Backup and Restore Delete Restore Points for System Restore and Point-in-time Restore in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to manually delete all, oldest, or specific restore points created by System Restore and/or Point-in-time restore in Windows 11.

While System Restore and Point-in-time both use the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create restore points, they are separate features with their own restore points.

System Restore monitors system changes and saves the system state as a restore point. If a system problem develops as a result of a system change, the user can return the system to a previous state using the data from a restore point. System Restore automatically manages the disk space that is allocated for restore points. It automatically purges the oldest restore points to make room for new ones when the max usage of disk space has been reached.

Point-in-time restore enables you to restore a Windows PC to the exact state it was at an earlier point in time in minutes, using restore points. Restore points are captured automatically at a frequency of 24 hours by default, and retained for a maximum of 72 hours per restore point by default before automatically deleted. When the max usage limit of disk space has been reached, the oldest restore points are automatically deleted to make room for new ones.

*Note: Reserved storage is a Windows feature that sets aside a portion of disk space for successful update installation. It helps ensure that updates, temporary files, and system processes can run reliably, without requiring users to free up space.

If needed, you can manually delete restore points created by System Restore and/or Point-in-time restore.

You must be signed in as an administrator to delete restore points.

References:

This option will delete all restore points on all drives created by System Restore and/or Point-in-time restore.

1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on System on the left side, and click/tap on About on the right side. (see screenshot below)



3 Click/tap on the System protection (SystemPropertiesProtection.exe) link on the left side. You can now close Settings if you like. (see screenshot below)


4 Under Protection Settings, select a drive with protection turned on that you want to delete all restore points on it, and click/tap on the Configure button. (see screenshot below)

Restore points created by Point-in-Time restore will only be on the system (C:) drive.

Restore points created by System Restore will be on all drives that have protection turned on.

5 Click/tap on the Delete button. (see screenshot below)


6 Click/tap on Continue to confirm. (see screenshot below)


7 Click/tap on Close when finished. (see screenshot below)


8 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

You will notice the Current Usage of the selected drive will now be 0 bytes to indicate all restore points on this drive have been deleted.

9 Click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

This option will delete all restore points on all drives created by System Restore and Point-in-time restore.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

This option will delete all restore points on a specified drive created by System Restore and/or Point-in-time restore.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Command Prompt.

2 Type the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Substitute (drive letter) in the commands above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to delete all restore points on.

Restore points created by Point-in-Time restore will only be on the system (C:) drive.

Restore points created by System Restore will be on all drives that have protection turned on.

For example: vssadmin delete shadows /For=C: /all /quiet

This option will delete the oldest restore point on a specified drive created by System Restore or Point-in-time restore.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Command Prompt.

2 Type the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Substitute (drive letter) in the commands above with the actual drive letter (ex: "C") you want to delete the oldest restore point on.

Restore points created by Point-in-Time restore will only be on the system (C:) drive.

Restore points created by System Restore will be on all drives that have protection turned on.

For example: vssadmin delete shadows /For=C: /oldest /quiet

This option will let you delete a specific restore point created by System Restore or Point-in-time restore using the shadow copy ID of the restore point.

1 Open Windows Terminal (Admin), and select Command Prompt.

2 Copy and paste the command below into Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below step 3)


3 You will now see a list of all available shadow copies (aka: restore points) each with their own unique Shadow Copy ID.

ClientAccessible type = Restore point created by Point-in-time restore

ClientAccessibleWriters type = Restore point created by System Restore

4 Make note of the Shadow Copy ID (ex: "{c034d8e3-9e5b-47ed-8e56-fd50708045bd}") of the restore point you want to delete. (see screenshot below)


5 Type the command below you want to use into Windows Terminal (Admin), and press Enter. (see screenshot below)

Substitute <Shadow Copy ID> in the commands above with the actual Shadow Copy ID (ex: "{c034d8e3-9e5b-47ed-8e56-fd50708045bd}") of the restore point from step 4 you want to delete.

For example:
vssadmin delete shadows /Shadow={c034d8e3-9e5b-47ed-8e56-fd50708045bd} /quiet

That's it,
Shawn Brink