Windows 11 25H2 26200.8973.
Something keeps setting the amount of my C: drive set aside for System Protection to 2%.
I want it set to 10%.
Has anyone any idea what might be doing this on two different PCs I own
Windows 11 25H2 26200.8973.
Something keeps setting the amount of my C: drive set aside for System Protection to 2%.
I want it set to 10%.
Has anyone any idea what might be doing this on two different PCs I own???
On 7/30/2026 7:08 PM, Brian Gregory wrote:
Windows 11 25H2 26200.8973.
Something keeps setting the amount of my C: drive set aside for System
Protection to 2%.
I want it set to 10%.
Has anyone any idea what might be doing this on two different PCs I own
googles answer:
The culprit is a newly introduced feature in Windows 11 called "Point- in-time restore", which actively overrides and resets your classic
System Protection slider.
Why This Is Happening In your specific build of Windows 11 25H2,
Microsoft bundles a modern Point-in-time restore mechanism into the
Settings app. Even though it looks different from the legacy Control
Panel interface, both features share the exact same underlying VSS
(Volume Shadow Copy) storage pool on your C: drive.The new "Point-in-
time restore" feature has its own maximum storage slider, which defaults
to roughly 2% to 3%. Windows periodically runs a background maintenance
task that forces the VSS pool to match the modern feature's
configuration. Every time this task triggers, it silently overwrites
your 10% setting back down to its own ~2% default, unfortunately purging your older restore points along with it.
How to Fix It Permanentely.-a To keep your storage pool at 10%, you have
to change the setting through the modern interface so Windows stops
fighting itself.Open the Settings app (Win + I).Navigate to System > Recovery.Look for the Point-in-time restore section and select View or
edit (or click into its configuration menu).Adjust the Disk usage slider inside this menu to your preferred capacity.Once you save the change
here, the system will lock that value into the shared pool, and your
classic System Protection slider will finally stay where you want it.
On 31/07/2026 01:18, sticks wrote:
How to Fix It Permanentely.-a To keep your storage pool at 10%, you
have to change the setting through the modern interface so Windows
stops fighting itself.Open the Settings app (Win + I).Navigate to
System > Recovery.Look for the Point-in-time restore section and
select View or edit (or click into its configuration menu).Adjust the
Disk usage slider inside this menu to your preferred capacity.Once you
save the change here, the system will lock that value into the shared
pool, and your classic System Protection slider will finally stay
where you want it.
Thank you.
Windows 11 25H2 26200.8973.
Something keeps setting the amount of my C: drive set aside for System Protection to 2%.
I want it set to 10%.
Has anyone any idea what might be doing this on two different PCs I own???
System Restore should NOT be viewed as a backup scheme. It is merely an [attempt at a] recovery scheme. It might work, but not fix other
problems. It might not work (the typical result). It wastes disk
space. If you want to completely heal your drive, save image backups.
The image backups should be scheduled. Anytime user interventions is required means the image backups are often missing, or so long ago that
a restore results in severe loss of data or apps. Don't do the backups yourself. Schedule them. The granularity of those backups depends on
how much you can afford to lose, and how much storage space you have for
the image files.
On Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:00:07 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
[snip[
System Restore should NOT be viewed as a backup scheme. It is merely an
[attempt at a] recovery scheme. It might work, but not fix other
problems. It might not work (the typical result). It wastes disk
space. If you want to completely heal your drive, save image backups.
The image backups should be scheduled. Anytime user interventions is
required means the image backups are often missing, or so long ago that
a restore results in severe loss of data or apps. Don't do the backups
yourself. Schedule them. The granularity of those backups depends on
how much you can afford to lose, and how much storage space you have for
the image files.
Scheduled backup may be a good idea, but it requires the backup device to
be always connected to the PC. Removing the device except during backup would be better. For one thing, a virus can't infect a file on a disconnected device.
On Thu, 30 Jul 2026 23:00:07 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
[snip[
System Restore should NOT be viewed as a backup scheme. It is merely an
[attempt at a] recovery scheme. It might work, but not fix other
problems. It might not work (the typical result). It wastes disk
space. If you want to completely heal your drive, save image backups.
The image backups should be scheduled. Anytime user interventions is
required means the image backups are often missing, or so long ago that
a restore results in severe loss of data or apps. Don't do the backups
yourself. Schedule them. The granularity of those backups depends on
how much you can afford to lose, and how much storage space you have for
the image files.
Scheduled backup may be a good idea, but it requires the backup device to
be always connected to the PC. Removing the device except during backup would be better. For one thing, a virus can't infect a file on a disconnected device.
