"Create a restore point" on specific drive - Windows 8.1 Pro x64

Question

I go to Charms(Windows key), type "Create a Restore Point" and then "Configure..." physically different drives (SSDs, HDDs) to "Turn on System Protection". I have a 2 TB HDD which I bought specifically for storing restore points and images. (You can see the snapshot below shows it as "A:" with 40% disk space allocated for system protection.

When I click "Create...." from the main screen, and have drive "A:" selected, how do I know that restore points are stored on drive "A:"? I don't see a folder called "restore points" or anything.

Essentially what I'm trying to ask is, is there any way to control where the restore points are stored, or does Windows 8.1 have some algorithm to decide for you?

Solution 1

System restore points are saved On the root of each drive under System volume information folder. You have to un-hide protected system files to see it.

Solution 2

That is not how shadow copies work. Microsoft provides extensive information on this. Basically, a shadow copy (aka restore point) is a copy-on-write snapshot of a filesystem. If no modifications are made, it takes up virtually no additional space. However, once contents change, it grows accordingly.

So, no, you can’t influence where the shadow copies are stored, because they have to reside in the same file system to be efficient. And it’s extremely efficient.

Comments

[T. Webster]

I also don't get why disabling system protection on drive "C:" automatically disables system protection on all other drives. Is there a sound, logical reason for that? I'd want to reserve space on drive "C:" for apps (e.g. "Program Files"), and store restore points and backups on a different HDD/SDD, unless there's a reason why that's a bad idea.

[T. Webster]

What is the closest Windows 8.1 Professional or 8.1 Enterprise has to Windows Server 2012 R2's full server "backup"? For Windows 8.1, would that capability be necessary in the event that the OS is somehow severely corrupted by malware or a bad driver? Or is System Restore sufficient?