How do I delete huge files from System Volume Information?

Anonymous

I have three large hard disks that I use to store backups of the system. Some program -- I think it was the defragmenter -- caused Win 7 to place huge files (> 4 GB) in System Volume Information. Nothing I do wil let me delete these files. I cannot even take ownership of them. When I try to take ownership of either the file or of System Volume Information I receive an "Access is denied" error on the file name. Nothing should prevent an administrator from taking ownership of any file on his system. How can I delete these huge files? Please do not answer "Use Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last restore point." That runs, but it deletes nothing. On a previous installation of Win 7, I could take ownership of System Volume Information and delete its contents, but ot on this new installation.

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Anonymous

Hello,

The System Volume information folder keeps the Restore point entries. Usually it is not recommended to delete the entries from the System volume information.

Step 1 : Stop the Volume shadow copy service.

a: Go to Start - Run and type Services.msc then press enter.

b: Under the Status column look for any entries that read as "Started", make it as “Stopped”.

**c:**Click apply and then ok.

Step 2 : Then take ownership of the System volume Information folder and then try to delete its contents.

How do I open a file if I get an access denied message?

Hope that helps.

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47 additional answers

Anonymous

2013-09-20T18:48:49+00:00

I had the same situation and your steps worked like a charm. 60+ gb gone
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Anonymous

2013-07-31T21:51:17+00:00

Server 2003 old Exchange Server (still being used for some reason)

In our client's particular case, the pagefile.sys was redirected to the server's D: drive. Although Shadow Copies were disabled on both C: and D:, the SVI folder on the D: drive was still full of the large files.

To resolve this I enabled Shadow Copies for C: drive (My Computer -> right-click C: -> Shadow Copies tab) and set the limit to 300MB (the bare minimum allowed). I confirmed all of the large files were gone except the new 300MB snapshot.

I then deleted the 300MB shadow copy and disabled Shadow Copies from C: drive.

Not sure how long this will last or if this was a permanent fix, but it resolved our drive space crisis for now.

Chris J.
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Anonymous

2013-06-29T00:27:29+00:00

One other thing to keep in mind. I've found that very large files in the System Volume folder have been related to Disk restore files. Sometimes corrupted. I was able to do some very effective reducing of the System volume folder by deleting and disabling System restore under system protection settings, then re-enable and create a new restore point right away. Just killed 365GBs of info on a friend's HDD just by disabling and re-enabling system restore.
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Anonymous

2013-06-10T09:05:43+00:00

Solution For

How to remove recycler & System volume information folder

Hi guys,

more over this is not a virus file.its is a system file.

Go to my computer-------------------->click on organize-------------------->folder and search options--------------------->view----------------->tick mark the check box i.e HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEM FILES--------------------->apply.

So now ur problem is solved.

Thank You,

Harry.
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