Win ME Hard Drive Shrinkage

[eba]

I've been running Windows ME for awhile and generally like it, but I recently noticed that my hard drive is shrinking. I've figured out (in part, by searching this board) that the System Restore function eats up hard drive space with backups. I disabled System Restore in the System Properties/Performance/File System panel when I first installed ME, but my Restore file kept growing anyway. It grew to 1.4 GB!

After looking around, I found that you can limit the amount of disk space used by System Restore (in the Properties/Performance/File System panel), but you have to ENABLE System Restore first. The minimum disk space allocation is 200 MB. Once I set the slider to the minimum, I regained more than a gig of hard drive space.

I do have a question for the registry hackers out there. Is it possible to edit the registry to reduce the amount of disk space allocated to System Restore to even less than 200 MB? I've heard about deleting System Restore and PC Health, but I think you lose the System Configuration utility in the process, which I actually use quite often. It seems to me that a registry edit would be easier, but I'm afraid to explore the registry on my own. Any ideas?

[This message has been edited by eba (edited 11-03-2000).]

[Prey521]

I have System Restore disable and I just boot into DOS and delete the _Restore folder, since the folder grows even when it is disabled. Then when I am in Windows, I can safely delete the _Restore folder without any errors. It is annoying that the System restore folder grows even if it is disabled, but its something that I gotta live with I guess.

[RoundEye]

http://users.aol.com/axcel216/
This site has a tweak to get rid of it. But read it carefully, before you do the tweak. It removes your help files also.

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LIVE LIFE FULL THROTTLE!

[MailmanX]

RoundEye is correct. I used the Axcel tweak and it works. But it is tricky. It took me a couple tries to get it right. Now and then the Restore folder still comes back, but it usually only has about 1 meg in it and Windows allows me to delete it without any hassles. The Windows Restore system is a very strange creature, indeed!

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Rarely serious, but always sincere.