You could have a NAS that wakes up ten minutes before the backup,
and do the backup over the network.
Paul
On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:23:19 -0400, Paul wrote:
[snap]
You could have a NAS that wakes up ten minutes before the backup,
and do the backup over the network.
Paul
Yes. That could work. However, I can think of a few of problems:
1. This means setting two timers. Some people will have trouble getting
this right.
2. The drive would need to be set up so your backup software can find it.
3. There's a possibility of backing up an infected system. There's less chance of destroying a good backup with a bad one if you use TWO backup devices and alternate between then.
4. What shuts down the NAS after doing backup?
On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:23:19 -0400, Paul wrote:
[snap]
You could have a NAS that wakes up ten minutes before the backup,
and do the backup over the network.
Paul
Yes. That could work. However, I can think of a few of problems:
1. This means setting two timers. Some people will have trouble getting
this right.
2. The drive would need to be set up so your backup software can find it.
3. There's a possibility of backing up an infected system. There's less chance of destroying a good backup with a bad one if you use TWO backup devices and alternate between then.
4. What shuts down the NAS after doing backup?
Having said all that, *I* make *image* backup to alternating (on-site/ off-site) removable USB HDDs and different levels of *file level* backup
to USB memory-stick, NAS, 'the cloud' (Google Drive) and these removable
USB HDDs at different intervals (twice-daily, daily, weekly,
three-monthly). This way, I always have a disaster recovery backup
offsite and a differential backup of the most important stuff in the
cloud, so I'm protected against things like fire, theft, etc..
Mark Lloyd wrote:
VanguardLH wrote:
System Restore should NOT be viewed as a backup scheme. It is
merely an [attempt at a] recovery scheme. It might work, but not
fix other problems. It might not work (the typical result). It
wastes disk space. If you want to completely heal your drive, save
image backups. The image backups should be scheduled. Anytime user
interventions is required means the image backups are often
missing, or so long ago that a restore results in severe loss of
data or apps. Don't do the backups yourself. Schedule them. The
granularity of those backups depends on how much you can afford to
lose, and how much storage space you have for the image files.
Scheduled backup may be a good idea, but it requires the backup
device to be always connected to the PC. Removing the device except
during backup would be better. For one thing, a virus can't infect a
file on a disconnected device.
You could have a NAS that wakes up ten minutes before the backup,
and do the backup over the network.
Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid> wrote:
On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:23:19 -0400, Paul wrote:
[snip]
You could have a NAS that wakes up ten minutes before the backup,
and do the backup over the network.
Paul
Yes. That could work. However, I can think of a few of problems:
1. This means setting two timers. Some people will have trouble getting
this right.
The NAS, at least mine (Synology), doesn't need to be woken up before
use. Just the first write (or read or whatever) will wake it up.
2. The drive would need to be set up so your backup software can find
it.
A NAS is always set up (it's on your LAN) and accessible by its share
name, \\<whatever>\<rest_of_path>.
3. There's a possibility of backing up an infected system. There's less
chance of destroying a good backup with a bad one if you use TWO backup
devices and alternate between then.
With image backup, you can have multiple copies on a single device/
NAS. Of course that's no protection against device failure, but it is protection against the scenario you mention. The image backups are just
big files. That one of the images contains an infected system doesn't
make the image/file dangerous, just when you *restore* such an image,
the excrements hit the rotating device.
4. What shuts down the NAS after doing backup?
On my just not accessing it makes it go to sleep after a settable
timeout. Sleep not shutdown.I guess one could make it shutdown, but why?
See VanguardLH's comments on Macrium's Guardian feature, with prevents
any access - i.e. also by a virus - to Macrium images.
Having said all that, *I* make *image* backup to alternating (on-site/ off-site) removable USB HDDs and different levels of *file level* backup
to USB memory-stick, NAS, 'the cloud' (Google Drive) and these removable
USB HDDs at different intervals (twice-daily, daily, weekly,
three-monthly). This way, I always have a disaster recovery backup
offsite and a differential backup of the most important stuff in the
cloud, so I'm protected against things like fire, theft, etc..
I might boot a Macrium CD and start my backup. The hard drive used for
the backup, is added to the setup just before the offline backup. This
makes the scheme purely manual.
Doing it that way, doesn't solve all problems. It's just a basic way of trying to avoid the easy problems.
The ransomware people are very good at what they do.
Any theoretical attack you can think of, their "kit" already has code
for that. There is a cottage industry in those kits, so not all the
Black Hats have to be geniuses. They can buy the necessary materials
from others.
If you have your own web domain, like a registration with GoDaddy, don't forget to "cloak" your email address so the email address is not listed.
