In most cases, you don’t need to do a whole lot of planning to run System Restore, since it runs automatically as long as your system has at least 200 MB of free space that the feature needs to operate. If you have less than 200 MB of free space available, System Restore will not function – it needs at least that much room to hold the backed up system data that would allow the restore process to return your system to a previous configuration.
On a Windows XP system, you have the option of selectively enabling or disabling System Restore on a system-wide or drive-by-drive basis as your needs require. For example, some users might choose to disable System Restore on all drives but drive C, especially if other drives are used for user data files only. This in turn will lead to better resource utilization. To disable system restore settings in XP, access the System Restore tab of the System program in Control Panel. To disable or configure System Restore settings for a selected drive, click the drive letter and then the Settings button. On a Windows ME system, System Restore can be disabled by accessing the Performance tab of the System program, clicking File System, and then checking Disable System Restore from the Troubleshooting tab.
