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file size -SAR REmediation
I have the system Repair settings at “recommended – 15 GB” in the Dell supportAssist tool.
But in c:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation it is 103 GB.
Why so big, and how to reduce that?
13 Posts
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8534
I have the system Repair settings at “recommended – 15 GB” in the Dell supportAssist tool.
But in c:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation it is 103 GB.
Why so big, and how to reduce that?
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lmacri
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November 5th, 2021 17:00
Hi guthrie:
Please see my 03-Nov-2021 post in BFost's Dell Software Writing 230GB of Logs about a known bug in System Repair (also called SupportAssist OS Recovery / SupportAssist Remediation). As a first troubleshooting step, turn System Repair OFF in your SupportAssist settings at Options (gear icon) | Settings | System Repair | System Repair is Turned On. You should see a warning similar to the image below that files created by System Repair will be deleted after you select the "Yes, I'm Sure" button.
After you've turned off System Repair, confirm that the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\System Repair folder has decreased in size (I recall mine dropped below 10 MB). Then reboot and turn System Repair back ON in SupportAssist (assuming you want to use this Dell feature to create system repair points for system recovery) and then monitor the size of that hidden folder for a few weeks. If you have the latest SupportAssist (currently v3.10.3.3) and Dell SupportAssist Remediation (currently v5.5.0.16041) and have chosen a max. storage size of 15 GB for system repair points that folder might grow a few extra GBs beyond 15 GB but shouldn't grow much larger than 20-25 GB, assuming this workaround works on your system.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1288 * Firefox v94.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6-1.1.18700.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.10.144-1.0.1499 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3.3 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.5.0.16041 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.4.0
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
lmacri
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November 6th, 2021 07:00
Hi guthrie:
Could you provide more information about your system, including your Dell product model, Windows OS (if Win 10 please include the version and build shown at Settings | System | About | Windows Specifications), antivirus name and version, Dell SupportAssist Remediation version (check at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features as shown below), and Dell BIOS version? To find your BIOS version press the Windows + R keys to open the Run box, type "msinfo32" in the Run box and click "OK" to open your System Information panel, and look for the “BIOS Version/Date” field.
Sorry, I can't see your latest image yet (it's probably still in moderation), but based on your comments it doesn't sound like disabling System Repair from your SupportAssist settings had any effect. Did you see a prompt warning you that your system repair points would be deleted from your hard drive, and did you check the size of C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\ after re-booting your computer?
I'm not sure why turning OFF System Repair in your SupportAssist settings didn't clear the contents of your C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ folder. If you read the 05-Aug-2021 instructions by Dell employee @NikhilKiroula in SteveTree's Reduce Disk Space Used by SARemediation you'll see that Nikhil included an additional step to run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup tool on the C drive and click on “Clean Up System Files” before re-enabling System Repair, so you might want to try that. I simply turned off System Repair in May 2021 (I use Macrium Reflect Free instead of Dell's SupportAssist OS Recovery) and the TreeSize Free image below I captured today shows my entire C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\ folder has dropped to ~ 200 MB, while the C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair subfolder only uses about 20 KB. I haven't bothered to uninstall Dell SupportAssist Remediation and my Dell SupportAssist Remediation service is currently running [StartType = Automatic (Delayed Start)] in my Windows Services at Start | Windows Administrative Tools | Services so the time stamp of a few files in that hidden folder are "06-Nov-2021" today, but I haven't had any new Dell system repair points created since then.
If you have a Win 10 computer does it make any difference if you disable the Fast Startup power option of Windows 10 (Control Panel | Hardware and Sound | Power Options | Choose What the Power Buttons Do | Shutdown Settings | Turn on Fast Startup) and re-boot before turning off System Repair? Fast Startup (also known as hybrid boot-up / hybrid shutdown) can interfere with the loading of services from third-party software and cause all sorts of unexpected glitches and strange behavior and can even interfere with Windows Update (see the MS support article Updates May Not Be Installed With Fast Startup in Windows 10) so I generally recommend that Win 8.x and Win 10 users disable Fast Startup. See Option #1 of the TenForums tutorial How to Turn On or Off Fast Startup in Windows 10 if you have problems turning off this Fast Startup Power option.
Note that you should also be able to enable / disable System Repair directly from the SupportAssist OS Recovery control panel. Go to Control Panel | System and Security | SupportAssist OS Recovery, and then choose the Settings tab. Once System Repair is disabled it might help to reboot your computer to ensure files in C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ are deleted.
If none of this helps you might have to perform a clean reinstall of SupportAssist and all it's related programs (e.g., including Dell SupportAssist Remediation, Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Plugin for Dell Update, etc. if installed). See employee DELL-Chris M's instructions in SA Uninstall / Reinstall, and note the section that explains how to manually delete the hidden files in C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\SnapShots once all SupportAssist-related programs have been uninstalled. I usually uninstall my Dell programs with Revo Uninstaller Free in Aggressive mode just to be sure I've removed any stray files or registry entries left behind by the built-in uninstallers, but if you aren't familiar with this utility you might want to try DELL-Chris M's clean re-install instructions exactly as written to see if that fixes your problem.
