How can I delete System Volume Information on non important drives...please help!!

I have seven individual hard drives(*see below). I only use one
on the IDE for my OS and the rest operate from SCSI. Now, I have
turned off system restore on the drives I use for storage but I see
System Volume Information has accumulated over 8GB of space on EACH of
those drives!!! What's even worse is that these System Volume
Information files are old and out dated from previous re-formats of OS

Example: H:\System Volume
Information\_restore{822FD8EC-BCE5-41D0-8D4A-029A781BF509}
has over 3.67 GB accumulated.

My dilemma is When I try to delete them, windows wont let me! Please
help me clear up valuable space that System Volume
Information\_restore has put on these drives. Thank You.

==========================================================================
Drive #1 - WDC WD40 0BB-00CLB0 SCSI Disk Device (37 GB)-Storage
Drive #2 - WDC WD25 00JB-00FUA0 SCSI Disk Device (232 GB)-Storage
Drive #3 - WDC WD20 00JB-34EVA0 SCSI Disk Device (186 GB)-Storage
Drive #4 - WDC WD20 0BB-00AUA1 SCSI Disk Device (18 GB)-Program files
Drive #5 - WDC WD60 0BB-32CXA0 SCSI Disk Device (55 GB)-Storage
Drive #6 - WDC WD12 00BB-53CAA0 SCSI Disk Device (111 GB)-Storage
Drive #7 - WDC WD200BB-75AUA1 (18 GB) (Operating System- Windows XP
Pro)

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;309531
How to Gain Access to the System Volume Information Folder

Open my computer, right click on the drive that has your OS and select
properties, click Disk Clean up on the General Tab, Click More Options,
then click Clean up for System Restore.

[Onedring]

Your link helped me as well Kaylene. FYI for everyone, in case you don't remember, the system restore also stores unwanted programs. McAfee located a PuP (potentially unwanted program) called PuP.j in the system restore folder. I'm sure it's the one that has been eating up my bandwidth and causing my system to act quirky.

I've decided, and making a suggestion to you readers, to disable permanently the Windows System Restore functionality and instead rely on software which makes a system image backup. This type of data backup and restore is used by large networks in industries where data integrity and storage are crucial. It may take longer than a Windows System restore and you have to be responsible for remembering when to do it, but this way you can keep in consecutive order each system image backup, by date, and select the one you want for backup. If you are concerned about how long it takes to make a system image for restore, start it before you go to bed.

System Restore was never designed to be a backup alternative. Having a good
backup strategy is essential to protecting ones data. System Restore as the
name implies, is a tool to replace system type files and the registry when
they become damaged or corrupted, and will not effect user data. System
Restore is excellent tool if used as soon as possible after a problem is
detected. Yes, if a system is infected at the time a restore point is
created there's a good chance it will exist within the restore point. When
infected file exist within restore points they are dormant and will not
infect the system unless the system is restored using the infected restore
point.

Once a system is cleaned of infection and running normally, it is then time
to purge all existing restore point to avoid reinfection.

The best course of action is to prevent infection/malware in the first
place. And rather than disable System Restore all together understand how it
works and use it to your advantage. In combination with a good backup
strategy System Restore is an excellent tool. It's save me many many time.

hi u can use the SLAX 6.0 OPerating system for the deletion of the System Volume information folder

Turn off System Restore to remove "System Volume Information" folders.

You should not try to delete the contents of the System Volume
Information folder. It contains more than just restore points. Why do
you think deleting is necessary?

You need to disable System Restore for a drive first to delete the folder.

[typ0w]

Sorry to Bump thsi old thread. I've been dealing with a similar problem. however. After i turned of Sys restore and deleted the folder, it re-created itself and i didnt have the permission to open/view/delete. So i rebooted in safe mode, and added users\administrators as a permission and deleted it again. upon reboot it re-creates itself.

I'm currently runnign XP on the 3rd Install after format day2 Vs virus
running Nod32 and AVG which are not detecting anything other then a periodic small virus that they are deleting. the original virus that i noticed was called virut, which was cloging my sockets so i couldn't update anti virus or get online.

[askwong]

I assume you have turned off the System Restore service on your XP computer.
You can then download a program called WinDirStat from Download.com.
After you install this program, fire it up.
The program will list out all your hard drives folders as well as in graphical form.
You can then access the System Volume Information folder.
Just highlight the "_restore{ .....}" folder and then go to the menu to choose "delete". Then the folder will be deleted.
Just a remark, you can even select to delete to recycle bin or permanently.
(Of course, logically no one will leave the files in the recycle bin because our objective is to get rid of all such files and reclaim the space on the hard drives.)
You have no need to restart your computer after deleting the restore point data files.

I came across this problem and found nothing really useful, but finally I found easy solution. So here's my share

I use this batch to conserve space on flash drives etc...:

X:
echo y|cacls "System Volume Information" /T /P Everyone:F
echo y|rd /s "System Volume Information"
pause

where X: is drive, where you want to get rid of that folder, which is really not needed whatsoever, if you have windows recovery turned off. This works on Windows XP home too.

