Forum Discussion
Memory recovering after working with Restore Points
Hello,
I rolled back the system to Restore Point and then undid it (using Windows tools), which resulted in approximately 60GB of disk space being lost. In other words, as a result of this “empty” operation, the status of the operating system itself did not change, but the memory disappeared. I cleaned the disk using the standard system tools and deleted ALL Restore Points (displayed in the list of available ones, except for the ones mentioned above, which had already disappeared by that time), but the disk space was not fully restored. Why is this happening? Are there other ways (third-party software) to effectively but safely clean up the local disk? How useful for this purpose could the Microsoft PC Manager app be: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9pm860492szd ?
Moreover, other users have a similar question:
https://learn.microsoft.com/ru-ru/answers/questions/4324939/question-4324939
https://learn.microsoft.com/ru-ru/answers/questions/3992426/8-1-70
4 Replies
This is a common System Restore issue. When you restore and then undo the restore, Windows can leave behind orphaned VSS shadow copies that don’t appear in Disk Cleanup or System Protection. That’s why you lost ~60GB.
Fix:
- Run PowerShell as Administrator:
vssadmin delete shadows /all
- Reconfigure System Restore (set disk usage to 2–3% or turn it off/on).
PC Manager cannot remove VSS shadow copies, so it won’t recover the missing space.
- Run PowerShell as Administrator:
Anyway, yesterday a special Windows 25H2 update with a recovery option arrived and I spent half a day waiting for it to download and install (along with, as it turned out, deleting all restore points and disabling System Restore), but so far everything has been smoothly and I’ve gained 24GB of space (though I don't rule out the possibility that memory will be eaten up again in the foreseeable future).
Restore points are stored as shadow copies in a dedicated volume snapshot storage area.
Deleting restore points via Windows often removes the restore points themselves but may not immediately clear all the associated shadow copies.
Deleting restore points via Windows often removes the restore points themselves but may not immediately clear all the associated shadow copies.
It's unlikely that this will ever happen (based on my experience); therefore, it turns out that the only optimal way to restore the operating system to its original state is to reinstall system from scratch, followed by transferring personal files and reinstalling programs, but this is tedious and inconvenient. So, it would be better to recommend a decent, safe, and free cleaner (preferably from Microsoft Store). But also, I am not asking for memory recovery by deleting with third-party software random cookies or browser (or other software) temps using deep disk cleanup function, but only for a return to the status quo by deleting “unnecessary” files that appeared during manipulation with restore points.