This will reduce the amount of phishing email you might receive. The
only case of Ransomware I've run into, is one USENETTER had a GoDaddy
domain, a phishing email was sent to him (and likely thousands of
others) and... he double clicked the attachment. And after that, his
computer room was wiped out.
Backups aren't as attractive as they once were, as the price of HDD has
gone up since January. You would really want to pay for the backup
software that features Incremental backups, just to reduce your storage costs.
Paul--
There are obviously details to be worked there.
The NAS needs an RTC (Real Time Clock), which is NTP synced to
something.
You would check the backup software, to see if it has a "Post-backup
Script" you can code up. This would include a command to the NAS, to go
back to sleep.
The NAS should, at a minimum, spin down the drive when it is not in
usage.
You would not use Wake On LAN for the wakeup process, because some
malware could sniff around for equipment to wake up.
Such a scheme still has lots of exploit possibilities,
and all we've done so far, is avoid leaving the drive running all the
time. You might still need the Image Guardian feature or some other sort
of Rube Goldberg scheme, to improve the protection against ransomware alteration.
Macrium has the ability, to boot into its own WinRE.wim , but since that
is stored on the C: drive, I expect something can still get into that
file and alter it.
And a lot of these ideas, assume you're not using the computer at the
time the backup is scheduled to run.
All I can tell you, is things like Ransomware are extremely well
designed, and when they hit their trip point (they can lay in wait for
as long as a month), they wipe out your entire room. Then can worm into
the other machines,
if they haven't done that already. Altering or damaging your backup collection, is all part of their checklist.
The people in the most danger, are those who own their own domain and
chose to include their real email address in the GoDaddy registration.
If you buy a domain, the registration should be "cloaked", so you will
not start receiving phishing email to that address.
Paul
On 1 Aug 2026 19:59:26 GMT, Frank Slootweg wrote:
Mark Lloyd <not.email@all.invalid> wrote:
On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 16:23:19 -0400, Paul wrote:
[snip]
You could have a NAS that wakes up ten minutes before the backup,
and do the backup over the network.
Paul
Yes. That could work. However, I can think of a few of problems:
1. This means setting two timers. Some people will have trouble getting
this right.
The NAS, at least mine (Synology), doesn't need to be woken up before
use. Just the first write (or read or whatever) will wake it up.
2. The drive would need to be set up so your backup software can find
it.
A NAS is always set up (it's on your LAN) and accessible by its share
name, \\<whatever>\<rest_of_path>.
That's not OFFLINE for safety.
3. There's a possibility of backing up an infected system. There's less
chance of destroying a good backup with a bad one if you use TWO backup
devices and alternate between then.
With image backup, you can have multiple copies on a single device/
NAS. Of course that's no protection against device failure, but it is
protection against the scenario you mention. The image backups are just
big files. That one of the images contains an infected system doesn't
make the image/file dangerous, just when you *restore* such an image,
the excrements hit the rotating device.
Having two backups on a single device that is always online doesn't
prevent some disaster affecting both. I recommend having two INDEPENDENT backup devices that are physically disconnected except while doing the backup and NEVER connected at the same time. A backup you can't restore isn't a backup.
There's also the possibility of a failure during backup, destroying the software on your computer AND the backup in progress. That's one reason
for having a previous backup still available and offline.
4. What shuts down the NAS after doing backup?
On my just not accessing it makes it go to sleep after a settable
timeout. Sleep not shutdown.I guess one could make it shutdown, but why?
See VanguardLH's comments on Macrium's Guardian feature, with prevents
any access - i.e. also by a virus - to Macrium images.
In that case, the drive is always accessible. ANY program on the PC could access it at any time. That is NOT really offline.
Having said all that, *I* make *image* backup to alternating (on-site/
off-site) removable USB HDDs and different levels of *file level* backup
to USB memory-stick, NAS, 'the cloud' (Google Drive) and these removable
USB HDDs at different intervals (twice-daily, daily, weekly,
three-monthly). This way, I always have a disaster recovery backup
offsite and a differential backup of the most important stuff in the
cloud, so I'm protected against things like fire, theft, etc..
While cloud backup is a good idea, I consider local backup more important. Cloud backup is difficult to restore when your working disk fails completely. I have been using computers for more than 35 years and have never had a malware problem requiring restore from backup, but I have had things like unintended deletes and drive failures.
| Sysop: | Amessyroom |
|---|---|
| Location: | Fayetteville, NC |
| Users: | 74 |
| Nodes: | 6 (0 / 6) |
| Uptime: | 45:26:32 |
| Calls: | 1,100 |
| Files: | 1,339 |
| Messages: | 275,372 |