Using a computer for a long time, you may notice that the hard disk space is gradually reduced. This looks especially strange if you do not install any voluminous programs and games. In fact, fixing the problem is quite simple - just delete the recovery points of Windows 7 (or another version of this OS). On how to do this, and will be discussed later.
What are these points?
There are many reasons why an operating system may fail. In most cases, users immediately decide to reinstall it, but this procedure is quite long, and it can cause some difficulties for an unprepared person. However, there is an alternative option - use Windows Recovery. This will return the operating system to a previously saved state, without the need to install it again.
To provide the above feature, Windows 7 periodically creates breakpoints for later recovery. They contain information about the current state of the system, its settings, the presence of certain programs and drivers. It would seem that everything is fine, but there is a negative point in this, because of which you have to delete the recovery points of Windows 7.
What is bad about them?
As mentioned earlier, Windows 7 makes backups from time to time, allowing, if necessary, to return the system to a safe state. The problem is that such saves contain a lot of different information, which takes up a lot of space on the HDD. Moreover, the system strives to make recovery points almost after each new program installed on your computer. This leads to the fact that free gigabytes gradually “disappear” from your hard drive.
In this situation, you have no choice but to delete the unnecessary recovery points of Windows 7. This will not only free up a lot of space, but also positively affect the boot speed of the operating system. In this case, you do not have to delete the recovery points of Windows 7 completely. It is enough to clean only those that were created a long time ago and have lost their relevance.
Standard way
This method allows you to safely delete the system restore points of Windows 7. In this case, only the old saves are erased, and the latest remains. It is done like this:
- Go to "My Computer" and open the properties of the disk on which the OS is located (most often it is "C").
- Click the “Clean” button.
- Wait for the scan to complete. Please note that its duration directly depends on the volume of the medium.
- Now in the window that opens, go to the "Advanced" tab. Click "Clear."
After that, a dialog box will appear in which you need to confirm the operation. If you agree to delete the recovery points of Windows 7, feel free to click "OK". Also, you will most likely have to restart your computer after the procedure is completed.
Complete removal
This method should be used if you want to erase all recovery points at all. It consists in the following:
- Go to the "Control Panel". The easiest way to do this is through Start.
- Change the display mode to Small Icons.
- Go to the "System" section. In the column on the left, select the "Protection" option.
- In the window that opens after that, click "Configure."
- A menu will appear in which you can completely erase all restore points using the “Delete” option.
Here you can also, if desired, disable the backup function, as well as reduce (or increase) the amount of disk space allocated for data storage. Keep in mind that the erase procedure is irreversible, so think it over before you delete the Windows 7 restore points.
Third party programs
Many programs designed to clean the system, allow you to erase all the information necessary for emergency recovery of Windows. For example, such a function is in CCleaner utility. To delete recovery points through it, you need to do the following:
- Install and run the program.
- Go to the "Cleaning" section and click on the button of the same name. Before that, you will most likely have to wait a while for the application to analyze your file system.
Then you just have to confirm the operation and wait until the program deletes all the data.