How does WinXP's System Restore work?

[aychamo]

How does WinXP's System Restore work?

From what I understand, I can use it to create "backup" points in my computer. How large are these backups? What all does it save in a backup? I guess that's the most important question. How many of my settings/installed programs does it save?

[exequor]

if you can catch the screen savers (repeat show) tonight at 12 est (or 12 midday tomorrow) on tech tv you will get a good explanation of this.

[The_Professional]

It's a massive resource hog. On large hard drives it can be as much as 10, 15,20 gb. I've disabled it before but I won't recommend it unless you back-up your data every so often.