Once SupportAssist is reinstalled a check for available updates should offer you the latest SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.5.0.16041. If you accept the re-installation of the SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools it will be listed at Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features as "Dell SupportAssist Remediation" and the System Repair setting should re-appear in your SupportAssist settings.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1288 * Firefox v94.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6-1.1.18700.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.10.144-1.0.1499 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3.3 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.5.0.16041 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.4.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v7.3.6284 * TreeSize Free Portable v4.5.2 * Revo Uninstaller Free Portable v2.3.5
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
guthrie
13 Posts
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November 5th, 2021 20:00
Thank you.
I am running version 3.10.3.3 of support assist.
i dis as you suggested - turned off system repair, but still have too-big SARemediation file - 112 GB.
Not sure what else to try.
guthrie
13 Posts
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November 6th, 2021 20:00
Thanks for the note, and all the additional information.
While changing the Dell support option did not give any (immediate) reduction, after a reboot it did - and I recovered the 100+GB in the SARemediation file. Yea!
I have not yet turned their System Repair back on -will try that next. I am not sure if I actually need that, since Windows has rollback features, and I do bi-daily and weekly system backups anyway. Not sure what Dell would give me on top of that.
Many thanks for the help - hope it holds!!
lmacri
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November 7th, 2021 07:00
Hi guthrie:
You're very welcome, and just glad to hear that turning off System Repair in your SupportAssist settings and rebooting your computer was able to free up the > 100 GB of used disk space in the hidden C:\ProgramData\Dell\SARemediation\SystemRepair\ folder. I hope the latest Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery Tools v5.5.0.16041 has finally fixed this bug.
If you have a Win 10 OS, just note that the built-in Windows System Restore feature is disabled by default . If required, see the Windows Central support article How to Use System Restore on Windows 10 for instructions on how to enable this feature. The Microsoft support article Recovery Options in Windows also has a good overview of the different recovery options built in to Win 8.1, Win 10, and Win 11.
I'm not sure what types of files you back up on a bi-daily and weekly basis, but if you are only backing up your personal user data stored in C:\Users\<yourusername> (or wherever you save your personal files) then that might not be sufficient if your system files are corrupted and you can't boot up from your hard drive or if your system is infected by ransomware. In that type of worst-case scenario you might need some sort of external emergency recovery media (e.g., Windows installation media or a bootable USB thumb drive) and imaging software that can re-image your entire hard drive. For example, users relying on Dell's SupportAssist OS Recovery tools are encouraged to create a bootable USB drive that they can use to boot up their computer in these types of emergency situations and perform an emergency recovery even if the Dell recovery partition on their hard drive is corrupted or deleted (see the support article How to Download and Use the Dell Operating System Recovery Image in Microsoft Windows) . See the Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery User’s Guide and the support article Restore Your System Using Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery if you want to learn more about the features of Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery.
I've installed Macrium Reflect Free disk imaging software for emergency recoveries since turning off Dell's System Repair on my Inspiron 5584 . I use this software to create the occasion full disk image of my entire hard drive that is stored on a removable 1 TB USB backup drive. I also used Macrium Reflect Free to to create a bootable USB thumb drive in case I can't boot up my system from my hard drive.
I use a free utility called Karen's Replicator to perform frequent file backups of all my personal data in C:\Users\ over to my removable 1 TB USB backup drive. I just do a simple "left-to-right" copy of any files that have been added/changed/deleted since my last file backup, but HowTo Geek has a quick tutorial at Easily Backup Data with Karen’s Replicator and the AskWoody thread Karen’s Replicator – Basic File/Folder Backup/Replication describes some of the more advanced features of this software.
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64-bit Win 10 Pro v21H1 build 19043.1288 * Firefox v94.0.1 * Microsoft Defender v.4.18.2110.6-1.1.18700.4 * Malwarebytes Premium v4.4.10.144-1.0.1499 * Dell SupportAssist v3.10.3.3 * Dell SupportAssist Remediation v5.5.0.16041 * Dell Update for Windows 10 v4.4.0 * Macrium Reflect Free v7.3.6284 * Karen's Replicator v3.7.6
Dell Inspiron 15 5584, Intel i5-8265U CPU, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB Toshiba KBG40ZNS256G NVMe SSD, Intel UHD Graphics 620
guthrie
13 Posts
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November 7th, 2021 12:00
Good info, thanks again.
I keep all my Data on a separate partition, and bi-daily backup {Data, Desktop} since I also have active files on the Desktop.
Then weekly I backup the whole system {C:System, D:Data, E:Pgms} using Retrospect backup, and then monthly I make a second full system copy to a different media using Acronis.
I also have a file monitor backup (like Apple time-Machine) to my NAS, which keeps versioning on all of my data files.
And I sit behind 3 firewalls, and have Windows Firewall and MalwareBytes on my machine. In 10+ years never had an issue, and hope to be prepared is such should happen!