If you have localized windows, you will have to replace "y" for equivallent letter for "yes" in your langauge.

Other cool trick, how to gain some extra space, is to use 64kB clusters, if you intend to store only large files (movies on flash drive for example) and set ntfs log (which has normally around 60 megabytes) to minumum:

format X: /fs:NTFS /a:64k /q
chkdsk X: /l:2048

Note, that if you want to change cluster size, you will have to format the volume, which will destroy everything on drive X:, chkdsk /l you can use safely on volume with data.

For me this works fine, but use at your own risk

[deocharlesc]

i think this is the most loser question to ask...

when someone ask a favor and question your knowledge whether you know how to do it... someone else is asking why you want to do it? There is no WHY for others, it is only WHY in yourself. you help nobody..

How you want to clean your desk may not as clean as others want their desk to be clean! I think you should find the answer and show what you can before you ask WHY.

Please correct this code.

X:
cd\
echo y|cacls "System Volume Information" /T /P Everyone:F
echo y|rd /s "System Volume Information"
pause

Please correct Your user manual:

If you have localized windows, you will have to replace "y" for equivallent letter for "yes" and "Everyone" in your langauge.

[Anvil2k10]

a very nice batch and it works.............for almost 30 seconds
at least it saves a deviation through the sharing settings.
by the way, you'll find exactly the same carp in Windows 7.

these whyse guys can be worse by
a) quoting you on and on until the whole thread is messed up.
b) being "sure" that only reinstalling the entire os helps.
c) leading you to back to square whith url's to plain home pages.

Q: Can't you just tell me what it's worth?
A: I'm no high-pressure artist. I sell value.
You never answer me!

but that's exactly the same rubbish MS is
giving us as his 'support' (see kb/309531).
many user are eager to parrot this in the WWW
often without giving MS as reference of origin.
IT ONLY WORKS UNTIL YOU REBOOT!

suppose that more than one of us in this thread
came across it already. hence they looking for an
ultimate solution and not for battology.

'giving up SVI is easy, done it hundreds of times...'

to get rid of weed is not the problem, it's about not
coming back again, after all the disabling and killings
though!

I do not bother on the root but I hate MS touching
all external devices. MS options and solutions never worked
on my Pro SP1-3, hence making me very
suspicious SVI being a necessity for a third gain.

[muhXin]

You just dont need to lookup and command any software.

Unhide All your files and remove system protected files check as well.
then just Click Start >> RUN, Browse >> Drive:\System Volume Information

you will able to see all the folders like restore or some sort of numbers, open it
then delete all folders one by one, you just cant delete all folders at same time due to the singal activity of RUN Command.

There will be last directory that cant be deleted because of running state. but you have to take no worry about it !

Free your Drive..
There is no need to remove them from internal drives, but
it is a must for removable drives. There is no other way
to keep Windows from stuffing them up with undisclosed
content if you connect them to different computers.

Here you go:

a) $Recycle.Bin:
- set "don't move files to recycle bin" for that drive;
- rename $Recycle.Bin to something else;
- create empty file with a name $Recycle.Bin;
- delete renamed directory for good

b) System Volume Information:
- disable system restore for that drive;
- disable indexing for that drive;
- make sure there is no data encryption;
- assume ownership and allow all access;
- if it is not freshly formatted drive, SVI is used by some
svchost process. I killed it by Unlocker under XP, but
there are other ways (safe mode, repair prompt);
- delete that directory for good;
- create empty file with a name "System Volume Information"

Two empty files are necessary to prevent Windows recreating
directories. Make them "system" and "hidden" to keep out of sight.

To the people who say "do not touch" instead of helping:
- Yes, you can prevent Windows to fill up that directories only
on your internal drives. What about removable drives?
- For removable drives, there is absolutely NOTHING OF VALUE
in that directories.

[ironcondore]

After struggling with all the previous responses and the justifiable bickering, I was ready to give up - that is until I read your email. Prior to this, no matter what I did, these directories kept magically reappearing on me. Your steps, though somewhat vague in areas, pegged the mark right on, literally hit the nail on the head - so far. Great solution. Really though, someone should not have to go thru these steps to obtain their desired outcome.

Now, I'm running Norton Ghost to back up my current internal harddrive to my external harddrive, and also want to create a restore point on my external harddrive as well (I'm increasing my current internal harddrive to a bigger size, and don't want to lose its current configuration and installations). Hopefully, my new hidden files on my external drive, does not screw things up for me.

[Big_E65]

I Vista, and my SVI files amounted to 41 gb. I tried many different way to delete them, but to nothing worked. So here's what I did.

1 turn off the system restore.
2 reboot & check to see if the files gone. If so then good.
3 turn restore back on and create a new system restore file for peace of mind.

This works on XP also.

[Anvil2k10]

@ Big_E65 Big_E65

sorry mate,
but did you read the thread starters question
properly?

on top your answer does not make sense
either way - why shall someone want to
create that carp folder to get it filled
with carp eventually???

regards