Thank you for CCleaner, Piriform!

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Thank you for creating, probably, one of the best software on the Internet!

 

Not only is your registry cleaner so effective but also it is the ONLY one that allows me to remove Windows System Restore points individually! That is a life saver!

 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[Alan_B]

Warning

 

CCleaner removes access to the restore points you designate,

and it removes absolute Snapshots of the registry hives because they will not be needed,

but it does NOT remove copies of the files that have been changed/deleted.

 

Each Restore Point on my system holds a folder called Snapshot with registry hives etc.

These are the entire and absolute state of the registry at the time of creating the R.P.

They are 53.8 MB Size, but compressed to 25.7 MB Size on Disk.

In addition each R.P. holds copies of all the files deleted during the time it was active.

Normally this is another 10 MB,

but yesterday I fought rubbish H.P. Share-To-Web and it grew 255 files totalling 145 MB, adding Size on Disk of 86.6 MB.

 

To Restore the system as it was ten Restore Points ago requires restoration of :-

The registry from Snapshot, absolute, not using any relative/differential data from intervening R.P.

All the 255 etc files from each and every intervening R.P. because only CHANGES are captured.

 

Alan

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Warning

 

CCleaner removes access to the restore points you designate,

and it removes absolute Snapshots of the registry hives because they will not be needed,

but it does NOT remove copies of the files that have been changed/deleted.

 

Each Restore Point on my system holds a folder called Snapshot with registry hives etc.

These are the entire and absolute state of the registry at the time of creating the R.P.

They are 53.8 MB Size, but compressed to 25.7 MB Size on Disk.

In addition each R.P. holds copies of all the files deleted during the time it was active.

Normally this is another 10 MB,

but yesterday I fought rubbish H.P. Share-To-Web and it grew 255 files totalling 145 MB, adding Size on Disk of 86.6 MB.

 

To Restore the system as it was ten Restore Points ago requires restoration of :-

The registry from Snapshot, absolute, not using any relative/differential data from intervening R.P.

All the 255 etc files from each and every intervening R.P. because only CHANGES are captured.

 

Alan

 

Thanks for the info, Alan. So, in effect, do you mean that the large backup files remain on my hard drive? The main reason for my creating new points and deleting the old was to clean up my hard drive. That's not good. So, it seems I am back to Square One, meaning that I have to continue clearing all restore points on my PC and recreating brand new ones??

 

Here is what I do. Maybe once I clarify it, you may see my situation.

 

I usually create a Restore Point named "Good One" when my PC is humming along fine. After that, the system will create various other points over days and weeks. A few weeks later, I decide to update the points by creating a second "Good One" point. Now, if I use CCleaner to remove all the points that were created by the system prior to the second Good One, ncluding the original Good One, am I to understand that CCLeaner will NOT remove the baggage on my hard drive? I assume that it does remove those files when I use the native Windows system to remove restore points, correct? In other words, every time I create a new restore point, I want all the previous ones gone (leaving the latest one) AND the large files cleared off the hard drive. To do this normally is time-consuming because I have to remove the files first, then create a new point. With CCleaner, it is easier to do the deletion part.

 

TIA.

[Alan_B]

I wanted to remove the 145 MB of Share-to-Web rubbish held in R.P.1098,

so at 07/04/2010 19:44:42 I created a new R.P., identity RP1099,

and then used Windows Cleanup to remove all but the latest R.P.

 

To test C.C. this afternoon I added two more R.P., RP1100 and RP1101.

then I uninstalled Google Map which created RP1102

and Windows copied "important" bits into RP1102 during uninstallation.

Then I added RP1103

 

sshot-142.gif shows sizes and dates for these 5 off R.P.

sshot-143.gif shows the largest 5 of the 60 off Google files that were captured.

sshot-144.gif shows the Windows System Restore view of R.P.

sshot-145.gif shows CC v230 view

sshot-146.gif shows CC v230 after "removing" RP1100, RP1101, and RP1102.

N.B. Windows System Restore can now only see the first and the last.

sshot-147.gif shows what remains in the System Restore system

sshot-148.gif shows shows the largest Google Map stuff in RP1102, only SNAPSHOT has gone

I then used CC v230 to remove the oldest R.P., i.e. RP1099

sshot-149.gif shows "CCleaner has Room for Improvement" - Only the Snapshot was removed.

It is not possible to restore anything after RP1103 because the registry snapshots are missing,

therefore there is no further use for the 20 MB of files that are retained in the previous 4 off R.P.

