Unable to delete restore point

Question

I hope someone can help me because I've been looking for a solution for hours.

I have created a VM in Azure and enabled backup. This morning I deleted the VM, and the recovery service vault I created for my backups.

Deletion of the VM and recovery service vault was successful. However, a restore point collection has been left behind which I cannot delete. When I open the collection I see that there is 1 snapshot present, but I cannot delete it either.

When I remove it I get the following error:

In the log I find the following text:

There is an active shared access signature outstanding for disk restore point

Anyone have any idea what's going wrong?

Answer 1

@Remco
I'm glad that you were able to resolve your issue and thank you for posting your solution so that others experiencing the same thing can easily reference this! Since the Microsoft Q&A community has a policy that "The question author cannot accept their own answer. They can only accept answers by others", I'll repost your solution in case you'd like to "Accept" the answer.

Issue:

Customer deleted the VM and the recovery service vault created for their backups where deletion of the VM and recovery service vault was successful, but a restore point collection was hanging and was unable to delete per the following failure below. When they open the collection, there is 1 snapshot present, but they cannot delete per the following failure:

Solution:

The problem is solved.
In order to perform deletion, it was necessary to revoke SAS access of the hanging disk restore point via the following link:

Disk Restore Point - Revoke Access

Thank you again for your time and patience throughout this issue.

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Please remember to "Accept Answer" if any answer/reply helped, so that others in the community facing similar issues can easily find the solution.

Answer 2

3 Easy Ways to Delete System Restore Points in Windows 10

1.Delete Multiple System Restore Points Using Disk Cleanup

If you want to delete all but the recent system restore point, you can use the Disk Cleanup tool. To get started, here are the steps you can follow:

Press Windows key + R, type cleanmgr, and press Enter.
Select the drive you want to clean up and press OK.
Press the Clean up system files button.
In the next window, navigate to the More Options tab.
Press the Clean up button under the System Restore and Shadow Copies option.
Deleting Multiple System Restore Points Using Disk Cleanup
Press OK and restart your PC to apply these changes.

2.Delete Multiple System Restore Points Using System Protection Settings

If you want to delete multiple restore points, you can do this via System Protection Settings. However, note that you won’t be able to restore your PC to its previous state if you do this.

Press Windows key + R, type SystemPropertiesProtection, and press Enter.
Navigate to the System Protection tab.
Select the drive from where you want to delete system restore points.
Press the Configure button.
In the next window, press the Delete button.
Deleting Multiple System Restore Points Using System Protection Settings
Press Apply and then press OK.

3.Delete Specific Restore Points Using the Command Prompt

Deleting system restore points is safe, but you need to be mindful about which restore points you should delete. The Command Prompt can help you pick and delete specific restore points.

Here’s how you can use this tool:

Press Windows Key + R to open the Run command dialog box.
Type CMD and press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open an elevated Command Prompt.
Enter the command below and press Enter to show a complete list of system restore points on your PC.

vssadmin list shadows
Your system restore points will be labeled by Shadow Copy IDs. To delete a specific restore point, copy its shadow ID and execute the following command:

vssadmin delete shadows /Shadow={shadow copy ID}
Deleting Individual Restore Points Using the Command Prompt
Press Enter and then press Y to continue.

Should you wish to delete all your system restore points, enter the following command and press Enter:

vssadmin delete shadows /all

Regards,
Rachel Gomez