to each point.

Yes, all this feature does is mess up your computer.

It makes you think that you are really freeing some space, but you are really not.

 

It removes the references to the restore points, but not the files,

which makes you think: Why keep the files if I can't do a system restore? and

Why not leave the references there if they actually don't take that much space?

 

I use Windows Disk Cleanup to clear/clean restore points.

I suggest you and everybody to do the same.

 

For those of you who have been deleting the Restore Points with CCleaner, I want to show you something:

 

Go to "My Computer", right click your "Local Disk" (C:) and select properties.

Type down the "Used space" and the "Free space" (the GBs, not the bytes)

Now (right there in the properties window) click on the "Disk Cleanup" button.

Wait until it loads.

Now go to the "More Options" tab, and, in the "System Restore" section, click the "Clean Up" button.

Wait until it finishes and then click cancel (or the X).

Now compare the last "Used space" with the new one.

 

Right? I bet you just cleaned up hundreds of MB of leftovers left by CCleaner.

 

I really like CCleaner and I really wish this gets fixed the right way.

[ady4um]

Metalj, thank you for your contribution.

 

I already know about this option using Windows' Disk Cleaner.

 

In the case of cleaning Restore Points, I'm not so sure about the differences between using CCleaner or Windows Disk Cleaner, because in my personal experience both methods release HDD space.

 

In my system, each Restore Point uses between 700 MB and 1.3 GB. If I use CCleaner's System Restore tool, I can see several 100's MB new free space. Using Windows Disk Cleaner tool for the same purpose (the same as you described it), I also see 100's MB new free space.

 

But of course, once I use one of the tools over a specific all-but-the-last Restore Points, they are gone, so I can't really compare the action of both tools applied to the SAME group of Restore Points.

 

What I *can* tell you though, is that after using the Windows Disk Cleaner tool, I still can see the deleted old Shadow Copy items in the device manager (using the method I described above in my first post in this topic). So this is the same behavior for both Windows' and CCleaner's tools.

 

I agree with you that if the user has enough disk space, then is better to leave Restore Points to work normally (not to delete them, not using CCleaner, nor Windows' tool). Windows will take care of them automatically (by default, about 15% of HDD). And according to what I described in Device Manager, deleting Restore Points manually could even get the system with more junk (files + device manager drivers + registry ).

 

I'm still interested in those issues I asked about. This topic could lead to:

 

A_ users discovering they are actually making their systems worse instead of improving it,

 

B_ CCleaner's devs discovering bugs in this tool and/or improving it.

 

So please, if Metalj or anyone else knows sth about the questions I presented in my first post, I'll appreciate it.