CCleaner was removed a total of 4 * 50 MB = 200 MB of registry hives from those old R.P.,

BUT there is another 20 MB which no longer has a purpose in life.

 

For me a typical R.P. is about 52 MB,

of which 50 MB is the snapshot that CC can purge,

and 2 MB are copies of files before changing/deleting,

BUT on bad days there can be several hundred MB of files,

e.g. Patch Tuesdays and "Out of Cycle" updates.

 

Windows Cleanup will remove all the residue of ancient R.P.

It is correct for CCleaner to preserve the files in "removed" R.P. whilst they have a purpose in life,

but when they lose a purpose in life they should be deleted.

 

OOPS - I was expecting my file names to be shown.

Not only have the sshot numbers been omitted, but the first two were transposed.

 

I have added a snapshot of the attachments

 

 

Regards

Alan

[marmite]

Hmmmm. I knew there was a reason why I don't use restore points

 

(Before anyone asks, that's not a recommendation - there are many different back-up and recovery strategies and this just happens to be part of mine.)

[Fire Marshall Bill]

I wanted to remove the 145 MB of Share-to-Web rubbish held in R.P.1098,

so at 07/04/2010 19:44:42 I created a new R.P., identity RP1099,

and then used Windows Cleanup to remove all but the latest R.P.

 

To test C.C. this afternoon I added two more R.P., RP1100 and RP1101.

then I uninstalled Google Map which created RP1102

and Windows copied "important" bits into RP1102 during uninstallation.

Then I added RP1103

 

sshot-142.gif shows sizes and dates for these 5 off R.P.

sshot-143.gif shows the largest 5 of the 60 off Google files that were captured.

sshot-144.gif shows the Windows System Restore view of R.P.

sshot-145.gif shows CC v230 view

sshot-146.gif shows CC v230 after "removing" RP1100, RP1101, and RP1102.

N.B. Windows System Restore can now only see the first and the last.

sshot-147.gif shows what remains in the System Restore system

sshot-148.gif shows shows the largest Google Map stuff in RP1102, only SNAPSHOT has gone

I then used CC v230 to remove the oldest R.P., i.e. RP1099

sshot-149.gif shows "CCleaner has Room for Improvement" - Only the Snapshot was removed.

It is not possible to restore anything after RP1103 because the registry snapshots are missing,

therefore there is no further use for the 20 MB of files that are retained in the previous 4 off R.P.

CCleaner was removed a total of 4 * 50 MB = 200 MB of registry hives from those old R.P.,

BUT there is another 20 MB which no longer has a purpose in life.

 

For me a typical R.P. is about 52 MB,

of which 50 MB is the snapshot that CC can purge,

and 2 MB are copies of files before changing/deleting,

BUT on bad days there can be several hundred MB of files,

e.g. Patch Tuesdays and "Out of Cycle" updates.

 

Windows Cleanup will remove all the residue of ancient R.P.

It is correct for CCleaner to preserve the files in "removed" R.P. whilst they have a purpose in life,

but when they lose a purpose in life they should be deleted.

 

OOPS - I was expecting my file names to be shown.

Not only have the sshot numbers been omitted, but the first two were transposed.

 

I have added a snapshot of the attachments

 

 

Regards

Alan

 

Thanks, Alan. Based on what you said, it seems I will go back to the Windows utility! It seemed too good to be true. If CCleaner offers to delete the RP's, it should delete absolutely everything, instead of doing a half-ass job!

 

And, marmite, different strokes for different folks. It's not as if we are discussing a problem with System Restore itself which is the cat's meow! The problem is with CCleaner. I swear by restore points which have saved my neck and untold hours of my busy life in so many cases. There have been times when the problem was totally mysterious at which times, I was in no mood to piddle around with the computer. A restore fixed the system magically! I thank Microsoft for this fabulous utility.

[marmite]

And, marmite, different strokes for different folks.

Oh I completely agree Bill ... I wasn't dissing other people's use of System Restore Points either

 

Whichever way you do it, the main thing is that people have these mechanisms in place and above all know how to use them. It's the people without any sort of back-up / recovery that are setting themselves up for a fall

[Fire Marshall Bill]

Oh I completely agree Bill ... I wasn't dissing other people's use of System Restore Points either

 

Whichever way you do it, the main thing is that people have these mechanisms in place and above all know how to use them. It's the people without any sort of back-up / recovery that are setting themselves up for a fall

 

No sweat, marmite. I agree. More damage is done when people with little knowledge use a tool the wrong way.