Backup and Restore Your PC: Enable and Disable System Restore

System Restore automatically stores a new backup of critical Windows files every 24 hours and keeps it as long as there is free disk space. When there's no free disk space, the oldest backup is erased. The more free disk space you give to System Restore, the more restore points you have to fall back on. To set the amount of disk space that Windows XP allots for backups:

To access the System Restore settings, you must be logged on to Windows XP with Administrator privileges. If you can't find the System Restore settings, check your logon status.

1. Go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore to bring up the screen in Figure 1. Click the System Restore Settings link on the left side of the screen.

   

   Figure 1: Start the backup process by configuring the System Restore settings.

2. Next, the System Properties screen will appear. Select the hard drive on which you would like to store the backup file, and then click the Settings button. This brings up the Settings screen shown in Figure 2. Set the desired amount of disk space with the slider. (The maximum is 12 percent of available space.)

   

   Figure 2: Set the amount of free hard disk space to be used by System Restore.

3. If you have more than one hard drive, you can disable System Restore on a particular disk—and give a small boost to your computer's performance—by checking the Turn Off System Restore On This Drive box. (The option isn't available for the hard drive that holds Windows XP.)

   

   You need a minimum of 200MB of free hard disk space for System Restore to start. If the amount of free disk space on any single disk partition falls below 50MB, System Restore will stop running and delete all its backups. It will resume running when the available free disk space exceeds 200MB.

   

   Checking the Turn Off System Restore box on your primary hard drive—the one with Windows